Blogs from Dieppe, Upper Normandy, France, Europe

Day 13 - On French Soil Considering how windy it was, the channel crossing wasn't too bad. We lost an hour crossing over to France so it was about 10pm when we got in. By the time we got to our accommodation and had a shower it was just after 11pm. We can vouch for the fact that the town of Dieppe doesn't have any restaurants open at that time. Dinner became our emergency ration, the equivalent of a tune and pasta pre-packaged meal. And to think, we're in France! Our accommodation was a little disappointing. WiFi didn't work, no milk for coffee, no communication in English, and no remote for the TV. Well to be fair, the remote was there but it got buried under Jeff's stuff and wasn't seen again until we were leaving. ... read more

We have been so busy finding interesting SERVAS families, and that we have done, that, in the process, we managed to miss both the Bayeaux tapestry and the Giverny Gardens, both on my list, but I wasn’t paying attention, and we are NOT back-tracking now. Just have to plan for another visit. Bill is the designated driver, and he has reached far back into driving memory to drive stick shift (six gears)...after all these years of automatic...There are very few stop lights here, mostly traffic roundabouts, and depending on the traffic, some shifting of gears. As I think I mentioned earlier, GPS is very polite, saying, “please take the second (or fourth) exit from the roundabout...” But with several lanes and heavy traffic, it can be harrowing...Initially, I counted the exits, but now I sit as ... read more

A few years ago Dax and I went to a town in the South of France called Dax, just because of its name and because we thought it would be fun for Dax to have a photo with the town's name sign (I mean, every reason for traveling is good, right?) That photo became popular among our FB friends and one day, one of our closest friends told us that there is a town in France called Dieppe, which is interesting as his surname is Dieppa so we said 'let's go there so you can also have a photo of your name-town'... and so we did! Taking advantage of yet another bank holiday in UK, we left on Saturday morning and came back on Monday afternoon. Due to this bank holiday, the channel tunnel was quite ... read more

Off to a good start again today as more than 200 miles to drive and not using motorways. Bob had planned a route going as directly north as possible but avoiding Rouen at all costs. He decided we would use the Brotonne bridge well enough west of our most unfavourite French place to cross the river Seine. First of all up to Beaugency which we know well as we use the aire on the river there quite a lot for overnighters. The aire was closed when we drove past in June but suspect that might have been because of the severe flooding at the beginning of June. It was open as normal as we went past today. From there to Chateaudun, a road we’ve driven many times but then Bob took us on a completely new ... read more

What a great day! Headed off at a decent time for a 3 hour to Dieppe. The drive was very nice and scenic with a few slow downs for construction but not too bad. Arrived in Dieppe in time to wander the city centre and find a quaint restaurant to eat lunch on the patio. Me and the kids all had Croque Madame (like Croque Monsieur but with a fried egg on top and with a "Chef Specialty" sign on the menu) which was delicious (and on my list of foods I must eat while here) while Nigel tried Steak hache bleu. We all enjoyed our meals very much and the atmosphere was fun too. Then we wandered around some more until we found the pebble beach. This is the historical site where 5000 men stormed ... read more