Off To France At Last !!!!

Wednesday 25 March – Anzac Day.  We both woke up early and said our goodbyes to Lynda, Mark and Jonathan as each of them headed off to work.  Yes, we do feel guilty.  We made a last check of the emails before losing contact with Wi-Fi world; thank you so much for all the news and best wishes.  At 9:15am, after checking everything was stowed and packed away, all blinds and curtains were open, all cupboard’s and the fridge door locks were pushed in, we drove out through the gate and headed east to Dover.  The rain was absolutely torrential, so we decided to avoid the motorways and tootle through the puddles across country, arriving at the Dover ferry terminal with an hour to spare.  Our 1:30pm sailing was delayed to 2pm, but the near gale force crossing only took 1¼ hours and we no longer have a timetable to keep to at all.

As we arrived on the northwest coast of France we sailed parallel to a long stretch of sand dunes and the sun finally shone out from behind the clouds.  It really, really lifted me.  I hadn’t realised how much I had missed sandy beaches and how s.a.d. I had become with all the rain and dark skies.  We drove due south to Abbeville avoiding the péage, so that we could see all the villages along the way and get into the feel of being in France.  It also enabled us to get the feel of driving on the wrong side of the road and going anti clockwise around the roundabouts!  I heated up a quick prepared meal followed by chocolate and fruit and we spent our first evening in France sorting paperwork and sussing out where to go next.

I was advised by our friend Jean that I should have a ‘French stick’ every morning……..!  So I ordered one and found my first one on the windscreen at 8:15am and it was a very nice one too!  We decided to spend the second day getting a bit further south and aim to visit Monet’s House and Garden at Giverny on Friday.  So we drove down through Blangy Sur Bresle to Aumale, where we had a nice stroll around the very quiet town.  We popped in to a supermarket called ‘La Mutant’……..a bit of a worry, but everything we bought there seems to be ok…?!  In fact the heart shaped, Neufchatel cheese that we bought for lunch was a beautifully crumbly, creamy sort of Brie and tasted delicious with our wholemeal, second, French stick.

We stuck to the minor roads via Formerie and St Samson la Poterie, through Gornay-en-Bray, Gisors and crossed the river Seine in Vernon.  We’ve never seen so much mistletoe growing high up in the treetops and we passed endless bright fields full of rape.  Every village and town had numerous half timbered houses and gorgeous chateau style mansions.  Drip, drip, drop, little April showers……..we had sunshine and storms all day, which made for some very dramatic skies.  When we arrived at the Loisir des Groux campsite in Mousseaux-sur-Seine the rain stopped and I picked a bunch of daisies from around the campervan.  Rodney is now reading a book with a daisy chain hanging above his head and the sunset is spreading pink and orange around the clouds.