We set off north for the town of Neufchâtel-en-Bray where we like to spend our last night in France before catching the ferry from Dieppe to Newhaven, UK.

On the way up the Seine there were several bicycle sculptures- perhaps from when the Tour de France went through here.

We decided to go through the Forest of Lyons on the way where Arnaud in the cafe had told us the deer are rutting.

We saw some old buildings on the way – and potatoes on the road again – many squashed!

We went to quickly check out the famous 12th century Abbaye de Mortemer in the forest. This is as close as we could get without waiting for it to open and paying the entry fee.

It has a chequered history with monks struggling to survive with no support for many years and then the final 4 monks being massacred in the basement during the revolution accused of hiding treasure – a runout that had circulated in the community. There are many ghost stories related to the place with one room in particular having things moving around by themselves. The owner built a cottage as he couldn’t deal with all the noises and footsteps.

My favourite story is that a WW2 British pilot had to parachute out of his plane. He then saw a monk and was led by him through the forest to the resistance – and then disappeared.

We had a van lunch there and then headed north through the forest. We found a memorial to the resistance units in the forest – many of the leaders were killed by the Nazis.

We were driving through many villages with names related to the heron.

We continued on along the winding roads eventually arriving at the campsite Sainte-Claire in Neufchâtel. This is the first time it has been open when we have been here before. It had always been much later in the season and we had stayed in the aire next door.

The cost of the campsite was only 18 euro with the ACSI card. The aire is 14 euro – and you have to pay 2 euro for the single shower – so basically the same cost. . The campsite is luxury in comparison.

We walked into the centre of town along the old railway line – now cycle way. Neufchâtel produces a famous heart shaped cheese indicated by the dairy cows on the roundabout.

There are many old pictures on boards showing Neufchâtel destroyed in 1940 by nazi bombs during the Battle of France. It’s all back together now.

The 2 lion flag is Normandy’s flag originally from William the Conqueror.

We were hoping to find a restaurant to eat in but everything was closed on a Monday. We found a bar that was open and had a couple of strong Weiss beers.

An English chap came in – he had just arrived from the Dover-Calais ferry. His intended ferry – Newhaven to Dieppe – had been cancelled all day due to high winds. We were a bit worried about tomorrow. He was selling his holiday house in Neufchâtel and was meeting the buyer to try to sell the furniture too. He had worked as an engineer in Germany and had met his wife here every weekend as she worked as a nurse in Kent. They are now retired and want to explore other parts of France.

We then left and not finding any reasonably priced restaurants bought a baguette and went back to the van. We scraped together a dinner from tins with bread and cheese – not a very glorious dinner for our last night in France!