Travel proves to be hard yet again

We tried to get an early start from Bayeux. We had an about 90 minute drive to Rouen if we wanted to take the toll expressway. We needed to turn in the rental car at Rouen and catch the train back to Paris. Then a cab to an airport hotel allowing an airport shuttle in the morning. An early start from Bayeux assured that we could get the whole thing done by mid-afternoon.

Anyone want to guess?

OK, I am going to give a hint. We decided to take the old state highway that parallels the toll expressway rather than the expressway. For most of the way the state highway is within a couple hundred meters of the expressway. It was bound to be a little bit slower but we would have a no stress ride across northern France with a chance to enjoy the slowing down to pass through all of the small towns. I hasten to add we are not talking about the little tiny departement roads passing through really tiny towns as seen on the Tour de France. We are talking about major department highways. If you happen to have a Michelin France road map handy we are not talking about those tiny tiny yellow roads. We are talking about the major red roads, not up to the standard of the yellow and red double line expressway. But the major red roads.

Anyone want to guess?

We were so confident that we decided we could swing slightly to the north to cross the Seine at a major toll bridge on the outskirts of Le Havre and then follow the very major red road D982 down towards Rouen. This would do two things, it would allow us to stop and see the ancient old abbey that we missed on flat tire day and even more importantly during the whole flat tire adventure we had both spotted a gas station on the D982 heading into Rouen. It was a rental car, we needed to gas up. This route let us enter Rouen over a road that we had traveled once previously and along which we could find a gas station.

Any one want to guess?

But first the really amazing old abbey, the Abbaye de Jumièges.  The abbey was founded in 654 by Saint Philibert.  The ruins still on the site are mostly from the 10th and 11th centuries.  This west facade of the abbey church Notre Dame is part of what remains of what was one of the largest churches in Normandy.

The abbey sometimes flouished, sometimes not but after the Revolution the building fell on hard times.  The secular state took ownership of all of the religious buildings and this one was sold to be used as a stone quarry.  Only about one third of what was once on site still remains.  This is what the main church looks like  on the other side of the grand facade.

And another view, this time of the adjacent Eglise Saint Pierre, the church reserved for the monks.

The cloister, this area was enclosed by another building, the refectory which is now completely gone  leaving his area of solitude and reflection open to the eyes of all.

The former hospice with the towers of the main church facade rising in the background.

We must have been stunned by the ruins, we were a bit behind schedule but not totally adrift when somehow or other we completely drove past the gas station without noticing it.

We ended up in Rouen needing gas.  Have you ever tried to locate a gas station in a town which is already overwhelming you with streets that don't go where you need them to go, often ending in an access interdite sign, where you don't speak the language, and where the time of  your planned arrival  at the train station to catch the afternoon train to Paris is rapidly passing?  We have.

But suddenly like an apparition rising from the misty graveyard, there on the right, a Total gas station.  And behold, we were saved.  Well, we were saved as soon as the nice French young man inside the station programmed the pump to allow me to pump some gas at a credit card only pump and then pay inside with my American credit card which totally does not work at French automatic payment gas stations.

No longer any need to  guess, we made the 3 o'clock train, arriving at Gare Saint Lazare in  Paris at about 4:15.  Then we briefly could not locate the taxi stand but that was only a slight delay.  The  rush hour traffic that we plunged into on the way to the airport hotel  complex was the biggest set back from that point on.

But we are here at the airport hotel, we have had dinner, it isn't even dark  yet.  It looks like we will be able to get enough sleep, it looks like we will  be home tomorrow.

We love France, some moments have been trying but we have had a really good time.  A really surprising to me highlight is how good the food was in Bayeux.  Two words:  camembert tartelette.