On Friday morning I left the house at 5am, drove to Dover and and caught the ferry. There was a glorious sunrise on the way to coast which reminded me that every morning the sun comes up without fail because of God’s faithfulness and that each morning his mercies are new to us. On the boat I had a text from Malc telling me he was singing on his way to work, “So with every breath that I am given I will sing creation’s song!” that made me smile!   After a really rough crossing and a nearby lady being quite sick I was really pleased to get off and back on to terra firma. After stopping for petrol I drove on to the gardens at Villerceaux instead of going to Giverny, as for some reason the Sat Nav was set to avoid the motorways, which was actually quite a good idea, although longer, it was a far more scenic route, and also it meant that I didn’t have to get out at al the toll booths, as travelling on my own that could have been a problem. I had planned to visit these gardens on the Saturday morning but changed my plan as I wanted to have longer at the Giverny gardens, so I swapped the order round. The gardens were lovely but you had to be accompanied by a guide who only spoke in French, so I decided to just check out what I could see for free and take a few pics of the views.

From there I went on to Vernon, via Giverny and checked out the Tourist Information Centre and got a list of Chambre D’Hotes in the area. I wandered around the little back streets and took pics of doors and a few shops. There was a wedding going on in the church there and the sound of music and singing was lovely. I went in to some Gardens that I passed and took some more photos. While sitting on a bench and enjoying the view I decided to call some of the Chambres D’Hotes, I went for one that spoke English and was also the cheapest. I spoke to a French gentleman who spoke pigeon English and he said he had availability for one person for one night. So I headed back to the car and programmed in the details to the Sat Nav (where would I be without that!?) I then took a leisurely drive through to Houlbec Cocherel and enjoyed some lovely views and brilliant houses and architecture, chateaus and rivers etc on the way, all so picturesque. I drove through some woods and found the house, and was introduced to the man's wife and 2 friends and shown the bedroom. It was all very nice, clean and just what I was hoping for, huge bed, lovely crisp white bed linen, great view, complete peace and quiet.   The houses nearby were all so different, set in magnificent surroundings, lots of woods and trees, real beauty. I spoke to the man and asked him where I could go to eat, and he gave me some maps and told me to head to Pacy Sur Eure, a medium sized town where there was plenty of eating places of all sizes. I parked easily and headed off up the Main Street, took some photos of a quaint little river. I found some more public gardens along the river side, so much care and pride goes into the presentation of houses and gardens, it’s so wonderful, even the roundabouts in the middle of the roads. I didn’t fancy eating there but I had a hot chocolate and sat and read in a pavement café for a while. I drove on to Evereux for somewhere to eat and ate in a brasserie opposite the station. During a pleasant and casual drive back to the Chambre D’Hote, the sunset was glorious, it completely lit up the sky and made everything orange, wonderful, it totally filled my rear view mirror all the way back! I chatted with the owners for a little while and was in bed reading and listening to John Hosier’s penultimate sermon at CCK before his retirement on ‘Joy, because of the Church’ by 9pm. A fantastic message from Ephesians 3.

 

I woke up after about 10 hours of solid sleep which hasn’t happened for a long time and had a fantastic breakfast, croissants, fresh French bread, melon, natural yogurt, fresh plum tart, 3 different home-made jams, sweet fresh locally produced apple juice and copious English Breakfast tea all in a lovely big bone china cup and saucer, just the best!  


After saying Au Revoir to the owners I headed off to the tranquil and lovely Giverny, the home of Claude Monet and his gardens, famous in all his paintings. The place was packed by midday, and it was impossible to get a picture of the famous Japanese bridge without people being on it, but never mind, I tried.

The gardens are lovely and really colourful, very well kept and so many different varieties. After taking nearly 300 photos I decided it was time for some lunch so I took myself off to the Terasse restaurant. After ordering a goat’s cheese salad and drink I sat and read my book for a while. While I was reading I noticed a French family of 4 take some seats at a nearby table and an odd French man chatting to them, I wondered where he was going to sit as it was a small table and already looked overcrowded. He came over to me and gestured at the spare chair at my table, thinking he was asking to take it so as to join them,  I said yes!  He promptly sat himself down and proceeded to chat to me for the next hour and a bit, while I ate my food and he his, that he ordered mid way through our conversation. He was 81, married although visiting the gardens on his own as his wife couldn’t walk far, French, and wanted to practice his English as opposed to me practicing my French! We spoke of the war, London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cornwall, and other countries that he had visited, his son, and my family, husband, work, God, my holiday etc. It was all quite interesting but after a good hour I really had to make my apologies and get on my way to the house and St Lo to do the shopping. It was lovely to chat, and really made me realise that language shouldn’t ever really be a barrier, but an opportunity to practice for both him and me, that’s the best way to learn I think, thrown in at the deep end. His name was Pierre.


Anyway, I arrived at the house after stopping to shop at about 6pm, changed the bed, put some washing on, put the shopping away, did some weeding, unpacked, and had a well deserved cup of tea before heading off to collect John from Caen port. It was nice to catch up after a week, as he’d just returned from his climbing week in Switzerland with Hamish. As usual, he had a burnt nose, loads of freckles and sore lips! All the signs of a great climber!