Monday, June 30: France, Rouen to Jumieges

During our walk around town yesterday, we noticed a laundromatique, so we hauled our one laundry bag of clothes, sheets and couple of towels and figured out the instructions written only in French. The laundromat had 3 sizes of machines and we could fit everything into the mid-sized one for 7 Euro – about $10. The dryer was 1.5 Euro for 10 minutes, so we did one load of laundry for about $13.

Outside of our campground is an Aire where we dumped both our tanks and tried to fill up with fresh water where there is a spigot instead of the "push to get water" types that were in the campground. The Aire charged 2.5 Euro for the fresh water, but it would not accept our credit card and it did not take cash. Oh well.

We stopped at a Super U, which is a decent sized grocery store plus a bunch of other stuff, but not as nice as a super WalMart. We picked up a few things and then headed north towards the coast. Our first stop along the way was Benedictine Abbey ruins founded in 654. Ready for another GPS adventure?

Is this really a road?

The only prohibition in the navigation that we entered was toll roads since we want to stay on the highways, but not limited access type interstates. Well, the GPS figured the best way to get across the Seine to the Abbey was via a ferry, except the weight limit was 3.5 ton and we are twice that., we kept on going, entered “no ferries” in the GPS and let it redirect us to the Abbey. It worked great except it took us down roads so narrow that the brush and tree branches were scraping both sides of the RV – these roads had not been used in years! We enjoyed a good laugh while driving down these “roads.” 

Gotta love the GPS!

 We arrived at the Abbey safe and sound and toured around the multiple buildings with all the different architectures (Normandy Romanesque, Gothic, etc.) according to the pamphlet that provided a brief walking tour. William the Conqueror helped consecrate one of the churches in the early 1000's. We really need to revise our thoughts of what is “old.”

A type of sundial near the top of one of the towers

Hard to see, but a painted portrait of an Abbot from 1600s inside the church

We expected to get to the coast, but it was getting late and it turned out that our parking lot is an Aire. We can stay here overnight for free (there are three other RVs here, too) and they have a spot to dump tanks and get fresh water. We purchased a 3 Euro token at the Tavern in the little town across from the Abbey, put it in the box and out came 100 liters of water whether we needed it all or not. Worked great! So, we settled in for the night. Free campground!