Andrew Penman
A-Rosa Viva
Claude Monet was so impressed he painted it at least 30 times, capturing the changing tones of the stone facade in all types of light.
It’s worth meandering around the streets further afield, because at almost every turn there’s another row of timber-framed buildings crying out to be photographed.
Not all the old churches have survived, many because the Allies bombed the bridges crossing the Seine in 1944, destroying many of the buildings lining the banks in the process.
Among the casualties was a church called St Vincent. Its ancient stained glass windows had been removed when war broke out in 1939, to guard against exactly this possibility, and now adorn the incongruous modern church of St Vincent and Jeanne d’Arc. The French have an attitude to modern architecture that is far more tolerant than in England and I suspect that many visitors from the UK will be surprised to find this new structure occupying one side of the market square where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.
Still, there’s always the other three sides of the square where you can enjoy a drink at a bar that dates back centuries before ambling back to the boat.
The village of Caudebec-enCaux marked the furthest point up the river that the A-Rosa Viva ventured.
The French king Henry IV is said to have declared that the chapel here was the most beautiful in his kingdom – don’t be fooled by his use of the word “chapel”, it’s the size of a small cathedral.
There was another treat for us here as the A-Rosa Viva has its own stock of e-bikes, and what a wonderful way they are to explore the Normandy