Thursday 8th August - Angleterre

It's been a great week... and blog posts will be full of it for a while.

We've been on a River Cruise, just like the ones on the tv adverts, and it was everything we could have hoped for and imagined, and more...

I'm, glad I kept a diary, and took zillions of photographs, as so much has been packed into the days that it would be easy to lose track. There will be more posts to come - but for now, here's the outline of the week;

Wednesday 31st July - travelled, via Eurostar, to Paris, my word, that is definitely the way to get around.

Thursday 1st August - woke up to a beautiful sunny morning in Conflans-st-Honorine

spent the morning in Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh lived towards the end of his life, and the afternoon wandering round Conflans in the solid heat

Friday 2nd August - woke up in Rouen, guided walking tour in the morning, and revisited the city by ourselves in the afternoon

Saturday 3rd August - woke up in Le Havre, spent the morning in Honfleur.

In the afternoon I took a break, while he explored Le Havre

Sunday 4th August - woke up in Caudebec-en-Caux. Trip to the Palais Benedictine in Fecamp, and discovered the delights of single cask Benedictine liquer. (How lovely not to be driving!) Walked around Caudebec in the afternoon, wondering which parts my grandmother would have recognised - the town centre was destroyed in 1940. In the evening we visited Chateau d'Etelan, an early Renaissance chateau with beautiful views across the Seine valley

Monday 5th August - woke up in Vernon, spend the morning in the Monet gardens at Givency. In the afternoon I took another break - he wandered around Vernon and Vernonet, either side of the river. We went further upstream in the boat in the evening to the Chateau de-la-Roche-Guyon for a delightful concert in one of the restored rooms.

Tuesday 6th August - woke up a little downstream of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Trip to the beautiful Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte in the morning, and walked to the Eiffel Tower in the afternoon.

Wednesday 7th August - Eurostar back to London and home.

So, today, Thursday - fetch the cats, finish unpacking, start putting loads through the laundry, try and tidy things away and sort through all the bits and pieces we brought back...

But also go through notes and diary and sketchbook and photographs and put it all into some kind of memento of a wonderful, wonderful week.