When it rains
in Pont-Audemer.

It rains in Normandy. Denying it achieves nothing; planning around it achieves a great deal. The good news is that showers rarely last all day, and Pont-Audemer — ten minutes from the house — has enough under cover to fill an entire afternoon for twelve, even with children of different ages. Here is what actually exists, with the opening times and the caveats.

The all-in-one answer: La Fonderie

It is the simplest answer, and often the right one when nobody can agree on a plan. La Fonderie occupies a former industrial site turned indoor activity complex, gathering seven things under one roof: ten bowling lanes, 300 m² of trampolines from age seven, a soft-play area for under-twelves, plus pool tables, arcade games, electronic darts and a bar serving food all day.

The point, for a group, is precisely not having to choose: the teenagers go to the trampolines, the little ones to the soft play, everyone else to the bowling, and you all meet back at a table without moving the car.

For groups who like to think: Pont'O Secret

An escape room with a board-game café attached, in the town centre. Two one-hour rooms, two to six players: Le manoir aux poupées, the gentler one, and La disparition, billed as the harder of the two.

A piece of advice they give themselves, which you won't find anywhere else: for a family with children, La disparition is the one to pick, despite the “experienced” label. Its atmosphere is built with children in mind and the difficulty adapts, whereas the manor leans more on unease. Minimum recommended age is ten, accompanied.

With twelve of you, plan two consecutive slots since the rooms cap at six players — or send six in while the others stay in the board-game café, which needs no booking.

When nobody wants the same thing: Megaskills

Three rooms, three moods, in the same building: laser tag in a maze, a private karaoke room, and a quiz staged like a TV game show. This is the formula that settles arguments: split up for an hour, regroup afterwards.

Booking advised for individuals, required for groups — which is you, at twelve.

The animals, rain and all

A shower doesn't close a children's farm, and children are often happier there than fully under cover. Two nearby.

La Ferme Atité, at Saint-Symphorien, has a self-guided trail taking in ponies, donkeys, sheep, goats, pigs, alpacas, hens, rabbits and guinea pigs. The owners stay on hand to answer questions without following you round. Six euros a head, free under two, Tuesday to Saturday 3pm to 6pm, booking required. For anyone wanting to make a morning of it, the Petit fermier session — two hours feeding, grooming and caring for the animals — is open from age five, at €25.

Two useful details: the site is accessible to pushchairs and wheelchair users, but dogs are not allowed. If you are travelling with yours, work out who stays behind.

La farm at the Tourville agricultural college takes a more educational approach, in the wooded park of a château: Normandy breeds, a small animal house of rabbits and chinchillas, feeding and grooming included. €7.60 to €14 per person, booking required.

The free options that rescue a late afternoon

Three things everybody forgets, and none of them cost anything.

• The Musée Alfred-Canel, in Pont-Audemer — a municipal museum with a heritage library, ideal for an hour in the dry.
• The local libraries run by the district, which are happy to have passing visitors and have children's sections.
• The Ciné Pont-Audemer, a town cinema with a proper programme — the most reliable option when the rain settles in for good.

And for anyone who likes an oddity, the Cloches de Corneville are worth the few minutes' detour: a carillon made famous by a comic opera, in a place quite unlike anywhere else.

And if the rain stops at three

This is the most likely outcome, and it is worth keeping an outdoor option in reserve. Pont-Audemer calls itself the little Venice of Normandy for the arms of the Risle that run through it: the heritage trail takes an hour, umbrella in hand, and the timber-framed houses look better wet.

The Toutainville lakes, ten minutes away, can be walked round even under cloud. The sailing club and the kayaking, though, remain fair-weather activities: the waterski school opens only from 15 June to 15 September, every day from 2pm to 6pm.

In Normandy the right question isn't whether it will rain. It's how long for, and what you do in the meantime.

The plan B that involves not going out

It should be said too: with twelve people in a house with a long table, a fireplace and a proper kitchen, a wet day is not a wasted day. It is often the one people remember, because it is the only one on which nobody looked at the clock.

Which is, incidentally, a thing to look at when choosing somewhere for a group: the size of the common room counts as much as the number of bedrooms. We go into it at more length in our guide to renting a large house for twelve.