Photos of our forest camping at Cheverny
and glimpses of the Chateau and the Mairie as we left the village:
This morning we continued with our journey north, but it wasn't without its hiccups. We'd planned to do our take-home shopping at a supermarket en route, as many are open on Sunday mornings. However, both the Auchan and the Leclerc in Blois were fermee so decided to leave it till tomorrow. We were on the N10, which runs close to the small town of Bonneval (twinned with Westerham) expecting to find a park, probably close to the river, to stop and have lunch. It looked a very pretty place, with several parking areas, but we saw the Route Barree sign as we entered and realised that behind the barrier, the market was in full swing. The deviation was rather tricky - over tiny bridges and round some extremely sharp turns on roads full of parked cars! - but we escaped successfully and found a flowery/grassy area just out of town.
Our destination was just north of Dreux, listed in the France Passion book as in Montreil, but it was actually in the middle of nowhere, down a long bumpy track which led into a large field signed "Canoe France" beside the River Eure. As soon as we got out of the van, we could smell the herbs, in fact mint was growing in the grass all over the field - every step created a lovely aroma.
On arrival at a 'Passion' we are meant to go and find the owner and introduce ourselves and make sure we are parked in the right spot (although there are always arrows with the logo). John went off between the trees and found a notice with a little bell hanging from it, saying 'ring me', whereupon the chap appeared from behind a table where he was organising people hiring his canoes for the afternoon.
He was very happy that we had parked in the field, but said that as he had no bookings for tomorrow, he would be locking the gate at 7pm, so we'd need to park outside the gate on the grass by the track after that time.
It had been a busy canoeing day, so he actually didn't finish returning boats and people to their cars in the field till around 8, but by then we were happily settled, all alone, to watch a magnificent sunset.
Monday 28th August
En route today, we enjoyed doing our take-home shopping at Louviers Intermarche - always fun choosing biscuits for meetings and housegroup evenings, some wine, fruit, meaty things, and of course, a lettuce! I usually come home with a lettuce because they are so big and so fresh as the supermarkets have mist spraying over them on the stand.
We continued around Rouen and onto the A28, bringing us to around 100k from Calais for our last night. We've come to La Ferme des Aulnes at Nampont-St-Martin, a small pretty campsite that we stayed at last year.
Photos of us on the same pitch a year but 3 days are on our 'Short Trip to Normandy 2016' blog! (Although I mis-spelt Nampont on that occasion!)
And so we have had our last swim, shower and meal this trip!
We'll be on the 2.20pm ferry tomorrow afternoon and looking forward to tea with Peter and Hannah and our lovely grandchildren before home. It's been a great trip but it will be so good to be with our family and friends again.
Thank you for being such loyal blog-followers! Till the next time .....
What a lovely place to end your travels . Welcome back.
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