I am always pretty happy to have a birthday 🥳 ! It’s better than the alternative 😁.

I had a lovely day. A quick visit to the local market at Duclair to buy some cheese and pâté, a new patisserie for lunch, the arrival of my worksite materials and a lovely dinner!

The diplomate – berries and cake, kind of like a pudding 😊

Before heading to dinner we had a photo to mark the day.

We went to dinner at a lovely local restaurant at Jumieges. It is called Auberge des Ruines and it specialises in locally sourced produce. It was a lovely dinner!

https://www.auberge-des-ruines.fr/

The chef Christophe Mauduit works with local farms to put forward his interpretation of Normandy flavours. The lamb I had was from the field just down the road from the restaurant.

Birthday girl photo from the evening!

Thanks to everyone for my birthday wishes and messages ❤️

For many years I have wanted to visit the town of Vernon to see the old half timbered house on the old bridge. Today we went there for a visit.

There used to be six mills across the bridge and they used the natural flow of the river to run the mill. Later on a dam was built further up the river and it killed off the mills. There is work being done to renovate the old bridge. in old times it was protected by the tower.

Vernon was a very cute little town with an old church, cute Town Hall and lots of half-timbered houses. There was quite a bit of renovation work going on.

I love this sign because when I first began to learn French the text book had the tourist office called the syndicat d’initiative. You don’t see it very often today. Mum and I laughed because our textbook was also based on Dieppe!

Vernon also has a lovely chateau, the chateau of Bizy. We popped in for a visit.

The château has had an interesting history, like most châteaux. During the revolution it was completely torn down and the current château is rebuilt in a new spot. Louis-Phillippe 1er, King of the French (rather than King of France) and second to last French monarch spent a lot of time at the chateau. The chateau is also connected to Maréchal Suchet, one of the famous generals of the Napoleonic wars. He became the Duke of Albufera. His family and the Bonaparte intermarried and so there is quite a bit of history. The current owner is a great, great granddaughter of Suchet.

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We also visited a second château on the way home. Another one I have wanted to visit for many years. The Chateau Gaillard at Les Andelys. It is now in ruins but set atop a hill with a commanding view of the river and the plains in front of it. It was stunning! We didn’t get to walk around it but just the view was amazing.

I have been working my way through a French series called « Les Rois Maudit » by Maurice Druon for many years (The accursed kings in English). It all about the history of the Kings and Queens of France and is a truly epic series.

Part of this true story is set at Chateau Gaillard. It is where Marguerite and Blanche de Bourgogne were imprisoned and Marguerite died.

« The Tour de Nesle affair was a scandal amongst the French royal family in 1314, during which Margaret, Blanche, and Joan, the daughters-in-law of King Philip IV, were accused of adultery. The accusations were apparently started by Philip’s daughter, Isabella. The Tour de Nesle was a tower in Paris where much of the adultery was said to have occurred. The scandal led to torture, executions and imprisonments for the princesses’ lovers and the imprisonment of the princesses, with lasting consequences for the final years of the House of Capet. »

From Wikipedia

We took a break from gardening to take Louis to his first proper soccer game. It was in a village just near Dieppe so, of course, we decided to visit there afterwards.

We needed some nourishment for trip, so Mum tested out the tarte Bovary!

The football wasn’t worth reporting on unfortunately as we came away without much success.

The little village that the ground was in, Offranville, had a wonderful old renovated farm and garden and a beautiful old dove house. Interestingly, in 1789 the law demanded the removal of all dove houses as the damage to nearby crops and seeds by the birds was too much.

We even saw a couple of doves!

We headed into Dieppe, stopping at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery for the mainly Canadians who attempted what is known as the Dieppe raid. In 1942 the Allies attempted a small scale landing in occupied France. It was pretty much doomed from the start and many brave Canadians lost their lives.

In Dieppe we were surprised to find an enormous kite festival! Apparently one of the biggest in the world! It was amazingly colourful and there were thousands of people.

We popped into the church of St Jacques on the trail of St Jacques de Compostelle. It’s an interesting mix of styles due to the mix of English and French from the period when Normandy was part of England.

The doors are Louis size.

It was moving to see this sign dedicated to all the parishioners who died during the Covid lockdown period when no funerals could be held 😢.

After a delicious dinner of moules et frites, Louis’ favourite, we had a final view of Dieppe overlooking the town and chateau.

I guess we all knew the Queen would not live forever but she has been around for so long. It was sad tonight to hear the news of her death. She has lived through so much and so many changes. As we were explaining it to the kids, we tried to explain how she has been an important figure for so long and all the many family changes she has experienced.

This provoked quite a conversation about monarchies and the French monarchy in particular, which is of course, another whole story!

I remembered the time I almost, kind of, met her! She attended the 70th anniversary of D day here in Normandy and I was looking after a group of Australian veterans attending the ceremonies.

She came by and spoke to our veterans and was very gracious. They enjoyed meeting her.

Whatever we think of monarchies, the Queen was driven by a sense of duty and sacrificed much in her role.

I also reflected on my meetings with our new King Charles III. He attended many of the centenary ceremonies including this photo of him in NZ uniform at a New Zealand ceremony at Longueval in the Somme.

As Prince Charles he also attended our Australian centenary ceremony for the 100th anniversary of the battle of Villers- Bretonneux on Anzac Day. It was our job to look after him, making all the arrangements and preparations. I distinctly remember having to organise the people who got to meet and chat with him! Quite hard work!

It really is a historic change and amazing to think we are just across the water from the UK where all this is currently unfolding. We could almost pop across to Westminster Abbey…!

Of course, we also share a bond as corgi lovers 😁

Mum found some fresh walnuts from the tree next door today. They go nicely with the fresh grapes and blackberries from the garden. This area is well known as an orchard and fruit area.

Just near one of Louis’ soccer training grounds is the massive factory of Flexi France. They make flexible pipes for petrol and gas and wind them on massive round reels. It is amazing.

Although school starts early, the short walk to catch the bus at the Mairie is quite pleasant ☺️.

It was lovely to receive some visitors from Australia to help out with the homework and chores. 😁

There seems to be a lot of homework and we got right into geography this evening. While we all know Australia is an island continent, for some reason in French the textbook calls us Océanie! What is this? New Zealand is not part of Australia!

The visitors have already paid their way and helped to open a jar of olives that had us stumped for a week!

While we do have to get up early for school and catch the bus at 7.30, we do get to experience some lovely mornings!

Now we can go back to calling soccer football! Life would not be complete without some football, so I have found a local club for the kids to be foreign imports 😁.

The club is FCLTD, Football club Le Trait & Duclair. At the moment they don’t have enough girls for a team of Lavinia’s age so they are just training with a mix from 10 yrs to 16 yrs, but it was a nice atmosphere.

There are two boys teams u12/u13 for Louis. He has been to training and today had a friendly match in the hot sun.

Louis’ age group play on a small pitch which is a change from Australia as he has already graduated to the full size pitch. It all seems pretty crowded.

We travelled to another village about 15min from Duclair for the game. it was nice to drive through the countryside and we saw a big horse stable. One to follow up for potential horse riding later!

I didn’t know much about the history of football until I started reading a book I have Sebastian for Christmas. I find it quite amazing how the game has spread across the world. It came to France first in the west of the country, via Normandie! It was introduced through schools but not by the sports teachers, it was the English teachers! The oldest club in France is credited to Le Havre, which is only 30min down the road. Have we landed in the birthplace of French football?

After all this effort we visited the boulangerie.

So much deliciousness.

There are so many wonderful quotes about Paris. It is a city I love dearly and feel privileged to know well. I will just stick to this quote:

Rather spur of the moment we decide to drive to Paris this Sunday and have lunch with friends. It was a beautiful summery day, hot even! Paris was looking beautiful and busy. The tourists have returned, except for the Chinese and the Russians!

We took a metro to a very traditional restaurant which was so popular we queued up.

The prices were very reasonable and their unique touch is they write the bill on the paper tablecloth as they go and present to you at the end!

We walked back past Invalides, then past the kids primary school and our former apartment! Lots of memories ❤️

There is a new trend in Paris of decorating the outsides of cafes with large floral arrangements. We saw many in the space of our short walk.

It wouldn’t be a visit to Paris without at least one picture of la grande dame!

Driving back to Normandie on the freeway (doing the speed limit of 130) I was listening to the radio which had a show talking about the upcoming trial of the accused in the 2016 Nice attacks. It reminded me of other difficult times we lived through, pre-Covid, first the Charlie Hebdo attacks which caused a huge outpouring of support of freedom of speech. Then there were the 13 November Paris attacks at the Bataclan and elsewhere that really shook us all and caused a lot of introspection. The Nice attack occurred on the evening of the national celebration, 14 July, when a truck drove down the famous Boulevard des Anglais in Nice, killing 86 people. This horrific event in 2016 was 5 days before the first of two centenary commemorations that we had organised where thousands of French and Australians would be gathered together. This caused a lot of concern but the French authorities were amazing in their dedication to ensure it could go ahead safely. Thinking about this reminded me that there are different challenges at various times that can influence the course of history. I will be interested to see what lessons have been drawn from this event six years ago for French society and the challenges of radicalisation.

It’s a pretty big experience to start at a new school, let alone in a different country. Three years away is long enough to have forgotten how French school works. I was proud of the kids for giving it a go. Who likes to stand by yourself not knowing anyone? At least they had each other, even though usually that is not cool!

There are quite a few rules at school, no phones at all during the day. Lunch in the canteen or you go home to eat. The first day at home always involves endless paperwork for parents to complete. Nothing seems to have gone online in three years! I also have to get school insurance for the kids, it’s cheap but still!

I had a win today in organising their bus passes. Sometimes you have to take on the french bureaucracy. Anyway we ended up with two bus passes that means they can catch the bus about 100m from the house each day, at 7.30am! 😬

We received their schedule and there are some late starts for Lavinia but not Louis and a couple of days with 5pm finishes! 😳 They are both starting Spanish!

Here is a sample of the text books they brought home.

I asked Louis about his experiences of the first day.

We had a big morning of painting at the house today. The kids did a lot and things are starting to take on a fresher feel. The half-timbered outside walls need to be painted as it not only looks good but protects the wood. It has been a while since I was up and down a ladder!

This afternoon we dropped into the massive hardware store nearby called Leroy Merlin (king Merlin). We picked up a few things including a new letter box so we can receive mail!

Then we went to a big sports store called Decathlon. We got Lavinia some new soccer boots as hers died on her last game before we left Australia. Louis saw some French team jerseys and really wants one! We shall have to see.

As it was the last day of holidays before school tomorrow, we stopped at La Bouille, a very cute little village a bit further up the river, for an afternoon drink and ice cream. There are also some very nice restaurants in La Bouille.

It was pretty hot and steamy today.