Monday 30 September

Our home for the next 4 days is in an outer suburb of Rouen, with easy access to the roads for day tripping. Le Phoenix is a small B&B in a converted 18th century home, complete with a garden area, conservatory and secure parking. It is also half the price of a city hotel. An Italian couple run it with pride and we are looking forward to their homely hospitality.

Check in is after 4pm, so after a lazy start we set our navigation for Vernon approximately 1 hours drive away. Yes Vernon is a town. We chose this for no other reason other than Vernon’s name. On googling it, there is a lovely instagram worth mill over a river that we will visit, however we would not normally visit for that alone and factored in the possibility of visiting Giverny today as well.

We set our navigation to avoid toll roads – the one coming up cost us Euro 10.20, so we got to enjoy the scenery of rural roads. Some of these were becoming a bit narrow like the English, however there was more opportunity to pull over. The weather was a bit dull with the occasional light shower, but we have the correct clothing, including two new travel umbrella’s. We passed a couple of nice villages and were soon in Vernon.

It is a good sized town, and we parked near the river and close to old town and set off on foot to find some lunch. It wasn’t long before we got to the town square and found a little cafe-restaurant that looked popular. We thoroughly enjoyed our lentil and sausage dish, and vegetable soup with a good pot of tea. On paying Vern showed his ID and got a chuckle from the proprietor who acknowledged him as a kind of gentry – Monsieur Vernon Peter.

Next door was a charming cathedral being restored and we were unsure if we could enter, however we found our way inside and were rewarded by a very cosy and pretty church with a mix of traditional and modern glass. Some have a great vibe, others don’t seem to speak to us.

After the peace of the church we followed a little historic walk – mapped out by plaques and ended up back at the car park, which was across the road from the instagram worthy old mill. We enjoyed the walk, just meandering and discovering a little piece of France where history is alive. After taking some shots of the Mill we headed to our new home for check in.

For dinner we went to a local seafood restaurant about 7 minutes drive away where I had a nice fish in lemon butter sauce dish and Vern had fish and chips. We had the 2 plate special and enjoyed a creme brûlée and the best profiteroles I have ever had, filled with creme patisserie, swimming in rich chocolate sauce, and adorned with lashings of whipped cream and some vanilla ice cream.

I confess to waking up with indigestion in the middle of the night, I really am not used to all the glorious fat rich food. It was worth it though….