Today the plan was originally to visit one of the castles in the Loire valley, but a heavy fog greeted us this morning. We had also investigated Rouen more, infamously the town when Joan of Arc was killed, but also a lovely historic city awarded UNESCO City of Gastronomy 2021. Our Tunnel Crossing is now booked for Sunday so in order to actually get a day to look around we decided to avoid the Loire detour and save that for a better day in the future.
So, with Eddie Jones to keep us company we pushed on, Clouline smoothly eating up the miles. Nice lunch in a picnic spot services on route, so nice to be able to travel with your own facilities and kitchen, no more terrible service station food. Though I am sure the French probably have good food there too.
We have to drive Clouline right through the centre of Rouen, google maps like any sat nav not always allowing lane changes as early as you might like. However, we successfully follow the looping route through to the port area on the river Seine. We are staying tonight at the marina, we pull up roadside in front of the big gates. I dash inside to pay and eventually we are admitted. There is some gravel parking and one power point, there are a few vans already parked up, luckily as there is little instruction where to go. There is not an obvious place for us to go but we grab a spot at the side, even though it appears to be open all along for access. We reason there is lots of room to pass and within an hour a Dutch van pulls up alongside us, so now we look like we have a much more appropriate slot.
It is dark by the time we have got parked up, up as we have been driving all day we elect to stretch our legs and take a walk along the Seine and grab some food. There is a massive funfair just along the pier from us, we walk past the screaming participants and bright lights, amused to see even at a funfair there is a large food tent with sit down dining at a brasserie which is rapidly filling up. No greasy burgers whilst walking round in France. we find another restaurant along the Seine river bank and enjoy another great meal.
In for a Penney 