England is famous for its palaces, castles and gardens. But, as I discovered when I visited northern France in 2008, France has its share of these places to visit. And if you visit Northern France, you will discover that not only is the countryside similar to that of Southern England, but the weather is too. It can pour in Northern France just as well as it can in England!
On yet another Cecylee tour with my long-suffering husband, I visited Rouen (where Cecylee lived between 1441 and 1445), the famous gardens at Claude Monet’s home in Giverny, and the chateaux of Ussé, Azay-le-Rideau, Chambord, Blois, and Saumur.
However, unlike Southern England which is plush with its stone cottages draped with thatched roofs, manicured gardens and tea-rooms everywhere you look, France, by contrast, seems poor. When my husband and I visited Saumur in the Loire valley, we were very surprised to find a lifeless town center with only one cafe that was, naturally, closed. The lovely chateau of Ussé is frowned over by the local nuclear power station. And when you drive through Normandy and Anjou, you are met by too many neglected medieval buildings with their dirt-encrusted walls and plaster dripping onto the narrow streets.
One thing that will surprise English tourists is how many of the English royalty lived and died in France. Henry I (youngest son of William the Conqueror) died in Lyons-le-Forêt Normandy in 1135. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England from 1153 to 1204, is buried at Fontévraud
Abbey in Anjou. With her are her English husband Henry II (died 1189), their son Richard the Lionheart (died 1199) and Queen Isabella of Angoulême, wife of Henry and Eleanor’s youngest son John the Bad (ruled 1199 to 1216.)
If you are interested in medieval English history, you should find a way of visiting Northern France. You won’t regret it.
