Meandering in France

Once again it’s well after 8 before we drive Bluey out to continue our south easterly route. Our first destination is to a service point in Epernon, which happens to be at a Hyper U supermarket. So we also get some fuel (€1.57) and a few things for Blueys larder. 

Not a cheap way to heat up your home ..

Love the presentation..

We had thought to go to visit a castle but apparently the ones near us were closed today. So we decided to go further along to the medieval town of Dourdan. We find a street parking spot and go to have a walk around. 

It’s not a big tourist town just a typical french village with a few historic buildings reflecting the dramas of times gone past. The chateau is a superb example of military architecture with its quadrangular enclosure, towers, fortified gatehouse and moat.

The gothic church spires dominate the city.

The market hall was also worth a look.

Étampes was a bit bigger and we just couldn’t find a parking spot for Bluey.

We continued on to a smaller village, Milly La Forêt where we had much better luck. 

We walked past the picturesque washhouse and the chateau de la Bonde.

We also admired the beautifully built wooden market hall where a weekly market has been held here since 1479!

Today we had a kebab for lunch which kept as full for the rest of the day.

As we drove through Larchant we had to stop to have a look at the 12th century church that has been partly ruined. The imposing remains of the 50m high bell tower just draws you in to have a closer look. 

We then made our way to an overnight spot along the Canal du Loing in Nemours. We enjoyed a lovely stroll along canal and later watched a canal boat use the lock. And so another pleasant day comes to an end.

117km today

Eure France

It was another pleasant day in France stopping at a few towns in the Eure region. Unfortunately later in the afternoon we had to navigate several road closures due to floods.

Our mornings start a little later due to it not getting light until around 8am. Today we had a lovely catch up with our children and grand children via FaceTime.  It’s the hardest part of being away for so long.

We drove out of Ry and headed to our first destination, a lookout over the Seine River valley at the Panorama du Plessis. 

We then followed and crossed the river to the town of Louviers. 

The main attraction was the Church of Notre Dame, a notable example of flamboyant gothic architecture. 

Joan of Arc

Wow

We couldn’t resist the patisserie…. Mark had an apricot danish and I an apple tart. We were amazed at the effort made in wrapping them up.

The N154 took us to Evreux, the capital of the Eure department, in the French region of Normandy. It had heavily damaged during WWII. We parked next to the very impressive gothic cathedral. As with all these buildings it has a long and complicated history. Every side had a different facade.

Inside we admired the modern, 4,000 pipe organ was built in 2006 and the lovely stained glass windows.

We also went to have a look at the town hall and its surrounding buildings.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the shores of the lake just out of Mezieres en Drouais, having had to get there after a few detours due to floods. After a late lunch we had a stroll along the path circulating around the lake but didn’t venture too far as the track was under water in parts.

Mark then did a couple of maintenance jobs on Bluey (new cartridge in the shower flick mixer and a bit of silicone in the shower recess). I spent that time trying to find a place that would do brake pad replacements in a motorhome.. eventually I had success. By now the bugs were getting annoying inside Bluey due to all the still water about. So we decided to drive in to an aire in a nearby town, Nogent Le Roi (2015). Only when we eventually got there (flooded detours) we found the aire flooded as well. By now it was getting quite late and the options were very slim, so we decided to go to a cemetery carpark, which happened to be at an elevated spot above the town. We assume it will be a quiet night.

154km By the end of the day