Saturday 23 July 2011

Vacances en France! Part 1

 

We’ve just back from 1 week in France on the motorbike.  We caught the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, and stayed in Normandy for the first few days.

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We stayed with a lovely couple at Le Chat Chocolat near the small town of Forges-Les-Eaux.  We visited a lovely chateau at Vascoueil, which had a lovely sculpture garden:

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The highlight of our time in Normandy was our visit to Lau, my friend from www.simplify101.com!  We have been on several online classes together, so it was lovely to meet for real!  Here she is with her lovely family (and me!)

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After a gorgeous lunch she took us around her city of Rouen for a tour.  It is a very beautiful place!

 

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Here is a splendid view of Rouen cathedral and the city from one of the surrounding hills.

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That day was a beautiful warm sunny day.  Alas!  The rest of our holiday was not!  It rained and was cold!  Not the best weather for biking.  Never mind, we carried on, and the next day visited Monet’s Garden at Giverny.  We really loved it!  It was quite a thrill to actually be there in such an iconic place.

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We had heard that there was a World War II site nearby.  It was a German V1 bomb launching site, so we made our way there.  It was a small clearing in a forest, this actual site had been bombed and was never operational, but had been kept in it’s original state.  The fact that the weather was so miserable and wet, and all the tall trees about, gave the site a really eerie feel.  Here’s a V1 bomb on it’s launch pad pointing directly at London!

 

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The next day we set off for Brittany (Part 2), in the pouring rain!  We hadn’t realised quite how big France is, and suddenly realised that it was like going down to Cornwall from here – a very long way!  Luckily the roads in France are much better than ours and not so busy, so no traffic jams or hold ups!

6 comments:

Tracy said...

Wow, must be miserable to be on a motorbike in the rain! Glad you enjoyed your holiday though.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photos - as always and you look as though you had a fabulous time.

alexa said...

What a nice thing to be able to do, to meet an online friend in person! Sorry to hear about the weather :( but glad you had such great experiences and your photos are wonderfully clear.

Alison said...

Sounds like the weather didn't put you off! looking forward to hearing about the next part of your trip!
Alison xx

Shari said...

Great post Linda - very excited to see you got to meet Lau and her family. It looks like you had a fabulous time, despite the rain.
Great photos!

Wig said...

Lovely photos, Linda! It sounds like a very memorable trip. How fun to meet Lau too!