June 22: From Mantes-La-Jolie to La Roche Guyon
Today sees the temperature reach 41 degrees, the highest ever recorded in France, apparently.
Our first visit was to a bee farm, after a stroll through the narrow streets of Mantes-la-Jolie. This little village has a distinctive Gothic collegiate church of Notre Dame, which is referred to as the little sister of Notre dame de Paris. The original church was destroyed by William the Conqueror, which indirectly triggered the rebuilding of the church around 1150. It fell into disrepair and was rebuilt by a local architect in 1850.
It has a range of beautiful stained glass windows with different designs
The bee farm was fascinating. The owner went into beekeeping to diversify from traditional agriculture and he has 400 hives spread around various farms in the district. He first set fire to a bundle of hay to use on the bees, as it has a calming influence and drives them back into the hive.
The bee box had two hives and we were protected behind mesh as the beekeeper explained various aspects of the hive.
He found the queen bee and it was a relatively new queen so he marked it with a blue pen. The queen bees are marked with different colours to indicate their age (they can live up to 5 years, lay up to 2000 eggs per day, and they have a special diet, being fed from Royal Jelly.
Then back to the ship, to recharge, eat lunch, and recover from the heat, before embarking on a visit to a cider farm. It made apple cider, alcoholic apple cider, and calvados with 52% alcohol content…this is aged in barrels. The farm was very pretty and we got to taste every variety.
While we were at the cider farm, the ship had moved to La Roche Guyon, which has expansive views of the Seine
Am expecting another record temperature day tomorrow….
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