For the last 4 nights we have been staying at Le Camping Point du Jour (49.2831, -0.1909 €21 ACSI). We had promised Skye some more time on a beach before the end of our trip and this campsite had the most enormous sandy beach.
Skye loves the beach more than just about anything. Be it chasing seagulls, balls or anything else she can find for us to throw she always gives it 110% (as they say in footballing circles). The result is that every time went on the beach she finished soaked in seawater and covered in sand from head to tail. Before she is allowed back in Basil she either has to be washed under a cold water tap (not her favourite) or put in the towelling bag that Sarah made for our previous dogs.
We had four glorious days of sunshine in which we did little but walk on the beach, eat and read. Several times we walked the half a mile or so down the beach to the very upmarket seaside village and on the last day had our first full crepe meal. A savoury crepe, which they call a galette, which is a made with buckwheat flour, followed by a sweet crepe made with ordinary white flour. Crepe are thought to have originally come from Brittany, but Normandy is near enough.
It was our intention today to spend the first of two nights in Rouen, which looks a really interesting city. However, as we were approaching the city we realised we were already too late, having done our groceries, to explore Rouen today and so we stopped at a motorway service station and looked for a more rural location to spend the night, with the intention of getting into Rouen much earlier tomorrow.
In my Park4Night app we found a small village called La Bouille, on the banks of the River Seine, we had a car park (45.3514, 0.9329) where they welcomed motorhomes for free. The village was surrounded by narrow roads and 3.5 tonne limits and so it took some time for us to find our way into the car park, but what a car park it is. Situation on the banks of the river and next to, what turned out to be, a pretty and historic village.
Someone has done an outstanding job on the local history of La Bouille laying out a trail around the village explaining the historical facts about La Bouille on 33 information boards in French and English. Amongst other things it turned our that the village was an artistic hotspot for novelists and especially impressionist and post impressionist painters. I’m embarrassed to admit that I only recognised three of the numerous painters who had created paintings, although I would have thought Monet, Gaugin and Sisley would be enough on their own. Even more writers were listed as we wandered through the village streets Victor Hugo and Mirabeau to name but two.
La Bouille was not somewhere we had ever heard of before, nor would it ever be mentioned in a guidebook of France, but serendipity brought us here and it’s a lovely place to explore and spend the night.
