Visit to Villainville 2002

We visited Villainville, Normandy at the beginning of May 2002.

Most people travelled to Le Havre by ferry from Portsmouth on the Saturday and everyone settled in with their hosts.

In the evening our French friends laid on a magnificent banquet in their Parish Hall. Food and wine were and the traditional game of 'lotto' finished the evening off well!

On the Sunday we were off to St Valery en Caux which is between Fecamp and Dieppe. There we had an interesting tour of the old town.

After the tour we visited 'Henri IV's' house alongside the quay. The house is a beautiful, timbered Renaissance house with an inscription over the door dated1540.

Inside the house was an internal courtyard with a gallery around the sides. There were some interesting historic displays inside the rooms which led off the gallery.

After we had finished at St Valery en Caux we moved onto Moulin Saint Martin which had a fascinating rural museum with many articles from farming and life in bygone days.

When we arrived back in Villainville we just had time to freshen up before some of us went to the count in the local election of the Presidential Election. This was a very important day in the history of French politics and everyone was very concerned about the result. Villainville led the country with its ballot, which was the same as the overall result.

The local Marie was the polling station - in the room adjoining the school room.

A very interesting and relaxing weekend was had by all.

Thank you