Sorry for the long wait! I don’t have anything to say for my defense… Quarantine and the heat and trying to get used to new life just doesn’t come with inspiration. I have lots of ideas for posts, just no muse or not enough will to write it all down. Anyway, here comes another day of our babymoon in Normandy!
I love forests. And on day 3 of our babymoon we could walk through a beautiful one, make some pregnancy photo shoot there and enjoy nature! We also visited a small chapel in a thousand years old tree and ruins of once a beautiful abbey.
This day we drove in different direction, but not really forgetting the beautiful sea views from previous days (posts about them here and here). I must say here that the roads in Normandy are stunning. I mean the smaller, local ones. So many turns, hills and beautiful views, orchards on each side of the roads and forests. Real pleasure to drive through.
Our first stop was on the west bank of Seine in a small picturesque village – Vieux Port. We made some photos and enjoyed the sun a bit before we hit the road again, along the river and on the edge of the forest. We ended up in Notre-Dame-de-Bliquetuit and after refreshing ourselves and eating a snack, we ventured into the forest.
Foret de Brotonne covers 7200 hectares, has two main roads crossing over the forest and it’s a delight to walk through. We wandered around in the middle of it, made a nice pregnancy photo session and enjoyed the nature a lot. There was little to no humans close to us; so if you need a place for contemplation or just peace, this is the place. I love forests and I had a great time between all those beautiful trees.
(Check out my husbands account as well)
We left the forest and went towards a small village La Haye-de-Routot, in search for 1000 years old trees. We drove through the village two or three times not noticing the trees and at the end I just went to the shop and asked where they are. Apparently they stood right next to the road, in the cemetery near the church. And we missed them! I guess we were expecting some huge giants, when in fact they were not so tall but they sure were very wide. Both of the trees have small chapels inside of them, which tells a lot about their size. One was even behind the closed doors! It’s a place you should definitely visit if you’re traveling anywhere close.
Next place on our map was the ruins of abbey in Jumieges. To reach that place we had to take a ferry across Seine, which was free of charge if I remember correctly.
The Abbey of Jumieges is beautiful and worth the visit. It’s one of the oldest monasteries in Normandy, with history beginning in 7th century. I love to wander through the ruins of such an old buildings and wonder how the life looked like, when they were in full prosperity. I can completely understand why it’s one of the most important sites in Normandy, as it shows a big part of history and architecture. Tickets for visiting are not too pricey, they cost us 7.5 euro, and it’s even less if you can get a reduction (students between 18-25 years old and elderly above 65 years old), and if you’re younger than 18, you enter for free. We made some beautiful photos there and then had to run away because it started raining.
It was getting late so we tried to find a restaurant for dinner, but being a small town and on a Sunday, nothing was open there, so we went to another small town, La Bouille, only to walk around and not have anything interesting open for us. But the town was very charming with its traditional Normandy style buildings.
We just came back to our villa and ate in McDonalds on the way, I was too hungry to search for anything else, and you know what they say about hungry pregnant women 😉
Another beautiful day was over and we were more than happy that we chose Normandy as our babymoon destination.
The next post will be about the place we slept (our Normandy villa) and another approach of a pregnancy photo session. Stay tuned!
Miss Disaster's Blog 