Vernon/Vernonnet/Giverny

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The gorgeous little town of Vernon with neighbouring village Vernonnet has a perfectly situated yacht club with harbour for around 10 boats. Its in the grounds of an ancient manor house that is now an activity centre, with the remains of a stunning 13th century tower, remains of a bridge and house alongside. The centre of the main town is still beautiful despite the heavy bombardment Vernon received in WW2. There is a gorgeous old church and miles of cycle paths alongside the river and families of swans, ducks and occassionally geese swim by all day grazing on the weed in the harbour (the only drawback to this idyllic spot - it blocked our loo! We were warned of it on approach by a French chap who told us to 'turn off the engine, there is a lot of salad' - brilliant.) We moored in the shallows alongside ‘Naomi’ a big red barge skippered by a lovely English chap in his seventies called Peter who has lived there in Vernon for the past 18 months. We were greeted on arrival by Vincent, one of the operators of the yacht club and an incredibly interesting ex military, ex teacher and current watchmaker and journalist who claimed not to speak English well but was actually fantastic at it. We stayed in Vernon for 6 nights in all whilst Mike got work done on the boat. He added cleats amidships to make the locks easier and save my strength (and sphincter) from further strain. He also panelled in the surround to the seats over the engine bay to make it into more of a lounge area and added a back rest - it’s now very comfy, and we got rid of some of the wood, vinyl and other stuff that was cluttering up our interior!

When not working (well, Mike was, I read a couple books and went for walks around the town!) we spent time exploring and chatting to the locals. On one day Peter took us to ‘Le Bon Coin’ for a lovely 3 course lunch served with wine by a friendly French couple that cost us just 20 Euros for the 2 of us. Over our long lunch we chatted to Peter who also has a passion for acting, about the various jobs he has done over the years from his time in the military to being Santa and a props guy for HTV! After our lunch we felt the need to burn some energy so decided to cycle to nearby Giverny, the village where Monet lived. The bike ride was gorgeous with grassy paths winding through flowers alongside the Seine and passing by beautiful little houses, also covered in flowers. We emerged in Giverny, a stunning little village with obvious attraction to a painter like Monet, after around 20 minutes. The grounds were lovely but there was a huge queue of Japanese tourists waiting to go in to the house so we decided against joining the gaggle of tourists and continued our bike ride instead. we rode around the village and the back of Monet's estate and saw a strange sign declaring that this was the house Monet lived in until his death, but there seemed to be some confusion as to when he'd moved and when he'd died, withthe sign saying it was possibly several dates (see pic). We rode back to Vernon on the riverside paths then into the town itself, visiting the church, town hall and exploring the little old back streets and boatyards. We cut short our exploration to the boatyards when we stumbled across a couple passionately kissing whilst leaning on their car with another car parked next to them - think we accidentally found a dogging spot so we turned around and headed back! This time, we managed to complete our bike ride with no further mishaps...in Rouen Mike had wiped out on drain covers in the rain and taken out several cafe tables as he did so. I won’t lie to you, it was hilarious. His back wheel just shot out sideways as he hit the wet metal then clattered into tables by the street that a waiter had just finished setting up. Me, the waiter and another guy in the cafe were in stitches once we had realised that Mike and the tables were safe. Lyl, the wipeout was even funnier than your legendary one in London!
After our bike ride we returned to the boat and had some wine with Peter. The electrics had all gone out and an electrician and the caretaker of the Manor house were there sorting it out. Peter called them over and offered a whisky which they both accepted - he gave us the tip to keep whisky on board if you stay anywhere for a long time to sweeten the locals! He offered them a second but they refused, the electrician because he was still on the clock - brilliant, I love the French approach to work! I explained that I was English but spoke a little French and he replied he was French but spoke a little English. A little later I asked in French if he is telephoned for his work - meaning was he on call. He clearly understood what I meant, but got a twinkle in his eye, feigned shock pointed at Mike and said ‘Your husband is right there and you are talking of telephoning me!’ Funny chap and really amiable, like all of the people we’ve met so far.
On our last evening in Vernon, Mike went off to pay Vincent for the stay and didn’t come back for over an hour. Just as I was beginning to get a little concerned he appeared announcing that he’d been drinking champagne and whiskey on Vincent’s friends boat to celebrate the launch they had given it that day. Charming, and I’d started to worry (well not too much, I had a couple glasses of rose, read a bit more and experimented with the functions on my camera). Mike had also met a German named Thomas who had offered to take him to town the next day to copy his navicarte for Paris as we had been unable to get one and were advised against negotiating those busy waterways without it. Thomas was true to his word and took Mike into town to do this as well as topping up our mobile; I couldn’t do it as the pre recorded message when I called was so fast I couldn’t make head nor tail of it - will need to find another fluent French speaker to do it for us when it runs out in a few weeks.
Vernon really is a gorgeous place and I recommend it to anyone visiting Normandy ... say hi to Vincent and Peter for us if you visit and make sure to visit ‘Le Bon Coin’ on the Vernonnet side of the bridge.

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Photos

DSCI0105
View from the front of the boat whilst in our berth at Vernon

Comments

[mum and dad]

hi you two another great blog enjoyed XXXXXXX