France – Veules Les Roses (En)
Veules les Roses has barely 600 inhabitants and is in Normandy, specifically in the department of Seine-Maritime and its beach belongs to the famous Alabaster Coast, which since 2017 it has been on the list of “most beautiful towns in France”. It should also be noted that it has a unique product in the world, its oysters, which the people call “huitres veulases” and which are raised between the river and the sea, so their flavour is not as salty as sea oysters.
We stayed at Camping Seasonova (49.875801, 0.803116 lat, long) the only one in the town which is really good. With the Acsi card, we paid 20 euros per day all included. The facilities are clean and you can regulate the water temperature in the showers. The plots are big and grassy. The campsite has a heated swimming pool, playroom with tennis table, pool table, football table, etc., which we greatly enjoyed. An outside gym, petanque and basketball area. It is just 10 minutes from the beach and the town centre. We really recommend it if you come to see this beautiful town. By the way, the men can only go inside the swimming pool with speedo, so tight and short swimming suits!
First, we went to see the beach and its amazing cliffs. The tide was low so the pebbles gave way to the beach where I took a swim and spectacular photos of the cliffs. Afterwards, we went for lunch in the only restaurant that was open on the promenade where the speciality was mussels with chips. A menu for 18 euros including two jugs of wine (we had white wine), mussels and chips and dessert. I had ice cream, lemon and strawberry, this last one was delicious! and Ben had a crepe. We were lucky because we got the last free table, there was a line of people waiting for a table!
In the evening we went to see the town. The first thing we saw was the ruins of the St Nicholas Church built in the year 1095 and destroyed in the 16th century by landslides caused by the sea, being demolished in 1821. In the town everything is beautiful, the shops, the houses, absolutely everything! With the River Veules running through the town you will find beautiful mills and thousands of houses, each one more beautiful. It is the smallest river in France, it is 1149 metres.
Then we saw the St. Martin Church, which is a beautiful example of the architecture of the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century, only its square tower remains. It was closed so we couldn’t see it inside.
The next thing we found was the weaver’s factory. At the end of the 18th century, the textile industry was a dominant branch of the French economy with the arrival of cotton. Just after the factory, you will find the Convent of the Penitents, which goes back to the 17th century and in 1791 was sold as a national asset. Today only the sandstone chapel remains, built in 1662 and it has become a showroom. Just in front of the convent, you find the watercress fields, it is said that sailors, after spending several months at sea, came to these fields and ate watercress to cure anaemia and scurvy.
We returned to the campsite and on the way we saw more of the impressive houses that look like palaces, where a woman saw us taking photos of her house and we thought she was inviting us to come to see it, but we gave up because we couldn’t understand a word of what she was saying. We finished seeing the Monument to the Battle of Veules, which took place 8 days after the fall of Dunkirk, was probably the last real battle of the German offensive in 1940.
Our next stop is Étretat, known for the striking rock formations carved out of its white cliffs, which you can see in the next post!
