The last dregs of summer, 17 October 2022

There was a massive, massive thunderstorm in the night - absolutely fantastic lightning and almost continuous growls of thunder. And then it rained! How the Swan Whisperer slept through it all, I'll never know, but he really missed an amazing experience! 

However, this did nothing for my sleep, so I have had a headache on and off all day. First of all I woke up again (having dozed off) when they turned the street lights back on at 6, and then some very noisy machine came and Did Things for what felt like an hour, but was probably only about 15 minutes. I don't know what it was doing, but it made a very unpleasant noise doing it. 

So anyway, I didn't want to go for a walk this morning. I did, of course, go shopping at an Intermarché outside Evreux, and a short walk before lunch at the Normandy town of Vernon, where there is a mediaeval flour mill on the remains of a mediaeval bridge,

and a chateau.

We enjoyed walking round there and reading the panels about the buildings. Also the autumn colours of the woods above the Seine. 

We are parked up for the night at Neufchatel-en-Bray, in a very nice aire. Unlike last night's, it isn't free (there is, I discovered too late, a free one just a few miles east) but only about 12 euros, which is very reasonable. It even has a launderette! However, I think our laundry can wait until we get home now. We might even have finished it by the weekend!