Ry

Success! Well sort of. Yesterday evening, we visited Benny's pizza parlour. Together with Angela's grasp of French, and John and the manager using Google translate, we managed to establish that the offer of two pizzas for fifteen euros applied. Result! Through the same lines of communication we ordered two vegetarian pizzas. Job done, we thought. Not so, when the pizzas arrived one was vegetarian, the other four cheese. But no worries, John really enjoyed the four cheese as it had goats cheese on it. The main thing was we'd manged to secure the offer price. Walking back to Marge, with full stomachs, we commented on how less than a week ago we were still wearing shorts, now we're in long trousers, fleece tops, coats, hats, scarves and gloves when we walk out. But despite a change of weather and clothing, we are still enjoying our travels.

We have developed a passion for it, it has enriched our lives. The American writer Mark Twain once said, " twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do, than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover".

This morning we journeyed north to Oissel, a small town sat alongside the river Seine, where we walked out to reduce the effects of last nights pizzas.

Back at Marge, we ate yet another salad, and watched the traditional Seine barges slowly pass by, their bows low, slicing quietly through the waters of the river. The scene was idyllic, until a large white river cruise boat powered by, its throaty engine, shattering the calm, a wake sent out of its stern washed the riverbank clean. Shame, it spoiled the picture we were enjoying of traditional river activity, back dropped by the colours of nature which stretched up from the river into the surrounding countryside.

Mid afternoon, we travelled on to the small Normandy town of Ry, where we stayed with Marge 1 one night last year, and were pleased to return to. En-route we passed a road sign for Paris, and realised it was not that far from us. Fancy a trip to Paris Marge? We could always stop and restock our dwindling food supplies! Back to Ry, located in the Crevon Valley. It is the town, the author Gustave Flaubert, based his fictional novel Madame Bovary on.

With yet more walking required, damn that pizza, we walked around the sites and dwellings mentioned in the novel, and then up the hill to the edge of town to take in the view.

Hoards of conkers from the horse chestnut trees that hung umbrella like overhead, rolled under our feet. We commented, in our day as children, they would have all been scooped up in plastic carrier bags to be threaded on string or laces, ready for fierce combat and competition with siblings and friends, although most ended up becoming a mildewed mass in the same bag they were collected in, forgotten until the smell they emitted forced your mother to throw them out. Oh well, there was always next year, when we could amass yet more.

The aire at Ry is right beside the tourist office. Marge is the only van.

Outside the office, is a small library, where Angela deposited the ten books she'd read so far. The cupboard the books were in housed in also contained some of the keepsakes we amassed along the way. Goodness knows how we will remember where we gathered them from, but it doesn't really matter. The main thing is, we had the opportunity to do so, and aknow, before we know it, we will soon be collecting yet more.