Blogs from Rouen, Upper Normandy, France, Europe - page 2

I bought train tickets to Rouen for us in advance, but Luda was unable to accompany me because of sickness, and it was such a happy coincidence, as we'll shortly see. This time Luda made for me some sandwiches, which we found to be an excellent way of sustenance, tasty, cheap, and fast. The train was due to depart at 10.40 or so, but when I came to Gare St. Lazare and observed the information display, a feeling crept all over me that something went wrong, because there were captions “retard indefinit” – we can translate the second word, and deduce the meaning of the first one, ‘delayed indefinitely’: meaning that train would not depart for an unknown amount of time, maybe an hour, maybe two, maybe three… There were public address notifications delivered in French ... read more

The thought of driving for at least 10 hours today is not inspiring me to get going, but we're on the home stretch now and needs must. As much as we've had a great and really eye-opening tour of Spain, I think we're both ready to head home and just relax for a while. I think Charlie also feels the same. I used to mock people who went on about getting home to 'have a cup of tea, put a washing on and put their feet up' but now I get it- I can think of nothing better either (N.B - for the youngsters amongst you out there, it will happen to you one day too, I can almost guarantee it will happen, so no mocking!). We once again try and phone the hotel in Rouen ... read more

Today’s blog will not have a Today’s eats section, not because we didn’t eat, but because the food truly deserves to be blogged about in its entirety. We awoke in side the walls of Mont-St. Michel to a beautiful cloud free bright sunny day. We showered, packed and headed to breakfast. I have previously blogged that breakfast in France and many European countries is not a big affair, typically croissants, fruit and coffee (hence the term continental breakfast in the United States). Today however was much more. Yes there were the croissants, half baguettes, juice, yogurt, but there was so much more. There was, as in Chateau Criessel, the ham and cheese platter, scrambled eggs and bacon, freshly made crepes to stuff with your choice of fillings, granola, cereals, bread for toast, fresh fruit and my ... read more

Today lots of people from the cruise went to Paris. Mummy & daddy debated about it too, but we would only get 5 hours in the city so instead we headed to Rouen. It was a cool city. Really old with lots of old churches, most of which have been restored since being bombed during WW2. We even saw some churches which had bullet holes all over it. When I shouted inside one of them there was a big echo! Mummy and daddy enjoyed camembert sandwiches and pain aux chocolates whilst I had an Ella's kitchen!! Not fair! We were docked about at hour away from Rouen, at La Harve and we walked from the train station to the ship (about 3 miles). I was nice, warm, cozy and dry in my buggy, but it was ... read more

We departed our berth just after 8.10 that morning to await the opening of the bridge and get through the locks to the mouth of the Seine in time to catch the tide we hoped would carry us to Rouen, some 65 miles upriver. As we waited for the bridge we found amusement in a couple next to the Vieux Bassin (harbour we were in). We watched them scurrying back and forth from the water’s edge to their camera which was rested on a bollard, trying desperately to get a holiday snap of themselves. Apparently this wasn’t all that easy - they completed the ritual at least 5 times whilst we were waiting and for all I know they’re still there. The lock on the way out was fun. On the way in the water had ... read more