Friday October 26, St-Valery-En-Caux

Stormy day

We had a couple of lazy days at Mailleraye just pottering around … and I was a bit lazy with my blog too. Not that there was much to report. The weather was pretty grey, although no rain. Watched boats of all sizes travelling up and down the Seine, took ourselves out to lunch at the nearby restaurant (yummy, I had veal cheeks which were soooo tender) and enjoyed the company of Dennis and Leslie, our Brit neighbours and their Basset Hound, Barnaby. With travelling in foreign countries where very few speak our language, we enjoy being able to sit down and have a good chat.

This morning our first stop was the Carrefour store in the village which had laundry machines in their carpark, did a big load and got it dried while I stocked up on a few supplies. We sat down last night with the map and came up with a plan to come to the Normandy coast and then head on to Ypres before going to Le Quesnoy….well that is the plan at this stage. Found an Aire at the coastal village of St Valery which read up really well as our first destination.

After crossing the Seine, we took the minor roads to the coast and thoroughly enjoyed our drive passing through some really old villages with half timbered houses and some very rather grand houses. The road followed a very big crystal-clear spring fed stream and right beside it were many old mill houses, some still with substantial water wheels still attached although not in working order. Our lunch stop was beside the stream and dodged some of the showers that were coming in to get photos.

We arrived at St Valery and immediately fell in love with the place, with its small marina and fishing boats, really nice village and then out to the coast to the Aire where we could park directly facing the Atlantic. It is very windy and wild with rain showers and lots of moody clouds with a coastline that is overlooked by huge white cliffs.  

Put our feet up for about an hour and the rain cleared, donned our raincoats and woolly hats and walked back into town. This is a very busy summer destination but at the moment is pretty quiet. Lots of very nice shops, boulangeries, pattiseries, chacuteries (butcher shops) and delis. Did enjoy wandering past and window shopping! There are at least 25 campers here tonight, it is a popular location and can see why and only €6 a night. The wind is predicted to continue overnight so we will sleep to the sound of the waves and be rocked by the wind!!!

Beautiful stream