Tues April 15, 2025
Hi Gang! Yes, we’re still in Rouen. Third times a charm! But we love it here since the city and surrounding area are so pretty. I believe they stayed here this long for people who wanted to do overnights to Paris but since we had been there several times before we opted to tour around this area.
We had a morning 4 hour tour entitled “Scenic Normandy”. We started by driving to Catherine’s Hill to get a nice view over Rouen. We then drove to the Thatched Cottage Trail to reach the banks of the River Seine (the same one that goes all the way to Paris). We saw some quaint villages with lots of thatched roofs (thus the name for the trail!). Kind of reminded me of the Cotswolds in England. We stopped in the little village of Vieux Port and could see that they planted irises on top of the thatched rooftops! Too bad they weren’t in bloom yet.
We then traveled thru the evergreen Brotonne Forest and drove across the Brotonne Bridge to the town of Caudebec-en-Caux. It is a charming village with cobbled stoned streets and medieval architecture. There was a 15th century Gothic church that was very pretty. They were having a funeral so we couldn’t go inside but the outside was very majestic. We walked around the town and then drove back to the ship.
We then had lunch on the ship at the pizza restaurant named Spaccanapoli, which was named after the street in Naples, Italy where pizza was invented. They may have the best pizza at sea! I had the all meat pizza, so yummy!
We then took the shuttle bus into the town of Rouen to see the market that was open only on Tuesdays. We did more shopping (look out grandkids!) and took the shuttle back to the ship. We then got ready for dinner. I’ll do an update tonight after dinner. Happy Tax Day to all!!
The Wandering Italian 