It sounds like this
Vernon, France
Today is a down day at the oh so relaxing and quiet Champ du Renard B&B. I awoke to the rooster at 5:00, then 5:20, 5:50, etc. It was like I kept hitting the snooze button and couldn’t find the off button. I slept in a little and had a wonderful breakfast with the other two guests, a retired couple from the south of France. I walked around the property a little and went into the town of Vernon to do laundry. Vernon’s not a small town, so finding a laundromat wasn’t easy. I stopped at a store and walked in and asked the lady if she spoke English and the answer was no. So, I launched into my question in French that I had rehearsed.
I don’t remember how to spell it exactly, but it sounds like this – eel ya ewn la-va-rheh oto-ma-teek preh-see-dee? It came out perfectly, I was quite proud and the shop lady gave me a smile of approval. Big problem though, she answered me en Francais. All I heard was blah, blah, blah,… How do you say Doh! in French?
After asking her to ray-pay-tay slowly, she tried again and took it upon herself to use hand gestures; I got the gist of the directions. I hopped back in the car and drove straight there, I was amazed. So, I did my one load of laundry and it was back to the Champ du Renard – I like saying Champ du Renard.
Not much else to do but laze by the garden and read a little. After a bit of that it was time for my afternoon nap. It was on my list of things to do today and so…. Got up about 4:00 and drove to Rouen, but it was a much bigger city than I anticipated. It was too much like Paris and I wasn’t ready for that, so I went back to the Champ du Renard. I drove the back roads to Rouen in about 1.5 hours and drove the super fast freeway back in about 40 minutes and called it a night.
Tomorrow, I visit Claude Monet‘s house and gardens which is in Giverny (zhee-ver-nee) and then drive to Brugge in België.