Thursday 1st September
Today was the day we actually got
going at 9 like we said we would (only took us 6 days) but that was partly
because we had a fair few miles to cover and we wanted a decent lunch
break.
The start of the ride was pretty
standard stuff with no particularly spectacular riding but some pretty countryside as we skirted around the
bottom of Rouen on route to Honfleur. We arrived in Honfleur, around 70
something miles later, at around 12 o'clock because it was actually further
away than we realised but it wasn't a massive problem.
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| Riding through some forest around the bottom of Rouen |
After a quick walk around some of
the shops, we found a restaurant for lunch next to the harbour in the sunshine.
As we were headed to the seaside, we figured it would be rude not out have
seafood so mussels and prawns were on the order for us. We had some debate
about how cheeky we could get away with being with our parking and when we got
back to the bikes, it all looked good so clearly, we got away with it!
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| Beautiful sunny day sat having seafood in Honfleur |
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| The boats in the harbour |
Out of Honfleur over the Pont de
Normandy and then it was time for the scenic route through all the
"on-Sea" towns and villages up to Berck which was the aim for the
day's ride so we got to practice our cornering skills around some sweeping bends
followed by hairpins. However, we did get some fab views of the sea when the
road brought us around that way.
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| Petrol and wine gum stop |
We hit a couple of more
major-type roads around Dieppe to cut out a couple of the towns and knock off
some miles before carrying on with our planned route.
Around 35 miles away from our
final destination, it was time for a break so we pulled up at a roadside cafe
for a drink and 10 minutes off the bike. Whilst we were stopped, a few other
people pulled up clearly there for their post-work drink including one guy who
looked about 80 who decided he was going to try and talk to us despite the fact
it was pretty obvious we didn't speak much French.
Two separate people went and
checked the plates on the bikes, verifying we had English plates on and clearly
weren't French but this did not deter the old man who I told that we spoke very
little French. He then started telling stories that I think, from what I could
work out with my limited French skills, were about his father, Germany,
England, America and potentially something else. I tried to just nod, smile and
laugh along a bit to be honest..
We arrived in Berck around 6:30
and checked into our room before grabbing some food and hitting the hay after a
long days riding. The next two days are days off for us before heading home in
Sunday and I'm looking forward to lying on the beach after being so warm in all
my kit for the last 6 days.
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| Our view for the next 2 days |
Daily miles: 229;
Total miles done: 920.
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