Fecamp to Honfleur: Rather further than we anticipated

August 4, 2013

Fecamp had a fete for 4 days so when we emerged to have a look around things were extremely lively. All sorts of junk was being sold mixed in with olives, dried sausage and lovely looking cheeses. We bought some cheese for our lunch today, some ripe peaches and Ken got a pair of shorts with a pocket in them (the ones he had brought from home had no pockets. ) We could have tried to catch plastic ducks and win a fluffy toy but were rather big for the rides. The massive barbeque of whole hams smelt delicious. A huge stage had been set up and a continuous concert was in progress with the sort of music that could only be French. We stopped for dinner at a crepery and both had galettes washed down with local cider. They were good and this was confirmed when an earnest looking women came in intently studying a Lonely Planet Guide of France.

Our usual breakfast in the room of juice, muesli and fruit. Luckily we woke up early as I had quite a bit to do. Michael Cooper’s article about our Dolcetto has meant a flurry of activity. I receive the orders then email them to Pete who sends them off, rather more than he bargained for. Today we hoped to get as far as La Havre and even perhaps on to Honfleur. We got a good start in order to beat the wind. Being at a little port it was a stiff climb up a long and fairly steep hill. We have loved the little seaside places at the bases of the cliffs but the climbs back out of them have become a bit much for me in particular. The decision today was therefore to take a more inland route, I had not noticed that the map still had plenty of arrows on it . It was a lumpy trip as far as La Havre with a pleasant coffee stop at Les Loges. Another huge fete there, this time to raise money for the local Pompiers. I did disgrace myself at one point when one of my shoe laces came undone, got caught in the pedal and I ended sprawled out squashing the farmers nearly ripe wheat. A car pulled up and the nice lady in the pink dress tried to rescue me and was somewhat surprised to find the problem was just a shoelace. Ken has now decided that as I am incapable of tying shoe laces he will need to do it for me.

We arrived at the Plage in La Havre shortly after midday so decided that we would push on. The size of all the waterfront activity astounded me. Firstly the Plage went on for ages and ages with all sorts of restaurants, entertainment etc. Then came the ports. It is an absolutely enormous port. We did have some idea of how to reach the Pont de Normandy and this was confirmed when we were told to head for Port 2000 and then we would find it. It is very important that you approach it in this way as the major routes involve a bridge where cycling is not allowed. It was a surprisingly long ride. At the entrance of the bridge was a café and I had a fanta (yes it was a 2 fanta day). The bridge completed in 1995 is a magnificent engineering feat with elegant curves spanning the Sienne. It is far too steep for people like me on touring bikes to ride so it meant a long push to the top then an exhilarating ride down which felt completely safe on the rather narrow cycle way.

Over the bridge was where we had our problems when we got lost in a rubbish dump and seemed completely unable to find our way out of it. However after lifting our bikes over barriers we found there is more to Honfleur than a huge rubbish dump. I have always wanted to visit Honfleur after I bought a tin tray showing an old poster advertising train trips to Normandy and showing the wooden church tower. Well here we are and we have a view out our window of the church tower. St Catherine’s was built in the 16th century and is made of wood which is very unusual. This gives it a much less pompous feel than the huge stone churches, I loved it and was surprised by the amount of colour inside. The tower is completely separate and across the street from the church. Today these streets are jammed packed with an antique fair similar to the one we came across in Grien a few years ago

A bit better day's cycling for me today even though it was a ‘2 fanta day’. Perhaps I will get fitter.