Day 3 – 7th May 2009 – Jumieges to Lisieux / Livarot

Last nights dinner was awful from my point of view, but Ant absolutely loved it…. Tinned Pilchards in tomato, leek and onion sauce, with new potatoes, sweetcorn and carrots. Let’s hope tonights chicken curry is a little better. Although at the moment, the fridge is only working on 240V hook up, the leisure battery option is not working at all. Not sure why, we have changed the broken fuse that was in the 12v connector, but still no fridge light inside. On a positive note, it means that Ant’s first venture underneath the van wasn’t to fix it, but to find spare fuses in the under-van storage boxes.
We left Jumieges this afternoon after doing some clothes washing, checking emails one last time and refilling the water tank. All set for a night or two in the wild.
We got to the edge of the village which is on the river Seine and found a dinky open top ferry which transported us and 4 other cars across the river at no charge at all!! We were gobsmacked; not only could we officially class ourselves as ‘in-seine’ once half way across, but the privilege was free.
Normandy is a very quaint part of France, very clean and tidy with tiny villages dotted amongst vast open fields of bright yellow rape and swaying corn, still green with youth. Very beautiful, very quiet and thankfully an easy introduction to driving and getting by abroad. A woman even opened her shop up to serve us this afternoon when she heard us try the locked front door – very hospitable.
Today is much much warmer than any other, Ant has donned the shorts and doesn’t intend going back to the longs…. We’ll see! I am still clinging tightly to my jeans and cardys. The wind is unfortunately still capable of doing embarrassing things to my body. Best we keep heading south tomorrow.
We stopped for lunch at the edge of a farmer’s field up a single track lane in the middle of nowhere… or so we thought. I now know that quad bikes are road legal over here – they even have number plates and brake lights! Lovely fresh French baguette with cheese and pate. Mmmmm. Diet going out the window I feel.
We continued on through Lisieux (Taunton’s twin town) and we have finally stopped at a roadside car park area at the end of an old and disused railway line where we will spend the night. The view out across the valley is awesome, it’s almost half seven, sun still warm and bright and Ant is still pondering the fridge problem, so probably best I put the kettle on.