Our Blog - Normandy 2023 - Part 2

Now on to week #2. We try to learn a bit as we go, and this time, it was market shopping. Last year, we attempted to do the market shopping on Saturday between checking out of one gîte and checking into the next. The problem with that plan was that the groceries ended up in the car most of the day. We have a refrigerated bag, but it still wasn't perfect. This year, our first week, we were doing a walk with Lucy, then market shopping, then lunch, then back to put things in the refrigerator. This reduced the time that the food was in the car, but then we were basically doing the shopping in the busiest time. This week, we decided to do market shopping first thing in the morning, then take things back to put in the refrigerator, and then take Lucy somewhere for a walk and lunch. It seemed to work a little better this way. After the Sunday morning market at Brionne (which was GREAT by the way), we went to the medieval town of Verneuil-sur-Avre for a walking tour around the historic part of town.

The next morning, as we headed up for a walk for Lucy, we ran across a family of wild boar that were crossing the road. We had encountered potentially the same family Saturday night on our way to dinner (same road) but this time I was quick with the camera. You can't see the mother in the group as she had already crossed, but the babies are there in the video.

Her walk was around a set of fishing ponds that had a nice grass path all the way around.

Nearby, we stopped to walk around the Park of the Château of Fontaine-la-Soret, which was a very relaxing walk. The family still lives in the château so it was really a walk around the gardens and a view of the big house. Then over to the Plus Beau Village of Le Bec-Hellouin. We had some other things to see but Lucy got sick and we ended up finding a vet that could see her in the afternoon (nothing major it seems ... probably ate something bad ... a couple shots and she was good to go the next day).

We visited a set of interesting towns, including Bernay with its half-timbered houses and Évreux with its Notre-Dame cathedral.

The large port city of Le Havre was less interesting than we expected, to be honest, but it did have a few unique things. The city was pretty much leveled by the bombings of WW II and reconstructed with a specific "plan" (as opposed to many towns that just rebuilt pretty much how it was before).

We stayed close-to-home for the last 2 visits, one to Beaumont-le-Roger to see the ruins of the priory, and then to the Château de Beaumesnil.

We packed up the car and headed north and east for the final week, stopping at the town of Caudebec-en-Caux for lunch and a walking tour of the town, and then a quick stop at the Abbey of Saint-Georges-de-Boscherville before getting to our last gîte for the trip.

Continue on to Part 3 of my Normandy 2023 blog.