Avalon: Paris to Normandy: Day 3: Jumièges Abbey & Honfleur

July 13

Today was another great adventure! We spent the morning exploring the Normandy Abbey Route which used to see the Seine River lined with medieval abbeys. We had two stops. The first was an amazing stop - we spent a couple hours at the Jumieges Abbey. What made this so remarkable was that this was originally constructed in 645. Oh my. And it stood until the French Revolutionw hen it was dismantled as it was seen as a symbol of the upper class aristocracy. As we walked around we were told that here the Vikings had invaded France and attacked the abbey. It just blew our minds that WHERE WE WERE STANDING was where the Vikings had walked. Part of the property is still be excavated by archeologists as they look for more ruins and try to learn more.

Jumièges Abbey as it originally looked

The cathedral

The cathedral - interior looking towards where the choir would have been

The cathedral looking back towards the main entrance

We left here and went to the Saint - Wandrille Abbey which dated back to the 11th century. It too had been dismantled by the revolutionaries, but much of it still remains intact and it is a working abbey today which houses 28 monks. One of the monks joined us and gave us the tour - very cool.

The "new church" (constructed in the 13th century)

This originally stood 600 meters away but was moved stone-by-stone in the 1980's

It took one year - ONE - to disassemble and reassemble it - YOWZA

An amusing anecdote.....we had three guides for the three groups. All on their own channel on the voice box system that allows you to hear your guide. When we arrived at Saint Wandrille our guide was going to be the translator for the monk guide. The three girls tried to put ALL THREE headsets on our girl and she had three microphones with wires everywhere....it was so comical. Finally someone suggested, "how about all three groups just be on the same channel" - WOW....how hard was THAT to figure out? LOL

Then it was back to the ship where we had about an hour for lunch. Then we were off again for about an hour drive to the port city of Hornfleur. We had an hour guided tour of the medieval city that remains, much of the buildings the originals. Very interesting. And then we had about an hour of free time. Yesterday we had been told in Les Andelys there was THE BEST éclair shop but when we all went there, it was closed. So we used our free time to find an éclair shop - found one and wonders of wonders it was right across the street from a shop with a Mickey Mouse display. Had to pose there for all my former Mickonomics students that follow our adventures. After a group picture in front of the picturesque harbor we headed back to the ship. Along the way passed a castle overlooking the river which was very cool. Tomorrow we have a TEN HOUR excursion to the Beaches of Normandy which is the highlight of the trip.