Day 4 Shopping and Ferry Day
That pretty much sums it all up right there. We went shopping this morning in Rouen before we left France. We've been walking past all these shops over the weekend, but didn't do any shopping. So today was our day!
French people dress so CLASSY! I love their style. It makes me happy just to browse the window fronts for the most part and imagine how I might incorporate that particular blouse or pair of shoes into my wardrobe. ha ha. I did find a few items today that made my entire day - so that's awesome!!
Then we hurried over to Dieppe, on the western coast of France, to take the ferry back over to England. We arrived 90 minutes early, just as we were supposed to, and waited patiently for about 25 minutes as we moved through the line of cars to get up to the checkpoint window. The lady inside the booth checked our passports, and our ticket reference number. Then she leaned out the window and carefully said, "Everything is in order mademoiselle, but your ferry already left." She explained that the ticket I had purchased weeks ago was for a ferry at ONE A.M. to FOUR A.M. and not 1:00 pm as I had seen on the screen when I made the purchase. Apparently they do military time over there and I did not pick up on that. So . . . now what???
She said she could try to contact the ship's captain to ask for permission for us to come on board, even though the ship was full, and that it would cost extra. So while she closed the booth window and started working on that, Charmaine and I are just in shock. I immediately started praying in my mind, apologizing to God for making such a stupid mistake, telling him that I really don't know what we will do if we can't get over to England, and asking for help to make this all work out. I felt a peaceful feeling immediately and felt reassured. At that same time, Charmaine quietly says, "I just said a prayer." I said, "Me too!" And then the lady opens the window and says, "Okay, mademoiselle, the captain says it is okay for you to board. It will cost 168 euros though. Do you want to proceed?" YES. I don't care how much it costs! I was just so grateful!! Merci beau coup to the lady in the ticket booth!! And off we went, in grateful disbelief.
The ferry ride was 4 hours long, but very relaxing. The wind was pretty strong out in the channel, which made for very choppy water, so we didn't go outside much. At one point, as we were about an hour from the England shoreline, they even closed off the outer doors so that no one could go out. The ship was listing and "bobby". That was my new word that I made up today. It just sounds British. We took a little nap, read for a while, ate our lunch, and even bought a little travel game of Battleship in the ferry gift shop. That was pretty fun!
We made it back to England okay, and then had a 3 hour drive to Weymouth, our lodging for the next 2 days. We stopped off at a tiny little town called Funtington so that we could have dinner along the way. We ate at a place called Fox and Hounds. As you walk in, it's the pub area. Everyone was happily visiting and drinking their whatevers, and several people had their dogs in there at their side!! We were directed back to the quieter dinner area. They even sat us at a table with a beautiful vase of flowers! It's like they knew it was my birthday!
We ordered some tasty food for my birthday dinner - smoked salmon and prawn salad, and "Aubergine, Pepper and Courgette Bake" for me. The aubergine is their word for eggplant. Courgette is zucchini. It was smothered in mozzarella cheese and was delicious! Charmaine ate "Leaf spinach, Tomato and Smoked Haddock Kedgeree". Haddock is a white fish. Kedgeree means it was served with a lovely bright yellow saffron infused rice. Then we ordered a small dessert to share: Apple Tarte Tatin with caramel sauce and ginger flavored ice cream. It was amazing!! Basically like having vanilla ice cream with a hint of ginger flavor, on top of a french pastry, drizzled with caramel sauce, and on top of apple pie (but no crust). WOW. (see pictures)
We are here at our lodging and ready to go to bed. The first sound we heard as we stepped out of the car in the dark was the ocean waves crashing right across the street. Nice.
Well, it's 10:30 pm again. Tomorrow we get to hike and explore the coastline. So that will be SO GREAT!! That means we'd better go to bed now.
Pictures: (I didn't take a lot today because I was behind the wheel mostly)
Hope all is well in the USA - Love you all!
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