Normandy, France - Part 1

Right now I'm sitting in a freezing cold room in a student house listening to the rain and the wind battering the windows.  Understandably, I'm reminiscing about last summer, which I spent in Normandy in France.

Chateau Gaillard

Unfortunately, this was the weather on our first day there.  I had managed to convince myself that I would be leaving rainy Britain for gorgeous, sun-soaked France, and had packed accordingly.  That is how I found myself venturing out under the dark clouds in a vest top.

The view from Chateau Gaillard

The 'chateau' in question is actually a ruined mediaeval castle up on a hill, so it's not somewhere to ogle luxurious interiors and gorgeous ballrooms.  However the chateau looks down over the Seine, so it's worth going just for the view - just about, anyway.  We attempted to push a wheelchair up an immensely narrow, rocky path to get to the chateau.  Needless to say, it didn't work.

Blue sky!

Luckily the weather improved pretty soon, so we visited Lyons-la-Forêt, which is really pretty.  The photo above is of the main square which has lots of lovely half-timbered buildings and a market hall.  For such a picturesque place it wasn't at all busy or touristy either time we went there. 

Just the little cottage where we stayed... Er, no.

This is Parc de Clères, a zoo based around a 14th-century chateau, which itself was pretty stunning. The zoo part is nice because it's fairly open, with peacocks and wallabies wandering around on the grass.  Here I finally saw a peacock doing the proper tail-displaying thing, although as usual it was too late to take a picture. 

My France posts are fairly photo-heavy, so I'll spread them over several posts. Next up is Rouen!