Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in Jumieges, which is on the north side of the River Seine, about 20km west of Rouen. (Exact location: 49.43102, 0.81452)
Weather: Very rainy morning, sunny afternoon.
It was dry but still dark as we left Montville this morning, and it was dry, but daylight, as we reached Rouen, where we found a convenient spot to settle Bertie, on the south side of the Seine, within 50m of the water. It was still dry as we wandered along the quay to check out the local ParkRun start and finish points too, but after nipping back to Bertie to ditch our jumpers, the ominous looking cloud we had earlier spied was overhead and pouring water on us.
There ensued a very soggy ParkRun* on a course that is also almost as flat as it is possible for a 5km route to be, which combined with a bit of an effort meant that I broke my overall parkrun Personal Best again, finishing in 24 minutes 54 seconds. That triumph was marred by then missing the token giver-outerer at the finish, but all's well that ends well, and I managed to get put in the results in the right place.
The vague plan had been to walk into Rouen after a late breakfast, for a bit of sightseeing, but the amount of rain falling removed all enthusiasm for that idea and the decision was made not to sit where we were and wait it out. Instead, after a bit of consideration of the options, we headed half an hour west of Rouen to Jumieges, with just a stop at a boulangerie in a nearby town en-route.
Once here we did exactly as we would have if we'd remained in Rouen: we sat and listened to the rain drum down.
Eventually, a brightening was detected and when the next threatening cloud skirted us, we adjudged it to be a good time to nip out for a look around, starting with a walk down to the river. Houses were the main things that caught our attention, and I could happily have snapped most of those we saw, so attractive and varied were they.
We stood in front of this one hypothesising that it wasn't really wonky, but that the beams had been drawn on to make it look so (clearly false hypothesis: the wood was real and when viewed from the side the wonkiness was unavoidably apparent).
"How much? No, I can't afford a whole one. Just build half of it for me."
The new married with the old, next to the very old.
Looking down river, but not capturing the limestone cliffs just a bit further along.
A succession of minor roads, on which only one vehicle was encountered, took us on a loop around to the centre of the small town (or maybe just a village - it doesn't seem very big), where sits the ruins of the Abbey that we had already spotted from a distance:
Happily the showers forecast for this afternoon didn't materialise, not only allowing us a pleasant hour of sunny walking, but also getting all our wet kit (strewn across the sun-trap of a dashboard) dried whilst we were out. Alas, the forecast for the next couple of days suggest we're in for more sogginess before the next dry spell comes in.
(* As an aside, Rouen ParkRun was significantly different from the other French ParkRuns in which we have participated: it was overwhelmingly locals taking part (seemingly 24 of the 27 today). ParkRun hasn't taken off in France and the norm seems to be that of the small number that turn up each week, the majority are Brits. I'd love to know how they've got the locals interested in Rouen, but not elsewhere. As a further aside, it was just as informal as the others we've done in France - no hint of a briefing, no marshalls, just a timekeeper and a token giver-outerer/scanner.)
Weather: Very rainy morning, sunny afternoon.
It was dry but still dark as we left Montville this morning, and it was dry, but daylight, as we reached Rouen, where we found a convenient spot to settle Bertie, on the south side of the Seine, within 50m of the water. It was still dry as we wandered along the quay to check out the local ParkRun start and finish points too, but after nipping back to Bertie to ditch our jumpers, the ominous looking cloud we had earlier spied was overhead and pouring water on us.
There ensued a very soggy ParkRun* on a course that is also almost as flat as it is possible for a 5km route to be, which combined with a bit of an effort meant that I broke my overall parkrun Personal Best again, finishing in 24 minutes 54 seconds. That triumph was marred by then missing the token giver-outerer at the finish, but all's well that ends well, and I managed to get put in the results in the right place.
The vague plan had been to walk into Rouen after a late breakfast, for a bit of sightseeing, but the amount of rain falling removed all enthusiasm for that idea and the decision was made not to sit where we were and wait it out. Instead, after a bit of consideration of the options, we headed half an hour west of Rouen to Jumieges, with just a stop at a boulangerie in a nearby town en-route.
Once here we did exactly as we would have if we'd remained in Rouen: we sat and listened to the rain drum down.
Eventually, a brightening was detected and when the next threatening cloud skirted us, we adjudged it to be a good time to nip out for a look around, starting with a walk down to the river. Houses were the main things that caught our attention, and I could happily have snapped most of those we saw, so attractive and varied were they.
We stood in front of this one hypothesising that it wasn't really wonky, but that the beams had been drawn on to make it look so (clearly false hypothesis: the wood was real and when viewed from the side the wonkiness was unavoidably apparent).
"How much? No, I can't afford a whole one. Just build half of it for me."
The new married with the old, next to the very old.
Looking down river, but not capturing the limestone cliffs just a bit further along.
A succession of minor roads, on which only one vehicle was encountered, took us on a loop around to the centre of the small town (or maybe just a village - it doesn't seem very big), where sits the ruins of the Abbey that we had already spotted from a distance:
Happily the showers forecast for this afternoon didn't materialise, not only allowing us a pleasant hour of sunny walking, but also getting all our wet kit (strewn across the sun-trap of a dashboard) dried whilst we were out. Alas, the forecast for the next couple of days suggest we're in for more sogginess before the next dry spell comes in.
(* As an aside, Rouen ParkRun was significantly different from the other French ParkRuns in which we have participated: it was overwhelmingly locals taking part (seemingly 24 of the 27 today). ParkRun hasn't taken off in France and the norm seems to be that of the small number that turn up each week, the majority are Brits. I'd love to know how they've got the locals interested in Rouen, but not elsewhere. As a further aside, it was just as informal as the others we've done in France - no hint of a briefing, no marshalls, just a timekeeper and a token giver-outerer/scanner.)
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