Oh The Places They've Been

Note: I have pictures which are not available yet in my icloud stream.  I will add them.  Sometimes I hate Apple

Sister Rose and her husband, Brother Rose, spent last week with us in Brighton.  Before that we had afew days visitng family in the midlands and Herefordshire.  We did many things. Sister Rose, who apparently has more energy than me, has posted about them.  And The COG has also streamed some pictures.  I have more to add on what we did, and I will do that over the next week or so.

However, at the moment we are in Normandy-  Deauville, to be exact.We arrived on Sunday.  This is how we got here:  we took the bus from the foot of our road to Newhaven.  We took the ferry to Dieppe. We took the navette to the Gare (train station).  We took the train to Rouen, then changed to a train for Liseux, then changed to another train for Deauville.  After a brief spat at the Gare about the desirability of just taking a taxi to the place we are staying, we walked, pulling our case, to La Cerisee.  Which proved to be in easy walking distance, so no problems.

A few words here about travel by ferry.  It's wonderful.  The pace of travel is so..... right.  And the hassles - lines, sullen security people, weighing of luggage, prohibitiions on what you carry (liquids, tiny folding scissors etc.) - are minimal.  Even the passport control is easy, with no long lines. Blissful.

Anyway, here we are in Deauville and its twin city of Trouville, just on the other side of the Seine across a bridge. These are seaside towns with great beaches and have been popular resorts since the 19th century.  The Impressionists painted them a million times.  And, famously, as the Daughter of COG reminds us, it is where Gaston took Gigi and her aunt in Gigi. 

We are staying in a charming little house behind a bigger house. It must have been a stable or outbuilding of some sort.  The ground floor is one room with a tiny kitchen a table and a sitting area. There are big beams holding up the second floor. There's a charming old curving staircase that leads to the second floor, where there's a bathroom, toilet and bedroom. It's all beautifully but simply decorated.  If there were just one more room, I would happily move in forever.