August 29th 2017 - Cherbourg to Rochefort

We had quite an ambitious itinerary planned for the end of August and all of September 2017. I had organised a non-simultaneous exchange in Tramacastilla de Tena in the Pyrenees in Spain followed by a simultaneous exchange in Gouda in The Netherlands. Our plan was to take the ferry from Rosslare to Cherbourg and then to drive to Rochefort where we would stay a night with Danielle and meet up again with Emmanuelle, Jade and William. Our plans looked like they could have become complicated as following a yellow warning for flood the previous weekend, the flood actually hit on Tuesday evening. At 18.50 Seamus from next door walked up the side of our house to check if there was any water in our garden or in Goudie's. At that stage threre was none but within 10 minutes Goudie's was flooded and the water started to make its way into our garden

It wasn't long until the water started to come in the back door. So Jim and I frantically mopped and mopped and mopped trying to ensure that it would not make its way into the kitchen. I brought down every towel in the house to try to stem the flow. Meanwhile, Seamus had opened the manhole outside our house trying to let the water get away. However, his cafe and Mehan's shop were under 4-5 inches of water.

Because of the hump on the road water flows in towards the houses.

The water had made its way into Cookman's and was coming back into our yard through the wall as if numerous little taps had been turned on.

Fortunately our front door is up a few steps - otherwise the water would have got into the hall.

And it continued to rain!

And rain...

We did marathon work on Wednesday and Thursday to get the utility room back to normal and to get all the towels washed and dried and the house sorted for our home exchangers. We now have a pallet of sandbags in the yard for us and for the neighbours in the event of further flooding. We thought we were bad but it was nothing like the devastation in Innishowen.


Our plans proceeded as anticipated and on arrival in Cherbourg we were disappointed to see that it was raining - not the type of welcome that we associate with France. And the rain continued throughout the drive making visibility very poor and driving very stressful. As a result the journey took a lot longer than anticipated and we arrived at Danielle's at about 6.30 pm. We were welcomed warmly and immediately set to the aperitif. Then we had hake en papillote in a curry sauce with rice. Then the obligatory cheese and then tarte aux mirabelles which Jim loved. The evening was spent reminiscing and next morning we headed off on our journey to Ustaritz where I had booked a hotel for 1 night.