‘The cycling was a breeze’: following the Seine through Normandy

The Seine à Vélo cycle route follows minor roads to major attractions, including a medieval chateau, Monet’s garden and Rouen cathedral

“And then cannibalism ensued.”

My guide around the mighty Château Gaillard in Normandy delivered this line with commendable insouciance. To be fair, there was so much violence in his recounting of the history of Richard the Lionheart’s castle up to that point that villagers eating each other while trapped in a dry moat during a siege came as little surprise.