Bayeux - Rouen - Phil & Jill

Sadly the time had passed for our stay and au revoir to Isabelle and Henri-Jacques. We were extremely pleased and grateful when Henri-Jacques offered a lift in his car to the station. It was quite a pull up the hill and even though I thought I had packed light it was still heavy enough. The day was bright and sunny.

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The 9.48am train bound for Paris rolled into the station right on time. We were only going for one stop and getting off at Caen. The journey took half an hour and from our window we were immediately into rolling fields of wheat and crops interspersed with modern windmills. At Caen we changed to a local TER train. These used to be our favourite type of train when we had our bikes as they have no steps and you just roll on and off. We enjoyed our ride to Rouen in very modern, clean and comfortable train for the next hour and a half. The cost of this trip was Eu 63 for the two of us.

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What a way to offer residents and visitors alike such a welcoming, chic, sparkling train station as Rouen Rive Droit station. It gave us a warm feeling about this city.

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We also something new to our eyes. At a bench 3 people were sitting with their attention fixed on their phones, but at the same time pedalling on fixed bikes. We couldn't work out if they hadn't paid the electricity enough to charge their phones or whether they were taking their day's exercise whilst charging their phones!! The world is changing so much it is hard to tell what is going on sometimes???

After I checked some future travels in the SNCF office, we took off walking down the Rue de Jeanne d'Arc. We have left William territory and have bounced straight into 'Joan' territory. She has left her footprints all over this city, but more of that in the days to come.

We wound our way to our accommodation and onlt got there due to Phil's navigational skills and thinking to put the map off line last night. It is not easy when you arrive cold at these cities to find accommodation just be having an address. However Phil is very experienced at this after years coming on a bike. He is also excellent at choosing moderate accommodation through booking.com. This time he has come up with La loge d'Harcourt which turns out to be a ground floor appartment within a residental block near Vieux Marche (the old market place). From the outside it looked a bit dodgy but when Rankia (the agent's representative who was waiting at the door for us at the pre-arranged time of 1.30pm) opened the door, we got a very pleasant surprise. It was a 3 room, very chic appartment. We will be very comfortable here for 3 nights.

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The atmosphere at the square didn't disappoint. So many people enjoying a drink or enjoying a meal in the many restaurants with a backdrop of half timbered buildings. We enjoyed a meal of beef cheek terrine accompanied by vingerette vegetables for entree and a cut maryland of chicken with a cheese sauce accompanied by a hollowed out potato which was stuffed with mashed potato and parsley.

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There is a particular house the 'Couronne' dates back to 1384.

Just as we were leaving Phil spotted a plaque in a small greenery area. It read this is the exact place Joan of Arc was burned.....so the Joan effect will take off tomorrow I am sure.

With a gentle stroll along the Seine with its many boats parked alongside, we returned to our appartment with the thought it will be fun exploring this beautiful city tomorrow.