Garden plots in rural Vernouillet-Verneuil, France

Verneuil-sur-Seine is a commune in the Yvelines department of France, located on the left bank of the river Seine, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Paris and 26 kilometres (16 miles) north of Versailles. The neighbouring town is Vernouillet, forming a continuous agglomeration. Inhabitants are called Vernoliens.

The commune is 20-60 metres above sea level with a valley in its centre. About 55% of the commune is classified as rural. Half of the rural area has crops and the other half is a regional forest.

The average rainfall is around 650 mm (25.5 inches) per year spread over 111 days of rain on average, including 16 days of heavy rainfall – more than 10 mm (a third of an inch). Temperatures are mild, with the coldest month being January with an average temperature of 4.7°C (40.5°F) and the hottest months July and August with an average temperature of 20°C (68°F).

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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