Claiming my birthright!

Friday 3rd November 2017 - Vironvay.

A nice easy day in prospect.  We didn't have far to travel to Sian and Ger's house and we had all day to do it.

We had a little walk around Le Roche Guyon to have a coffee in the morning.  We then drove into the town of Vernon.

Janice having her inaugural photo with the Vernon sign.

We spent a good couple of hours walking around the town.  It has lots of old timbered buildings and a big church.  It is on the Seine and has some old towers.  I presume my ancestors came from here around the time of William the Conqueror.  The more recent history is that it was a strategic river crossing during the Second World War.  The Germans damaged and rebuilt the bridge when they took over and the Allies bombed the bridge when they relieved France.  The British bombed the town square by mistake and most of the church's stained glass windows were shattered, hence the modern windows that are now to be seen.  During the two day battle to drive out the Germans around 500 British Service men died and once the town was secured the British quickly built a pontoon bridge across the river.


Janice and I had sat in the town square two years ago and read about the town history.  Today felt a bit like deja vu!

The weather was being kind too.

We drove on a little further to Gaillon and walked to the chateau but it was rather a shell despite looking intact from the outside.  The town wasn't up to much.


Then our last small drive to Sian and Ger's house overlooking the Seine.

This is the view from the house.  It is a lovely location and it was great to see them both.  We hadn't seen them since our wedding and we worked out we have just had our 'half anniversary'.  They treated us to a meal at a local Bistro. Too kind!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strictly raining!

Image
Saturday 4th November 2017 - Vironvay. We had a rainy day forecast so we had a quiet day.  We had a drive to Louvier market and more importantly we made an important visit..... We also bought some brioche for a second attempt at a bread and butter pudding French style. I will have to check with Wendy to see what she thinks.  It was certainly tasty and disappeared quickly. Our day was nice and relaxing followed by a lovely meal. We watched Strickly Come Dancing for the first time, Sian and Janice are big fans and I sneekingly enjoy it too.  Ger puts up with it too. There was break in cloud for a while and although the photo isn't too good we saw a nice moon reflection on the Seine.
Read more

Bonfire Night but no fireworks!

Image
Sunday 5th November 2017 - Boulogne-sur-Mer. We said our fond farewells to Ger and Sian.  They are extremely kind and considerate hosts.  We enjoyed our stay very much. We moved north to stay at Boulogne so we would be close to the tunnel for tomorrow morning.  It felt very cold today despite some bright spells.  We felt so cold it was like a cold Bonfire Night in England.  We will not be celebrating Guy Fawkes here in France...they don't do that here. We arrived in Boulogne and had a little walk around.  It was a little dreary on a Sunday but the old fortified town area was nice with a grand cathedral. I came here about 3 years ago with my friend Bruce, so had some memories. We found an Aire de Camping Car and couldn't immediately park because of parked spectators cars at the entrance blocking the way.  The town football ground is next door and a game was in progress.  We waited for the end of the game to allow cars to leave before we could drive...
Read more

France is closed!

Image
Wednesday 1st November 2017 - Nogent-le-Roi. We had changed our plans a little by deciding that tomorrow we would visit Versailles. As we drove past Tours and northwards we realised that the roads were pretty quiet and when we stopped at a Lidl supermarket and found it closed we twigged that it must be a public holiday.  It is now November and it is All Saints Day.  The day that the French remember the dead.  It seems a great idea but I thought it might be a bit morbid thinking of the dead all day?  Whatever people were doing they were not in public places, they were not eating out, exercising or shopping. We called at one of our favourite places from two years ago, Chateaudun.  It's a small town south of Chartres. The chateau is very imposing.  We stayed at an Aire de Camping two years ago on a car park just below the chateau walls.  I am wearing long trousers for the first time in a long time.  I managed to avoid wearing them through October but...
Read more