Richard the Lion Heart was here!

Leaving Poses and returning to the Seine was uneventful. Dodged quite a few big boys as we headed up to Andelys or more precisely Val St Martin as the port at Andelys was closed due to silting. 

Andelys is famous for the Castle on the hill which Richard the Lion Heart built in a year.

I bet there was quite a bit of overtime involved or maybe he worked a salary on them! Anyway he didn't hang on to it for too long.

The port at Val St Martin just before you get to Andelys is so tiny that as you enter you start to expect to see the cast of 'Deliverance' but as it turns out its quite civilised all but the showers.

Next stop Vernon. A place I had never heard of but quite a lovely place with lots of old stuff and a nice harbour master. We had difficulty locating it at first as our friend, who was trail blazing ahead, got his lefts and rights mixed up in his text to us and we nearly went aground on the opposite shore trying to berth next to a semi submerged shopping trolley. Still when we got in, it was lovely and the only difficulty we had was that our mate was also in the habit of shaving a metre off the length of his boat to assist with berthing budgets. Of course he had exactly the same boat as us, a Southerly 115, the clue being 115, i.e. eleven point five metres long, emblazoned on the side of the boat. 

So the nice Vincent greeted us and was gushing about our mate and that we had the same lovely boat but then he started to fill out his form and asked "How long is your boat?" An awkward silence followed and I said well how long did Nigel say it was? He was puzzled for a moment then said aah yes 10 metres.

I need to speak to Nigel! This was worth the extra 2 Euros it would have cost, still less than 15 quid for the night.

You can see Hermy at the back of the small sailing boats berthed at the pretty little sailing club.

And here she is through the square window.

Near Vernon is a village called Giverny where old Claude Monet set up his easel. What a lovely house and gardens, well worth fighting your way through the American and Japanese tourists to see. We cycled there and found it despite the French sign posts. They are great at getting you on to a route and all excited about arriving but at the last minute they abandon you to ambiguity and uncertainty. Oh and another thing, the French have embraced the automatic light particularly in their loos. You go in and notice the floor is slightly wet but put it down to an over exuberant flushing system only to find out, during mid, flow that everything goes black and you didn't see the light switch when you walked in. What was an easy aim now becomes a shot in the dark. 

Vernon met all our needs and even the museum was quite pleasant. In fact it would have been right up there with Honfleur and Fecamp had a pigeon not ruined it all as we sat in a cafe having an evening beer. It seemed to single Caro out and clearly had been saving stuff up. The staff were horrified and wouldn't except any payment for our drinks. Still lovely people.

Off on 6th July making our way towards Paris with our next stop L'ilon an old quarry lake off the main drag where we can have a quiet night. Sadly no civilisation nearby despite a searching cycle by Joey and myself. Still the most modern looking set up and very cheap. We saw what we thought might be an otter here but it could just have been a large rat. We'll stick with Otter.

In tribute to my excellent writing and pronunciation the harbourmaster printed my bill with the name Monsieur Milsnide.