Poets day in poses

---

It was decided that we would leave Rouen early and travel as far as the non-tidal section of the Seine, just above the lock at Amfreville. There should not be as much concern about catching the tide for this trip , although it would still help and our leaving time was to be 0800.

The marina at Rouen is well run and clean, however it is also home to a motorhome park and there are not many showers for the number of people in the marina and the thirty or so more motorhomes passing through. That said, there seemed to be few early risers and the facilities were clean and empty when we got up, breakfasted and were ready to go. I posted our security fobs through the door of the Capitainaire and off we went into the working area of Rouen docks.

The sun was weekly showing as we passed under the strange 'guillotine' bridge and there were still swans in amongst all this industrialisation.

The Guillotine Bridge in Rouen is a unique structure that crosses the Seine River. It is known for its distinctive design that resembles a guillotine, hence the name. The bridge is thought of as a bit of a gimmick amongst locals, apparently it opens once every five years to allow the 'Tall Ships Flotilla' to pass by.

---

The trip was pretty uneventful, though we still hadn't seemed to work out the tide successfully and had a good two knots against us. There were still a fair number of working ships, hotel boats, and barges passing by, keeping us on our toes, especially where the direction of travel changed. It wasn't always clear to us when it had changed and where the signage had been, and the odd barge showing a 'blue board' had us reaching for the CEVNI guide. As we were the downstream vessel, we didn't always understand where we should be, but we appreciated that we were much smaller than they were, so we kept clear as best we could!

As we had a strong current or tide? against us still, we decided to do a lunch stop at St-Aubin-Les-Elbeuf which reported a nice stop in an old lock. The entrance was not easy to see and was quite shallow, but we moored up in the sun, and Sprocket was delighted to be on terra firm. Unfortunately it was 1300, and thus lunchtime (remember we're in France) and we couldn't raise the Capitainaire so were locked in the lock! Luckily we had provisions aboard and the dog was happy to have had a good run around.

---

On we travelled, still with a good two knots against us, and decided it was due to all the spring rain and flooding.

The countryside opened up and was lovely, many wooded slopes as we meandered through the countryside.

Amfreville lock was straightforward, and we decided to stop for the night at the pretty village of Poses.

Suddenly the feel of the river was different, much more mundane and the village had a sedate holiday feel to it. It was extremely pretty with lots of Normandy character.

There was a free pontoon at the upstream edge of the village, just waiting for us to dock.

I headed to the tourist office to catch them before they closed, it was Friday and a bank holiday weekend (I know another one!).

However it was POETS day! (Pissed Off Early Tomorrows Saturday)

It was easy enough to figure out what to see, just wandering around, popping into the small shop to ask if they had baguettes and croissants in the morning , affirmative.

Perfect Normandy architecture in a riverside setting, this is what we signed up for.

---

THE GREAT CROISSANT CRISIS

I wandered to previous mentioned shop to fetch our breakfast, and with a gallic shrug was told they had all sold out! He could however, put my name down for tomorrow (when we have gone) , why didn't he do that last night? Pfff as they say...

Mike felt the 'pain' of no 'pain' au chocolate....

Returned to the boat, tried to log onto Zoom to do my boot camp but the WIFI just wasn't strong enough, shame.

Some planning to do as we had booked to be in Paris by Sunday and that probably wasn't going to happen.