Le Bec Hellouin BVoF

 

Thursday 12th June 2025

Our first day proper of our French trip started at Belleville sur Mer with a lovely view over a wheat fields with the heads wafting and bobbing around on the morning breeze and the blue of the English Channel beyond.

It might look like grass at road level, but it's ground is actually about
five feet below and the top of the wheat is now level ish

A perfect way to start the day.

Priority this morning was a service point to dump waste water and fill with fresh.

Doudeville looked like a good place and so it turned out.

A nice clean service point and just 2 euro for 100 litres of fresh eau did us nicely.

I enjoyed the drive across the countryside and the fields of crops on each side.

One crop I didn't recognise though, and we passed a lot of it, had small blue flowers bobbing around.

Not my photo, too dangerous to photograph while driving and nowhere convenient to stop !
But this is Flax and it made quite a sight to see

A bit of research revealed this to be Flax.

This is about Flax  commonly grown in Normandy and Brittany.

I don't think there's a lot of interest for us in Doudeville, but I was going to have a walk around the village, that was until the heavens opened.

So we decided to move on to our intended stop tonight, the pretty Norman village of Le Bec Hellouin.

This is one of the BVoF villages, Beautiful Villages of France.

There's a free motorhome overnight parking aire in the village as a bonus.

After lunch, with the rain cleared and the sun out to play, we walked around the village and Abbey which is quite impressive.

There were some signs around asking for silence, so I think there must still be monks in residence.

In 1232 excavation in the Abbey unearthed the body of Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry l of England and wife of Henry V. 

Wrapped in cowhide according to custom, she had been burried in 1167 in front of the alter of the Virgin, beneath a marble slab. 

It's a sleepy place of course, but very picturesque with lots of interesting buildings and architecture.

There are a few little shops selling tourist stuff, but nothing too tacky.

A few bars and restaurants too.

Free motorhome parking

The Abbey tower, the only bit of the original abbey left.
The abbey fell into ruin during the French Revolution and the Nepoleons Empire

It was hot and humid after the rain shower at lunchtime but hopefully it'll be fresher tomorrow.