Where's Bertie? He's in an Aire next to the sports grounds in the village of Étoutteville. It's free, except for water and electricity, which are available for a fee. (Exact location: 49.67538, 0.78994.)
Weather: A foggy start, burning off to give wall-to-wall sunshine.
It was late morning by the time the sun had won through the fog and we were ready to roll. The SatNav was promptly ignored, and back down to the village of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon we went, as I thought it might be nice to have a quick look at the Abbey there. Alas, a lack of suitable parking (or maybe a lack of trying very hard to find suitable parking) meant it wasn't to be, and onwards we drove to Yvetot, battling the SatNav which was quite determined that it wanted us off the direct main road, to use single track roads instead.
The first priority on arrival was lunch, before we took ourselves off for a walk around the town. There we found an impressive town hall...
The original, built in 1832, was pulled down and replaced, starting in 1912. The build was interrupted for the war and finally finished in 1922.
....and a church with the ugliest tower I've ever seen. From a distance, I thought it was a fire-fighter training tower:
The original church was destroyed at the start of the second world war. This replacement was completed in the 1950s. It's a pity it was locked, as I would have liked to have seen inside.
Unfortunately, those were the only two features of interest that we found, and we quickly decided that there would be no benefit to sticking around. So, pausing only for a loaf of bread from one of the many bakers (I wasn't sure if the Aire to which I was taking us next was in the middle of nowhere), we made our way back to Bertie and onwards we went.
Étoutteville is much more to our liking, but it is a bit of a strange place. The sports ground next to which we are parked is a reasonable size and has quite a few facilities (football pitch, tennis court, badminton/volleyball court, various outdoor gym equipment) and seems completely out of proportion with the village. The village itself is more new than old, and comes across as a suburb, yet it sits in open countryside, a good few kilometres away from Yvetot, the nearest town. Even more bizarre is that, unless we missed the one important street during our exploration of the place (there aren't many roads and we think we covered them all), there's not a single commerce here. No baker, no cafe/bar/restaurant. Why then has the town hall decided to invest in providing an Aire when there is no obvious reason, beyond an 8km heritage trail, to be trying to attract visitors? Our expectation in the provision of a dedicated motorhome parking area (moreover, one with facilities) is "We'll give you somewhere to park if you'll come and spend some money in our shops and restaurants, and/or admire our architecture and history". I hope that doesn't come across as ungrateful; I may be bamboozled as to the reason for the investment, but I'm very happy that the investment was made.
Also decidedly odd is the location of their electric car charging point:
Do you park perpendicular to the road, blocking the line being taken by people using the path? Do you park on the verge, running your cable across the line of the path as a trip hazard? The village pond lies the other side of the hedge, behind the charging point.
Weather: A foggy start, burning off to give wall-to-wall sunshine.
It was late morning by the time the sun had won through the fog and we were ready to roll. The SatNav was promptly ignored, and back down to the village of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon we went, as I thought it might be nice to have a quick look at the Abbey there. Alas, a lack of suitable parking (or maybe a lack of trying very hard to find suitable parking) meant it wasn't to be, and onwards we drove to Yvetot, battling the SatNav which was quite determined that it wanted us off the direct main road, to use single track roads instead.
The first priority on arrival was lunch, before we took ourselves off for a walk around the town. There we found an impressive town hall...
The original, built in 1832, was pulled down and replaced, starting in 1912. The build was interrupted for the war and finally finished in 1922.
....and a church with the ugliest tower I've ever seen. From a distance, I thought it was a fire-fighter training tower:
The original church was destroyed at the start of the second world war. This replacement was completed in the 1950s. It's a pity it was locked, as I would have liked to have seen inside.
Unfortunately, those were the only two features of interest that we found, and we quickly decided that there would be no benefit to sticking around. So, pausing only for a loaf of bread from one of the many bakers (I wasn't sure if the Aire to which I was taking us next was in the middle of nowhere), we made our way back to Bertie and onwards we went.
Étoutteville is much more to our liking, but it is a bit of a strange place. The sports ground next to which we are parked is a reasonable size and has quite a few facilities (football pitch, tennis court, badminton/volleyball court, various outdoor gym equipment) and seems completely out of proportion with the village. The village itself is more new than old, and comes across as a suburb, yet it sits in open countryside, a good few kilometres away from Yvetot, the nearest town. Even more bizarre is that, unless we missed the one important street during our exploration of the place (there aren't many roads and we think we covered them all), there's not a single commerce here. No baker, no cafe/bar/restaurant. Why then has the town hall decided to invest in providing an Aire when there is no obvious reason, beyond an 8km heritage trail, to be trying to attract visitors? Our expectation in the provision of a dedicated motorhome parking area (moreover, one with facilities) is "We'll give you somewhere to park if you'll come and spend some money in our shops and restaurants, and/or admire our architecture and history". I hope that doesn't come across as ungrateful; I may be bamboozled as to the reason for the investment, but I'm very happy that the investment was made.
Also decidedly odd is the location of their electric car charging point:
Do you park perpendicular to the road, blocking the line being taken by people using the path? Do you park on the verge, running your cable across the line of the path as a trip hazard? The village pond lies the other side of the hedge, behind the charging point.
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