We left Flesselles this morning. Valérie was to arrive at 9 am, but I was still packing when she came to pick us up. When I had finished, I had found her having coffee with Josie. I really liked this place. Josie didn't speak English at all, so it was a nice opportunity to speak with her in French. No cheating with English here. At breakfast we met the other guests, an English couple from Portsmouth, visiting friends in the area who were going to Cambrai later on. We never got a good chance to speak to any others we came in contact with. We had been so busy doing things. Our meetings with people like Jeff and this couple were only ever brief. We didn't meet any other travellers where we chose to stay during the trip. I would recommend staying at B&Bs where you get a chance to speak to other travellers as well as the hosts.

When we were leaving, Josie gave us some herbs from the garden. Unfortunately we couldn't take it home with us. I was told after that she was going to get an Australian flag to fly at her place. She was nice, and I would like to stay there again, despite her list of rules. After we left her place, Valérie took us to Vignacourt. During the war, it was common for soldiers to stay here before they were to go back to fighting on the front. In the town a collection of photographs were recently discovered. This was the Thuillier collection. During the war, this family had a photography studio which was well known at the time. Many soldiers from many countries, including Chinese and Indians had their photos taken to send home. Not only soldiers, but civilians as well. Over 3,000 photographs were discovered. All of the original negatives are now kept at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

On our way back to Bertangles, we stopped at Montonvillers, a very small and picturesque town. Valérie showed us the church and the château. I was fascinated by the cemetery in this town. The château is in a bad state of disrepair. Left as it is, it will become ruins eventually. I'd love to be able to own such a nice building in a nice little town such as this, but it would be a very expensive enterprise to get it into a safe state again. When we were there, workmen were working at the side of the road placing cube-shaped rocks into some sort of cement. Our final thing to see was the Château de Bertangles. This is where John Monash had his headquarters during the war. It is a private residence owned by a descendant of nobility.

Later, she took us to the railway station. While we were waiting, Cyril arrived to see us when he finished work. Since this is the home of the macaron Valérie bought us the traditional macaron and the modern equivalent to compare. The traditional one reminded me of the almond biscuits in Malta, however these were more a chewy recipe. When it was time to go, we all said our goodbyes. It was too bad we had to leave this wonderful family, but I knew we had spent enough time with them. Lucie came with us, to go see her grandmother in Bernay. As we had to stop in Rouen, we got out of the station for a few minutes for a very brief look at the centre of the city. My original plan was to stay in Rouen to visit St. Étienne-du-Vouvray for Fr. Jacques Hamel. We left Lucie when the train came to Bernay, the stop before Lisieux, our next town to visit. For the first time on the trip, we were on our own. We had Chris and Thierry with us in Paris, the Greffs for a number of days in Picardy, then voilà, we were all alone in our travels. I felt a sense of loss and loneliness, but then again, we had some different experiences to meet on our own. There was no longer any English backup for us to fall upon (not a bad thing for me quand même)

After getting off the train, the first thing that strikes you is the Basilica of St. Thérèse on the top of the hill. Very impressive. It took us quite a while to find the motel, since I didn't write down the address. It was on the main street, opposite to a big carnival wheel and the St. Pierre Cathedral. When we walked in, we met the Indian manager. When we said our name (an excellent giveaway to make your accent as foreign sounding as possible) he asked did I want to speak French or English. I said if we spoke French it would take a while, but he was happy to oblige if I wanted to. It seemed a bit strange to see someone Indian speaking French, as obviously I'm not used to seeing such a thing.

For dinner we walked around to find barely anything open, and the small supermarket had just closed at 9 pm. We came across a burger shop, where we ordered takeaway chips. We should have stayed inside and had something better, a salad at least. I love how the even the menu in a small outlet like that looked so good. There wasn't a lot of options, but the drink menu was definitely not expected in such a place.

I much preferred the smaller, more intimate accommodation like a B&B. The kind of standard basic motel room was very basic, plain rooms with no 'warmth' (and shaky wi-fi as well). Not to mention all the strange combinations of shower head/bath taps you have to deal with in every place you stay.