6 September 2022 – Rouen

Miles driven today = 123

Total Miles to date = 301

Today we had a more leisurely start.  Perhaps slightly more leisurely than we planned.  Somehow my watch magically reverted to London time overnight and so our intended rise and shine time of 7 O’Clock was actually closer to 8 by the time I had got myself up and put the kettle on.  Good job we aren’t on a time budget.  We still managed to get on the road for a fraction after 9:30.

Slightly more annoyingly we forgot to push in the locking button on the cutlery drawer before we set off, so on the first left hand roundabout it flew open.  This was a regular occurrence in our old van, Bertha, but then it was just a case of stopping at the next convenient pull-in and closing the drawer.  In this van the drawer is much bigger and therefore holds loads more stuff and probably isn’t as robustly built.  As a result it detached itself from its runners, threw itself on the floor and broke off its fascia, which ended up in the footwell.  Result – chuck the whole lot on the bed and worry about it later.  We’ve got things to see!

Before we left home we pondered long and hard on investing in a motorhome specific sat nav.  There are a few on the market and if they do what they claim to do then they would indeed seem be a very sensible purchase.  The problem is they start at circa £350 and a lot of the reviews I have seen really aren’t very complimentary.  So for this trip we are relying on good old Google Maps.  Admittedly in the app you are unable to enter your vehicle’s dimensions and so you always risk being sent down roads which are too small or under bridges which are too low.  But it’s done us proud so far, only once trying to send us down a dirt track which was blocked with concrete bollards when we were in Stella Plage yesterday.  But I was forewarned and knew to expect this.

So, this morning Google Maps gave us 2 toll-free options for getting ourselves down to Rouen.  The faster of these went inland via Abbeville but the aire we were heading for is to the West of the city and this route brought us in to the East.  I had already sussed out that Rouen is a minefield of low headroom underpasses lying in wait to decapitate our pride and joy.  So we rejected this and opted for the slower and more circuitous route.  This took us down the D940 / D925 coastal road across the flatlands of the Somme estuary and on past Le Treport to Dieppe.  There we picked up the largely dualled and beautifully smooth N27 which whisked us south to Rouen.

We arrived in Rouen shortly after midday.  The aire we had planned to stay at was at the marina but this is closed to new arrivals between 11:30am and 3pm so we parked up in a free car park close to the enormous Pont Gustave Flaubert lifting bridge and strolled the 2km along the Seine to the city centre.  Rouen was obviously a very busy port in the past but many of the warehouses which line the old dockside have now been converted into gyms and posh bistros.

Rouen is most famous for being the place where Joan of Arc met her fiery demise.  Our first port of call was therefore the Place Du Vieux Marche where this gruesome event occurred. The square is surrounded by the most beautiful old timbered buildings.

For those who, like me, were previously unaware of the story of France’s patron saint other than how she met her maker, a short history lesson.  Joan was born to a peasant family circa 1412 at a time when Normandy and other chunks of modern day France were still under British rule.  She was supposedly visited by an Archangel and assorted Saints and as a result gained favour with the French King Charles who sent her off on a number of campaigns of varying success against those pesky English.  She was captured in May 1431 and handed to the English who tried and convicted her of heresy.  One of her blasphemous crimes included the wearing of men’s clothes in what appears to have been an early example of extreme transphobia.  She was burnt at the stake on 31 May 1431, when she was still thought to have been just 19 years old.

There is a modern church in the Place Du Vieux Marche which was built in honour of Joan of Arc in 1979. 

A short distance from Place Du Vieux Marche is Le Gros Horloge.  A huge astronomical clock which was built into an arch above the road in 1389.

Next we wandered up a side street to take a look at the Palais du Justice with its ornate gothic façade and spires dating from the 16^th century.

I’m not religious in any shape or form.  Religion has after all the prime cause of the vast majority of war and strife which has affected humanity since time immemorial.  I am however an absolute sucker for majestic religious building and I have visited countless cathedrals, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and stupas around the World.  What always knocks me out is the sheer scale and ornate detail which goes into so many of these buildings.  Especially when you consider that the people who built and worshipped in them at the time of their construction were probably living in little more than wooden shacks.

Despite being under the process of having some fairly intensive restoration work done, Rouen Cathedral certainly took my breath away.  From the intricate carvings on the front façade to the towering arches, ancient staircases and exquisite stained glass windows.  It just seemed to go on and on.

Here’s a few more photos…

On our way back to the van we picked up a few of the supplies which were absent from Lidl yesterday and also popped into a chocolatier for a bag of assorted macaroons – Pistacio, Lemon, Hazelnut and Passionfruit & raspberry.  They didn’t last long!

We got back to the van just before 3 and went back to the aire.  There were only 4 spaces left.  We were 5^th in the queue.  But we learnt our salient lesson from yesterday’s disappointment and had already formulated a plan B.

We are using a variety of different resources to find our sleepy spots on this trip.  The Park4night and Search for Sites apps have lots of very useful personal reviews both good and bad from fellow motorhomers.  We have also bought the 2022 “ACSI” books which list thousands of sites throughout Europe and come with a membership card which affords you discounted prices of between €12 and €22 outside of peak season.  Through this we have found tonight’s alternative stopover in the fantastically wooded Les Camping Escales site near Louviers.

We have a fully serviced hard-standing pitch for just €18 so we have topped up the fresh water tank, emptied the grey water and are making use of the free leccy to recharge our non-12v appliances, as well as saving some of our precious LPG to run the fridge and water heater.  They even have a bar and a small restaurant on site.

As a reminder you can see our progress at all of our overnight stops HERE.

The cutlery drawer is in one piece again and back on its runners with surprisingly little swearing involved. 

Tomorrow we plan to head for Chartres but we’ve just had another massive downpour and the weather is continuing to look a little dicey for the next couple of days so we will take a literal rain-check in the morning before firming up our plans for the day.

7 September 2022 - Chartres