Monday 28th April 2025
Our timing to visit was a little unfortunate as their boiler had packed up and hot water was ‘off”; these things always happen at the wrong time and a plumber was due this morning, though time was vague so after breakfast Christine and I headed out out into their rolling countryside with the dogs. There house is surrounded by rolling hills, fields, woodland and completely out of the way, so we could let the dogs loose and off we went. We had been given a route to follow but missed the particular turn off and kept going until we reached a small, isolated hamlet with a small church and decided we had gone too far but found another path around the back which took us to a very small, semi abandoned holy building with a pond known as the “Fontaine Notre-Dame“; we have no idea why it was there, semi buried in undergrowth but from here we found another path running through the woods. It was a glorious and warm day, the dogs were in haven and we were wondering where we were!!! We eventually got back onto the original road and headed back the way we came.
Back at the house the plumber was still scratching his head as to the reason why the boiler wouldn’t work and after a couple of hours or so reached the conclusion it was beyond repair. It turns out this was the original boiler when they moved in all that time ago, so I don’t think the boiler owes them anything!!!!!
We now headed to a small coastal town for lunch but having been held up by the plumber we were rather on the late side, lunches had finished; France is very different to Spain regarding mealtimes, still we eventually found a place that did platters of assorted cold meats, cheeses and a selection of smoked fish, so tucked in and followed this with ice-creams, all this whilst overlooking a large beach that a bulldozer was shifting a large mountain of sand about!!
Another pleasant evening before bed, tomorrow we start the last leg of our journey, heading to Dieppe, a drive of about 5-hours, to catch the ferry