A day off

Alençon. Andrew leaves to take the train to Paris and home. Here he is while we take a breather after a stiff climb. And then, on another day, powering up a wonderful sunken track from an abandoned village deep in the Orne valley in the Suisse Normande (ahead of me as usual..). The dreaded yellow rucksack cover peeks out in both photos.

 

The rucksack cover came in handy on a day of repeated heavy showers as we made our way to Alençon. The town seemed dead when we arrived in the late afternoon. But the next day all is changed. It's market day! The cheeses on the stall in the foreground are among the largest I've ever seen. 

I spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering the streets of this town of about 30,000. An impressive mixture of architectural styles and a compact well preserved centre. Here are the basilica of Notre Dame and the 17th century Prefecture. 

The roof of the lovely round 1801 wheat market looks modern but it is over 150 years old. 

And here is Pont Neuf over the river Sarthe from which the surrounding Department takes its name. It was across this bridge that General Leclerc and the Free French liberated Alençon in August '44.