Saint-Valery-sur-Somme

September 6, 2024 to September 6, 2024

Before getting to today’s post, here’s an update on Rachael’s health for those who have expressed or held concerns for it. We’re behind a few days on the journal, so this is an update as of this afternoon (Sunday, Sep. 8th). She’s still congested, coughing and getting by on cold medications; but she’s steadily doing better day by day. We’re seeing reasons to be protective and limiting her activity - especially while we wait for the weather to improve - but not to get her into a clinic.

Hack, hack, hack. Drip, drip, drip. It’s still raining, she’s still draining. With 40 miles between us and our uncancellable two night booking in Saint-Valery-sur-Somme it’s an easy decision to leverage the train system one more time, for the third straight travel day . Unfortunately it’s not as convenient an option as the last two. At this end, there’s the four mile ride back to Estaples, the station we arrived at in the midst of an intense thunderstorm yesterday. At the other end, it’s a six mile ride from Noyelles-sur-Mer, the nearest station to Saint-Valery.

It’s due to rain all morning and into mid-afternoon, which cements the decision to take the train. Unless we’re going to hang around at a cafe or somewhere similar here for most of the day though it means we’re apt to have a wet four mile ride to Estaples. We do the best we can with a bad situation, watching for a break or abatement in the rain and taking it when one arrives. It will get us there an hour and a half early, but we know from experience that it’s a decent spot to pass the time while we wait.

Unfortunately we don’t quite ace the planning part, and later Rachael reminds me that we should always, always, always create and load a GPS route even for short rides like this. I didn’t do that in this case, thinking that it wasn’t needed because we just rode these four miles yesterday. It’s an easy shot on a bike route most of the way, so we’ll just use the phone to navigate.

A few miles later we’ll both regret this decision when I realize my phone hasn’t spoken to me for a while and then it suddenly alerts me that the GPS signal has been lost. By this time we’re a mile off course and uncertain exactly where we are until Rachael remembers she still has the previous track loaded that we can follow in reverse. Which is good of course, but unfortunately now our four miles has become six - in the rain.

The train ride is fine and uneventful, but that reminds me that I was worried because I wasn’t positive that bikes were allowed on this train since it’s a different classification than the train we took yesterday. There are four classifications in the Haute-de-France network, color-coded differently on Google Maps: Proxi (green), Citi (purple), Krono (magenta), and Krono+GV (red). The one we took yesterday is a green line and this one is magenta, and it took some study to convince myself that bikes were allowed - the system’s website could be clearer on this. I wasn’t completely sure though until I was at the station and the agent agreed that bikes were OK on the train I requested tickets for. So that was a huge relief, and reminds me that my uncertainty went into our decision about which departure to take. With the early one we selected if we got rebuffed there’d still be time in the day to bike instead as a fallback plan.

A picture is worth many words. Here are departures from the Estaples station. Green, purple and magenta are in for bikes (no reservation required), but red is out. On the Haute-de-France network anyway.

The train ride was fine, meeting or exceeding expectations. Easy to roll off and on, and this train didn’t have hangers which today was good because there was no expectation that we’d need to take the panniers off and hang the bikes. We might not have liked the situation as much if there were other bikes on board with us. And it was nice that this class is a semi-express train with relatively few stops.

A little awkward, but it was only for a half hour. No complaints.

At the other end we’re really in luck. Rains were not predicted to cease for another two hours, but when we arrive there’s a slight clearing and we decide to go for it - it looks like the rain must have just ended about when we arrived. And it really has ended for the day and we have an uneventful six mile ride to Saint-Valery, arriving in time to stop at the grocery store when we arrive and then still find a waterfront restaurant serving lunch. We need to stop at the store on the way into town because it’s too far from our apartment to walk back to; and Rachael has to discipline herself to rushing through and limiting her selections because we don’t have much carrying capacity and we don’t want to be late for lunch. A shame, because lingering in front of the displays in a grocery store is first class entertainment for Rachael.

Uneventful that is except for a bird that walked across the bike path just in front of me: a stock dove, a species I haven’t seen yet but have had my eye out for. It’s too quick for a photo but I know my stock doves and have no doubt. New bird!

#279: Stock dove (downloaded from the web).

We’re staying in Saint-Valery for two nights, in a ground floor apartment with a door that opens off the sidewalk right into the living room. It’s a little like living in a fishbowl unless we keep the curtains closed, but it’s great for getting your bike in and out the door.

Rachael is settled in nursing her health for the rest of the day of course, but this afternoon might be my best chance for getting out so later in the afternoon I hop on the bike and ride out to Le Hoursel, the small harbor at the mouth of the bay. There’s a lot to say about Somme Bay/Baie de Somme, another of the Grand Sites of France; and I wish we were here under somewhat different circumstances to get a better look at it - particularly awesome would be to be here at low tide and walk completely across the broad mouth of the bay with a guide, as Susan Carpenter once did. Instead I’ll just show you a few photos from tonight’s ride and call it good, because it was.

I was hoping there’d still be sunflowers around when we got to France.

I’m out here largely for the birds, but it’s a great spot for boat watching too.

Two greater black-backed gulls, one mollusc.

I’m not seeing anything new or much diversity here, but cormorants are always interesting.

Looking across the broad mouth of the bay to Crotoy, the village on the opposite bank from Saint-Valery.

A remnant from the Second World War. From an information board: “During the second world war, the German authorities invaded the Picardy coastline with a view to landing in England.In 1943, a base was established in Le Hourdel and General Erwin Rommel, responsible for defending the Atlantic Wall along the North-Western coast, transformed the beach to a vast building site: mine fields, construction of bunkers, booby traps etc.In August 1944, following the landing of the allied forces in Normandy, the German troops received the order to withdraw. Before leaving, they took the time to blow up the lighthouses, destroy all their equipment and infrastructure as well as the hamlet of Le Hourdel”.

South of Le Hourdel is this trail that follows the dunes for about two miles, barricaded from motor vehicles. Very nice.

Google Lens thinks this is Saponaria officinalis (soapwort). Agree?

The view west toward the English Channel.

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Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 3,751 miles (6,037 km)

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