The rain started again just before bedtime and continued all night. Thoughts of visiting either Chateau Gaillard or Monet’s garden at Giverny are quickly dismissed.

We stay put until 11:00 then set off on part of a scenic route from one of our guide books. First back to Rugles then D830 to Conches en Ouche. The road runs mostly through beech woods, much of which still looks autumnal as many trees still have a lot of dry brown leaves.

Around midday we stop at a supermarket near Bonneville sur Iton and get a small bit of shopping before the 12:30 closure for lunch.

We skirt around Evreux, a unattractive sprawl of commercial zones, although we do see a massive and elegant Napoleonic building which could be a military academy, university, hospital or something else.

The rain has stopped when we join prettier and quieter roads through more hilly, rural scenery, with views for miles and miles into the distance. We use a service point at Gaillon before crossing the Seine to Courselles-sur-Seine and driving a few miles, with the river often in view, through the old town of Port Mort [gate of death?].

The last stretch is through thick wet woodland on steep and winding unclassified roads to Mezieres-en-Vexin. We find the beef farm and turn into the yard. It’s a typical farmyard with barns on three sides and a large stone house filling the fourth. In one corner is a pen with a passive and contented looking husky. Ali rings the bell, Monsieur arrives and she returns with two lovely entrecote steaks and a bottle of cidre for €13.

In the centre of the yard is a small lawn with a massive dogwood bush, and as the sun sets behind us the red twigs blend in perfectly with the clay tiled rooves.

Early evening a French motorhome arrives and the farmhand returns to his cottage beside the husky pen. Minutes later a window opens and the husky leaps in and settles on the sill.

The full moon rises brightly as we enjoy our fresh steaks.

There’s something very enjoyable about consuming things where they are made.