Castle Robert Le Diablo
Fine lunch of French fare
Max 3,5t on the ferries
La Bouille overnight stop
Amongst apple trees on cider farm
Grey water disposal point, excellent
Cassette emptying point and fresh water
Our friend for life after a few crumbs
Village by Abbey Bec Helouin
Church interior, near Abbey Bec Helouin
La Bouille (Near Rouen) to Carsix (Cider Farm)
Previous Day Back to overview Next Day
Days 5, 6 and 7
This turned out to be a frustrating day resulting in a circuitous route as we tried to cross the Seine, but we finished the day on an aire at a cider farm in Carsix that was an idyllic location, we enjoyed staying so much that we extended our stay to three nights, which is quite unusual for us, we're normally moving on after one or two nights in the same place. Overnight at La Bouille was interesting, watching the ferry sail backwards and forwards across the river. It was noisy in the morning when sailing resumed.
La Bouille was a good overnight location, free and quiet. Our plan was to cross the Seine but we were frustrated at every crossing point because of height or weight restrictions on the ferries. We were not the only motorhome having this problem, we saw many others turned away, in fact we didn't see any medium or larger motorhomes accepted on the ferries. This is a good thing to remember if you intend to cross the Seine because there are few bridges, if we had known this we would have taken a different route from Rouen.
We drive the 6 km up through the trees to Chateau de Robert le Diable at the top of the wooded hillside. It must have been a great strategic position as it overlooks the Seine in both directions and the slopes below it are very steep. The chateau was a feudal castle built in 11th century and was probably used by Robert I (le Diable or Robert the devil…), Duke of Normandy (father of William). Not much seems to be known about its early history, except that Richard 1 (the Lionheart) stayed here. After his death in 1199, most of the castle was destroyed in the time of his brother, King John (known as lackland… because he lost all of England’s land in France) when he was defeated by King Phillip II of France. The castle was restored and rebuilt in the late1300s but fell into disuse and disrepair in the late 1400s. There did not appear to be anything that really needed to be fenced off. Much of the stonework of this castle has been replaced, much of it by specially made pieces of shaped stone, that can not have been cheap, so it's a shame that visitors cannot get closer.
We wanted to say on the aire at Jumièges, but were totally frustrated because the ferries only take motorhomes up to 3,5t (3,500 kg) and 3m in height. It appeared that all the motorhomes were turned away, not just the larger ones, there was no attempt made to check the weight or height. Very close to Jumièges we were turned away for the third time so stopped and had an excellent lunch while we pondered over our next move. This area is known as the Parc Regionale les Boucles de la Seine, the bends of the Seine, it certainly looks like that on maps. We abandoned the plan to visit Jumièges and headed south, calling off at InterMarché in Bourg-Achard where we spent about 40 minutes, shopping for further supplies of wine, cheese and ham amongst other things.
Our destination on day 5 was an aire on a cider farm at Carsix, €5 a night. We arrived mid-afternoon, generally our preferred time to arrive because it allows time to stop and enjoy the location and if there is a problem, we still have time to move on to another location.
In this case the aire turned out to be excellent, we were greeted by the owner shortly after arriving. He didn't speak English, which is quite common in rural France. The English do have the impression that the whole world speaks English, but the reality is that they don't. I am very happy to use the foreign languages that I have learned, and find it's a lot more interesting when the other person can't speak English. It forces me to make more effort and speak French of Spanish. The owner explained that his wife usually deals with the motorhome (camping carists) who don't speak French, she uses google translate on her phone.
We settled in, then enjoyed a meal sat outside in the sunshine, crevettes (huge prawns in shells) that were on a special offer at InterMarché with Crémant d'Alsace Rosé, followed by stir fried chicken and mushrooms with rice. All very relaxing with the animals and apple trees around us.
This particular aire has very good grey water disposal, a large drive over drain and a very convenient cassette emptying point.
Our second day at the cider farm began at 0720 when we were awakened by the donkey braying. Gill has christened him (or is it her?) Donquiote. It's hard to describe the sound, the intensity is something like a loud horn that increases in volume, one begins to wonder how long the animal can continue to produce such a sound without damage to itself. It was a cloudless blue sky that greeted us as the sun rose to reveal dense condensation sparkling on the grass. There were 4 motorhomes, another having arrived after we went to bed. It always surprises us that some camping carists arrive so late, and in some cases they are gone early too. Perhaps they need to cover a long distance in a short time.
After breakfast we sit quietly and catch up on some of the housekeeping tasks such as adding reviews of the aires that we have used on Camper Contact via the phone app, and updating google maps with some additions and reviews. This aire uses a payment system like in the Netherlands, a kind of honesty envelope. You write your details on a sheet of paper, then put that together with the money into an envelope that you post in a postbox located at the disposal points. Some time each day the owner comes and collects the envelopes. It all seems to work very well and it means you don't have to keep disturbing the owners.
In the afternoon we watched the animals around the farmyard, miniature sheep, geese, rabbits, various large and small hens, dogs and of course Donquiote, the donkey. The miniature sheep were most interesting, a ram, a ewe and a half-grown lamb. I noticed that they tried to pick up small apples that had fallen just outside their enclosure, so I tossed a small apple in to see what happened. The ewe was quick off the mark and reached the green gold first, picking it up. However, her mate had other ideas, and sharing, or even his lady having the apple were not part of his agenda. Those massive curved horns were immediately deployed with effect, causing the ewe to let the apple fall from her mouth whereupon it was seized by the ram who ran off and consumed his ill-gotten prize in a very ungentlemanly fashion. Being a rather soft English couple we tossed a couple of apples for the ewe and lamb although they did not take the trouble to come and thank us.
Took a short walk along the road, talked to the lady owner - in French - she has 150 sheep as well as the menagerie around the aire, she uses google translate to converse with her visitors who don't speak any French, I'm always interested to hear how mobile phones are changing the way things are done.
Unusually we decide that we will stay another night, we like the location and the animals, so it's another €5 note into an envelope.
Our next day began much earlier than expected when that donkey performed in the early hours of the morning. One does wonder what gets into the animal's head sometimes. In contrast the dog who is confined in a pen with a kennel has been silent except when the geese go over to his pen to torment him. The geese are fearless, having no concept that they are smaller and more fragile than the animals, including humans, they threaten anything that moves without any apparent fear. Any self-respecting goose does not think it is a grizzly bear, it knows for a fact that it is a grizzly bear and wants everyone else to recognise it as such. Christmas must come as a complete eye-opener to some geese.
9°C when we got up, with a forecast high of 20°C, we start by servicing the Hymer, empty the grey water tank, toilet cassette and fill up with fresh water. Our tanks are quite large, sufficient for about 4 days of normal use and longer if we are sparing in our use of fresh water and can use public toilets. Speaking of which, generally French toilets are the subject of jokes, but our recent travels have revealed that there really are good public toilets all over the rural parts of France. Admittedly the urinals may not be enclosed, or even shielded from public view, but they are there. We have added a number to google maps.
Today we drove the short distance to the Abbey Bec Helouin, about 13 km, located in a pleasant village. Good views throughout the village and around the abbey itself. Many restaurants etc in the village, some expensive. We returned to the cider farm aire, threw a few more small apples to the sheep, watched the animals and fed a few crumbs to some bantams that were loose and wandering around. They are now our friends for life and loitering nearby in case we let any more crumbs fall to the ground. Tonight we have a starter of salmon rillettes with a bottle of crémant followed by stir fried lomo (ham Spanish style) with mushrooms and rice. As the sun went down the temperature fell rapidly, so we retreated into the Hymer and played games.
We now have a difficult decision to make about where to head. It's mid-September and we want to be back in the UK for an event, so our time is limited. The choices are a long drive to the Languedoc where it will be warmer and there is a wine producer whose wine we particularly appreciate, or a more leisurely drive to the Lot valley and some sightseeing there. We decide to sleep on it and decide in the morning.
Summary of motorhome journey
Total miles |
mpg | average speed mph |
hours driven |
44.5 | 27.6 | 20 | 2;14 |
Totals for this journey |
|||
630.2 | 28.8 | 34 | 18:30 |