August 4, 2014
Orbec to Honfleur: Normandy is not flat
When I was living in Minnesota, an age ago now, I used to complain that the state was mostly flat. "Not so" went the chorus. Yes, it's true there are no hills, but how can you ignore the river valleys and their awful climbs to get out? Well sir (as any true Minnesotan would say) the same may be said for Normandy, only written large, and with serious punctuation. The day began easily enough, downhill from my campsite into Orbec, turn right and continue to Lisieux. So far, so,good, only the map doesn't show the road going up and down on the sides of the valley. Nor does it show that if one takes the less travelled route (a white line on the map) one will eventually have to cross the valley (more up and down) to get to the major route (yellow on the map) and then serious climbing begons once Lisieux is reached to get back up on the plateau once again. And to add insult to injury, the bike path dumps one out into an industrial/giant store area on a really MAJOR highway (red on the map) with forty ton trucks whizzing by. I did manage to find the back road out of there and onto quiet country lanes once again, and at the price of a few more climbs I got to Blangy le Chateau by lunch. The only restaurant in town was serving a twelve euro fifty "special" which featured an all you can eat buffet for the entree and steak and fries for the main course, with apple tart as dessert. This did a lot to restore my confidence, and it tackled the remaining kilometers to Honfleur with renewed optimism.
Optimism that was poorly placed, I'm afraid, for my choice of route was the dreaded red road or a seemingly innocent white road that turned out to have a climb I couldn't negotiate with the gearing I have on my bike. I got off and pushed up for about a kilometer, which gave my calf muscles fits. The good news is that from the top of the climb, I could coast all the way to Honfleur. The folks at the tourist office were, shall we say, less than helpful in finding a campground. I was given an alphabetical listing of every hotel, b n b, and campground in the department along with a map that had NONE of the smaller roads onit. I did see a sign indicating a campground just out of town, but up a yellow road for two and a half kilometers and + 100 meters of elevation gain. Despite receiving the admiring honks of a few passing motorists, and a few thumbs up, I was still fried when I got there. They were down to the last available sites, but at least I had a place to put up the tent. And they had a bar and a restaurant, so I was content. Lots of kids running about, but I expect that in August. I talked to a nice Canadian couple who had seen me come in and were curious about cycle touring in France. Turns out they had toured on tandems with their kids in the western USA and Canada. So I told them about my trip, and about writing it up for the web, which they hadn't thought about.
Mussels and fries for dinner, more than I could eat, then off for an early night.
Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 622 km (386 miles)
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