After leaving Rouen, I drove down some lovely roads, until I had to stop in this place called La Haye-du-Theil. There were so many gorgeous little houses along the road that I saw a parking area and stopped to take a couple of photos. I think you'll agree that it was worth it...!

After my brief stop, I was off to Château du Champ de Bataille.

It was a bit before lunchtime when I got there and I had thought of getting something to eat, assuming there was a cafe there or something there. However, it turned out that there was a cafe, but it was a really fancy Michelin-starred one that loads of French people were making a point to go to (rather than just happening upon it like me). I was also not dressed appropriately...

The whole "fancy cafe" should have given it away, but I thought I would get tickets to the chateau and the garden. When the lady at the desk told me the price, however, I quickly changed my mind. 30€ to go to both! I decided that I'd rather just look around the gardens for half the price (travelling on a budget here!). The lady couldn't speak any English, and my French is so bad that it was quite a job to tell her I'd changed my mind and just wanted to go to the gardens. But we got there in the end.

The gardens were, however, totally lovely.

After my visit to Château du Champ de Bataille, I drove over to the coast, about 140km away. Again, I drove through some beautiful places, but mostly forests this time. I was starting to get a bit of a headache - I think the stress of coming to France was getting to me. I got to my destination of Étretat about 4pm. Then it was a matter of finding accommodation. I tried the local campsite but it was heaving with people, so I drove to another one. This was a fancy 4 star campsite (all sites are rated in France, but it's not always how good they are, more about the facilities they offer much like hotels). However, it turned out that they had a boom gate that didn't open until 8am - not ideal for someone who wanted to go and see the sunrise at Étretat. They called another camp site nearby for me and confirmed they had vacancies and no gate so I drove on.

The site she sent me to was in a place called Yport. I didn't know anything about it and just drove into the site. On the way to the site office though, I was greeted with one of the most amazing views - white cliffs shining in the sunset and blue ocean far below. It was gorgeous. By that time, however, my little headache was starting to turn more serious, so I got myself booked in, drove to my campsite and set about trying to feel better.

Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than being sick when you're alone in a campsite. The toilet block was quite far away and down a very steep hill, so it wasn't very accessible. I went and had a shower though, then a little bit of dinner, tried to sleep for a bit, but nothing worked: I was suffering a full-on migraine. The food I ate wouldn't stay down, I couldn't make it to the bathrooms so just had to be sick outside my camper. I felt really bad for the people on either side, hoping they couldn't hear me but, on the other hand, I was kind of dying so I didn't care that much. I just pulled out the bed, curled into a ball and hoped it would go away. There was nothing else I could do.

I had set my alarm for early the next morning, but when I woke up it was a miserable day. Thankfully the migraine was gone, and I ate some food to give me some energy, then drove off. I will always remember that campsite as the place where I spent the worst night of the whole trip.

Campsite: Le Rivage

Large campsite with incredible views, close to the lovely town of Yport but no good for anyone with mobility issues due to steep walkways.

Rating: 7/10