Sundays in France

While almost all of my nervousness about the drive to Les Andelys turned out for naught my expectations for support available on a Sunday were pretty much on target. For a nation which gave up religion with their revolution, they sure take the day of rest seriously. The one exception was the bell ringers at the cathedral - the bells started at 8 striking the hour and then played for 10 minutes at 8:15, just in case anyone was thinking of a lie in.

Of course the car had to be picked up on Saturday because the rental shop is closed on Sunday, ditto the staffing of the parking garage, which for the record has the narrowest spots to park I have ever seen. There were a group of foreigners trying to figure out how the machine you needed to pay worked. English, German and Polish I think, it was a true multinational effort to get us out of there.

The drive to Les Andelys was uneventful- once the GPS stopped saying it was in Switzerland. The decision was to avoid the highway and the possibility of tolls, in case it turned out toll roads were not manned and the car needed some unknown pass, so instead the drive was past the airport. This had the added benefit of being well signed as there are a multitude of roads out of Rouen and most of them are labeled Caen or Paris so it is a bit confusing. The route was through farmland, fields of harvested hay waiting to be picked up and after about 45 minutes, ended at Les Andelys.

There actually is a Grand Les Andelys and a petite Les Andelys and the hotel was at the latter so about a 2 km drive and early arrival. Not much was open. I guess the grocer and the gas station are open for a couple hours in the morning. The hotel actually locks up in the afternoon so I was very glad for the early arrival.
The room, overlooking the river was ready so after dumping the luggage it was time to set off on foot for Castle Gaillard!