After leaving Veules today we stopped for lunch in the port of Saint-Valery-en-Caux and a quick trip into an old house, now a museum, that ‘may’ have been visited by Henri IV.

The museum showed a lot about the development of the town, the fishing industry and damage during WWII.

There was also a section about the flax industry which was and still is very important in the region. Apparently Normandie supplies about 50% of the world’s production of flax. We passed many fields where the farmers were rolling the cut flax into bales.

We headed into the charming château of Mesnil- Geoffroy where a current day Prince and Princess live! The gardens were extensive and designed by the nephew of the famous Le Notre. The château was not huge but very well furnished. The guided tour gave us lots of information about life in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Apparently dining tables were only introduced in the 18th century, before that you kind of ate wherever. They were very afraid of being poisoned so most aristocrats visiting each other would take their own servant to serve their drinks. When dining tables were introduced, the French used to lay the cutlery with the ends closest to the table edge not away from us like we do today. Apparently it was when the aristocracy escaped to the UK after the revolution they started to change and lay cutlery like the English and as we do today.

Basically a hen house, but pretty cute!