We sat in woods near Bouville with a carpet of wood anemones, primroses and celandines to eat our picnic, enjoying the peaceful surroundings and the delicious tomatoes - why can't we get them in UK?The strong west wind was still blowing, but as we were going inland, it wasn't against us - the sun came out too, from time to time. We followed the river Durdent (the shortest fleuve in France) through the Plain of Caux (we later found out that 'Caux' is an old word for chalk). Here were big wide open fields of different colours, the yellow rape seed crop, the blueing fields of flax, the light green of newly germinating wheat and the many beautifully ploughed brown ones. We stopped to buy picnic food in the small village of Grainville la Tintourière - clearly a village of long standing with its old houses and shops and church clustering in the river valley. As in most of the french villages we've visited, the local shops seem to be thriving and it was easy to get what we needed.We set off towards Fréville (having friendly and detailed instructions from a local we had encountered in the town who overtook us in his car on the way out and then stopped at a junction to cheer us as we went past).
We sat in woods near Bouville with a carpet of wood anemones, primroses and celandines to eat our picnic, enjoying the peaceful surroundings and the delicious tomatoes - why can't we get them in UK?
We joined a river valley at le Houlme and followed a 'sort of marked' cycle route almost into the centre of Rouen. It went through many rather boring suburbs but did get us on lightly-trafficked roads as far as the edge of our town map which we used to reach Rue aux Ours 45, where we had booked that night's stay.
Philippe Aunay's Chambres d'Hôtes were astonishing: we arrived outside an ancient timbered house that looked several hundred years old, rang a bell and were let in through a grill gate and down a passage where we could very conveniently lock up out bike. Then we entered the door and were greeted by a hallway full of old objects - carvings from churches, paintings, carpets, flags and old furniture. Just like being in a small museum.
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We went up the stairs and into the bedroom and even after the introduction to the house were astonished by its contents.
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And even the bed had a splendid head board. The room was full of interesting books including several on Rouen. 
But to our surprise there was a well-functioning bathroom with a proper shower amongst all these objets d'art. The loo contained a decorative shirt inside a frame and some old chamber pots on shelves.
On the piano was a write up about a TV program the landlord had participated in. Something to do with his ancestors having painted the library (now the breakfast room) black when Louis 16th was killed. In addition, the plates over the fireplace were turned over during the french revolution because they were decorated with fleurs de lys.
He urged us to hurry out to visit the art gallery as all the museums are closed on Tuesdays. We had meal in an upstairs restaurant in an old building opposite the new église Jeanne d'Arc in the market square.
It was a very cold evening, so we had to put on all 4 layers of clothes we had to compensate for not having brought any warm jackets. But we wandered around a bit had a look at the cathedral under spotlight.