DJmotortouring

A visit to Yport invariably signifies that we are nearing the end of our tour. There would be another stop nearer Calais on our last night but we choose Yport because we can then visit our favourite restaurant in Normandy (Le Nautique) and the dogs can be seen by their vet in nearby Fecamp – it’s a legal requirement that a vet feed the dogs ‘tenia’ tablets before they can re-enter the UK.

We spent our last Monday morning in France down by the beach in Yport having a pleasant brunch on the terrace outside Le Petit Saint Pierre. The afternoon was about visiting Fecamp and getting the dogs seen by the vet and then stopping at the large Leclerc at Saint Leonards to top up Vanya’s stock of Cremant.

Le Nautique is closed Mondays but we stopped by as they opened on the Tuesday lunchtime and reserved a table for the evening. Everything went smoothly.

Tuesday night was all about Le Nautique and the best huitres (oysters) and the best Moules (mussels) in Normandy, all served with the local dry cider and a bottle of Muscadet. The proprietor remembered us from when we last visited during the Spring. No one forgets Beanie and Nala, especially since Nala has been in her ‘walking wheels’. He was working in the kitchen that day but his son (who usually cooks) was happy to look after us and, as always, the welcome, the sevice and the food was outstanding.

We look forward to returning next Spring. Meanwhile, we had one more night in France at a place called Ambleteuse in the Hauts de France Region.

We were on our way to Yport for a couple of days (a) to enjoy a meal at our favourite restaurant in Normandy (Le Nautique) and (b) to stock up on Vanya’s Cremant before catching the ferry home later in the week and (c) to pop in on the Vets in Fecamp so that the dogs can be made ready for their return to the UK. First, however, Vanya wanted to pop in on Honfleur.

I have been to Honfleur a couple of times before. I like the place and was happy to return for a third visit. Vanya on the other hand has been once before and her reason for wanting to return was…. to see if she still doesn’t like the place!?! How is a man ever going to understand a woman when she exercises that kind of logic?

I like Honfleur except that it attracts tons of tourists and consequently the restaurants charge silly prices (especially with river cruises multiplying as they are) but, I’m probably getting maudlin because it is almost going home time. Vanya isn’t so keen on the place because it attracts too many tourists and, dare I say, she thinks the soul has been ripped out of the place. I can’t argue with her about that.

I’m not going to write a great deal today about Honfleur (nearly everything I could say about the place is captured in previous blog entries – see Tours 2 and 3) but I will post a couple of more rececnt photos if only to show the town hasn’t changed much:-

We ate a very expensive meal down on the harbour (but you pay for the view there as much as anything) and then we did a short wander before returning to the Van and pressing on to Yport.

Les Moulieres (the Mussel Pickers) made us smile. The Normandy Coast is the place for mussels. Bring them on!

So, we’re on our way home to Brighton. Jumieges sits on the northern bank of the Seine River between Le Havre and Rouen and is one of the last stops on our way to Calais and then the UK. We’ll stop at Yport for a couple of nights (as is our custom towards the end of any trip which takes in France) and there will be another final overnight stop closer to Calais (Ambleteuse perhaps) but with 4,000 miles completed during the approach to Jumieges, Tour 10 is almost over.

I’m not sure if it is big enough to take the Van but, while out walking along the River Seine, I stumbled across a small ferry, the Heurteauville Ferry, which crosses the Seine (near Pont -Audemar) to Jumieges. I’ll check the ferry out next time we pass here because it will shave at least 30 kilometres off the journey we made today. It will also save on bridge tolls because the ferry is free.

Jumieges is renowned for it’s abbey or, to be more accurate, it’s abbeys. The original Abbaye de Saint Pierre de Jumieges was founded in 654 by Philibert (later Saint Philibert of Jumieges) and quickly grew into an enormous and prosperous monastery; so much so that it housed more than 900 monks by the time Philibert was succeeded as Abbot by Aichardus. The abbey was destroyed during the 9th century by marauding vikings but rebuilt on an even grander scale by Norman dukes (and with William the Conqueror attending the consecration of the huge Romanesque style Church of Notre Dame in 1067).

The abbey suffered a turbulent time in the following centuries, first by the invading English during the 100 Years War and then by the Huegenots during France’s Religious Wars but; it was the French Revolution which caused most damage and saw the Abbey plundered and closed. Worse was to follow in the aftermath of the revolution with much of the church and it’s surrounding buildings being torn down for the stone.

The ruin now dominates the town…

The abbey was saved from complete destruction during the 19th century by Victor Hugo (as much as anyone) who raised interest popular interest in the ruins when he described them as “the most beautiful ruins in France”. It wasn’t until 2007 however that the Department of Seine Maritime acquired the ruins (together with 15 acres of parkland) and set about opening them to the public as an historical attraction. The abbey complex will forever remain a ruin but there’s more than enough left to recognise and appreciate it’s former glory.

There is one other building in Jumieges which, while not as grand as the abbey once was, is worth a special mention. It is the 11th/12th century parish Church of Saint Valentine which was built at the request of the abbey monks because they didn’t want to be disturbed by the parishioners. It’s one of the more unusual churches I have seen and is full of character and surprises (the altar, lectern and eagle were taken from the abbey and the church holds numerous stone and/or wood carvings of various Saints – including Anne, Catherine, Margaret, Sebastian, Stephen, Nicholas and of course Valentine). Although a little tired (to be expected of an 11th/12th century parish church) the church is remarkably well preserved. Unlike the abbey complex, it was left intact during the French Revolution.

A few paintings adorn the walls inside Saint Valentine’s; one of the more interesting being a 16th century creation entitled ‘A Procession in Honour of Saint Valentine’. In this painting, a plague of rats can be seen running ahead of the procession. This relates to an event which is said to have taken place in Jumieges during the Middle Ages and which was very much linked with Saint Valentine. Legend has it that the head of Valentine (he was beaten and beheaded for proclaiming his faith in Rome during AD280) ended up, hundreds of years later, as a relic in the abbey in Jumieges. One year a plague of rats invaded the village and began to devour the crops, thus posing a threat of famine. When a monk living in the abbey complex saw Saint Valentine three times in his dreams, it was decided the reliquary containing the Saint’s head should be carried in a procession around the village. This was carried out and, to everyone’s astonishment, the rats gathered and followed the procession to the River Seine; then jumped in and drowned. So it was that Saint Valentine became the saviour of the parish. There’s not many people outside of Jumieges know that.

Leaving aside the abbey and the church, there’s little else to Jumieges but the locals couldn’t have been more friendly. Vanya and I had a little wander with the dogs and I was invited by some locals to go apple picking as part of the annual Fete de Pommes but that was about it.

Oh! There is also a supposedly good Michelin recommended restaurant in the village, Auberge des Ruines, but it being a Sunday and this being France… Instead I ate what can only be described as a deconstructed Shish Kebab cooked by the campsite’s food wagon (and I thoroughly enjoyed it – Well done Camping La Foret).

On to Yport!!

We were on our way from Merville Franceville to Jumieges and paused at the tiny village (some 200 inhabitants) of Beuvron en Auge. I’d been looking at a list of the plus beaux villages de France and noticed that Beuvron en Auge was on the way to Jumieges and just a few miles from Merville Franceville. Given the village’s history and beauty it had to be worth a stop.

Beuvron en Auge is part of the former fiefdom of the renowned Harcourt family. Some of the family accompanied William the Conqueror across the English Channel and after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 received grants of land and titles in England. The majority remained in France (at Beuvron in the Calvados Department and Olonde in the Manche Department) and they became an established formed part of the French nobility but; links between the two branches of the family stayed very much alive; as is demonstrated by the fact that in 1346 John IV of Harcourt, loyal to the King of France, was killed fighting the English at the Battle of Crecy where his brother Geoffrey of Harcourt was Marshall of England and one of the leaders of the victorious English army.

There is little left in Beuvron of the Harcourt family these days. Indeed all that remains of Castle Harcourt is a small mound on which it once stood. However, the remainder of the village is brimming with character and fully deserving of it’s ‘plus beau village de France’ status. There are a couple of buildings in a village which stand out amongst all the others. The first is a large 15th century half timbered Manor House located on the corner of the Avenua de la Gare and the Rue des Haras

The other is the covered market hall at the centre of the village which fits in so well with the 16th and 17th century half timbered houses surrounding it. This particular building was erected in 1975 and there is quite a story behind it.

The original 19th century covered market was unsafe and demolished in 1958. The railway station followed in 1964 and with that came a marked decline in the village’s population as residents were forced to leave in search of employment. The age profile at the time was such that a further significant decline in population was inevitable (and this has proved to be the case) but; there are signs now that the decline has been arrested and this is largely due to the efforts of Michel Vermughen who was Mayor of Beuvron between 1971 and 1996. He took action to ensure the future prosperity of the village by means of, amongst other things, some very effective town planning.

A new motorway being built some way to the north of the village (the A13) further threatened the village but, perhaps with his eye on tourism, the Mayor appealed to the State and various local authorities for assistance in revitalising the ailing village. He sought to regenerate, improve and better promote the already attractive Norman village by (a) restoring the facades of the villages’ many typically Norman half timbered buildings (and to this end enlisted the support of a student specialising in civil architecture and Norman heritage, Yves Lescrouard, to work with the community on restoring the many dilapidated buildings) and (b) sympathetically regenerating the village centre with a ‘new’ covered market hall using traditional building methods and materials (particularly from old barns being pulled down because they were in the path of the new motorway). In this latter regard some 75,000 roof tiles were removed from a ruined barn in Beuzeville to cover the new market. Such initiatives helped transform the village into the best example of a typical Norman village as could be found in the Calvados Department and it become one the first communes in France to secure ‘plus beau village de France’ status.

Beuvron en Auge has been transformed into a most picturesque village and on a fine sunny day I cannot imagine a more perfect place than the village centre to simply sit and chill with a cream coffee or a glass of the local dry cider (or even a calvados for that matter) but, it doesn’t end there. Peaceful as the village may be, there’s a pleasant buzz about the place, a freshness and vitality. It comes, I suspect, as a result of the village being rebuilt and having a future, no matter that it is through tourism.

No surprise that Place de La Halle in the village centre was subsequently renamed Place Michel Vermughen and a plaque carrying his motto “renover dans la tradition” (renovate in tradition) was struck to commemorate the vision and energy of the former mayor. What an example Vermughen sets for Brighton and all those other bungling councils across Britain.

I mentioned previously that just 200 people live in the village now but that number includes the world famous artist David Hockney and his partner. It is perhaps fitting therefore that I finish this entry with a copy of a painting of his which I believe is from his “The Arrival of Spring”. I very much like it.

On to Jumieges…