Circular route along the Seine opposite Caudebec-en-Caux

There’s a small car park at the end of the D40 in Saint-Nicolas-de-Bliquetuit, next to the landing slipway of the old Caudebec ferry, which was scuttled in 1940 as the Germans advanced. The Seine is right there – you can almost touch it!

(S/E) From the car park at the old Caudebec ferry landing stage, follow the old towpath to the left, heading west for about 250 metres.

(1) Leave the return path on your left and continue along the Seine downstream on the left bank.

(2) When you reach an old barn, opposite Villequier, leave the banks of the Seine and turn left onto the Chemin de Villequier heading south-east. In the large meadows on the right in the Angle marshes, we saw around forty storks flying and feeding.

(3) At the junction just past the first houses, carry on straight ahead. Cross the Route des Chaumières, then the Route de Caudebec. Walk past the farm buildings of Ferme Féron and continue to the edge of the forest, leaving Vatteville-la-Rue on your right.

(4) Turn left and follow the path along the edge of the woodland, which smells of hazelnuts.

(5) After about 600 m, turn left onto the path leading towards some houses; further on, it becomes tarmac-surfaced and is absolutely charming.

(6) At the crossroads, turn 90° to the right and carry on straight on until you reach the D40.

(7) Turn left onto the D40 and follow it carefullyfor about sixty metres, then turn left onto the Route des Maraîchers. Keep left at the first junction, then head due north. Cross the D65 carefully to the left of the first houses in Saint-Nicoles-de-Bliquetuit, and continue to the first three-way junction. 

(8) Turn slightly to the right and continue north for a good kilometre to reach the towpath along the banks of the Seine.

(1) Turn right to reach the car park very close to where you started (S/E). 

There are no drinking fountains along this very rural route. You’ll see houses and signs of life, but no shops!

Please respect the surroundings at (S/E), a lovely car park on the banks of the Seine. 

Until the end of summer 2024, there is an extraordinary exhibition in Caudebec-en-Caux on the banks of the Seine: the exodus of 1940 and the town’s ordeal, as a ferry crossing point that was overwhelmed and overrun.
At point (2), you’ll find yourself opposite Villequier, close to the spot where Léopoldine, Victor Hugo’s daughter, and her husband Charles Vaquerie drowned in the Seine. ‘The grass must grow and children must die…’. The Maison Vaquerie is, incidentally, a moving Victor Hugo Museum well worth a visit.