Day 76: Dieppe to Abbeville

June 10, 2018

We started with a quick spin around Dieppe, since it had been only me that had gone for a quick peek on foot the previous night. While we were still actually putting the bags on the bikes in front of the hotel, I figured I would have another crack at talking to a street cleaner that came by, since I was still smarting from my total failure in St. Lo on Day 68. I complemented the man on his yellow outfit and remarked that he was all set to be a cyclist in yellow, like me. His reply was not only intelligible, but witty. He said that I was all set to be a street cleaner. Dodie chimed in that cycling would be more fun, which the cleaner allowed. But he pointed out that both are outdoor activities with an exercise component. With that he gave an extra vigorous sweep with his broom, and we all had a giggle.

Dieppe's downtown is anchored by two giant churches - St. Remy and St Jacques. It's sometimes hard to say how old churches are, because they are built, burn down or are destroyed, and built again. But generally St Jacques is from the 13th century and St . Remy is from the 16th. There may be sone back story, but both churches (at least their main entrance faces) are very similar. There is a large rose window above the main entrance, four doors, and a tower to the right. The arches above the doors are Roman in one case, Gothic in the other. Both churches are in need of urgent restoration, and we could see some has already been done. There is a joint project to fund and do this work.

Between the churches there are interesting old streets, with at least one designated a walking street. So this neighbourhood could be a lot of fun to explore.

We of course are always eager to move on, and in this case that meant the small boats harbour, which is adjacent to St. Jacques church. The harbour is itself lined with interesting buildings, and together with the boats makes for a great scene. As seems to be the case with each harbour along this coast, the opening is a gap in the white cliffs, which is there because of a river. In this case, it's the Arques. Up on those cliffs we could see chapel, which added interest to the spectacle of the sheer and of course white formations.

Buildings line the small boat harbour at Dieppe.

The chapel on the cliff. See also the ferry to England. These pictures are muted because of fog!

We went down to near the ferry, just for a look at it and to muse about nipping over to England for some actual roast beef. But we instead turned the corner and began a climb up the cliff. We got to the top but somehow did not see the chapel again. Instead we started on a fairly tame ride among nice but unremarkable small villages. This is not to say that the actual ride was unremarkable. In fact there was lots to see, in our favourite categories - cows, horses, flowers, crops, and even one miscellaneous church, and oh yes - all new - a pheasant. Here they all are:

In Criel. The original pre 15th century church collapsed. This is a 19th century reconstruction.

The pleasant but unremarkable ride concluded at Le Treport. As had happened at Frecamp, we approached the town from high on the cliff, and from that position had a peek. We saw what might be a little fishing village down below, but were to find much much more. The first clue that something might be up was that there was an innovative funicular shifting people up and down the cliff. This would be very high tech and expensive for a little village! Dodie determined that the bikes were allowed into the little cars, so down we went.

Oh, there is more to this town than we thought!

Once we were in Treport we could see that it was a pretty serious and large tourist town. But it also mixed in workaday things and neighbourhoods. We had underestimated the whole thing from above.

Treport on the general vicinity of the funicular , rather workaday

Our discovery of Treport continued as we watched boats in a lock that gave access to its inner harbour. And we checked out the fish market, where there was an amazing variety of sea creatures on offer.

As if all this were not enough, we next passed into an entirely different, and wild, neighbourhood. Here, houses had painted balconies, in a variety of bright colours. It was not just one or two, it was blocks of them!

As we continued, and began to climb out of Treport, a look back showed just how large the gap in the cliffs had been and the large surface area of river bottom that Treport actually occupied. It had been a great, if whirlwind visit.

Looking at the distance to be covered to the place we had booked, all the way down in Abbeville, and the possibility of more hills, we began to look at our planned route for any shortcuts. Mainly, the bike route was to stop in at Ault and Cayeux sur Mer, and we just didn't trust these to not be down in a hole. So, breaking our rule about not riding on 900 numbered D roads, taking at look at light traffic and no trucks on Sunday, we hightailed it across on D940. (We later learned we probably had not needed to do that.)

This map shows all the places mentioned in the last half of today's episode! (Treport is in the lower left, near Ault.)

D940 brought us to St Valery sur Somme. This is on the very large bay formed where the Somme river reaches the Channel. The Somme is so infamous from WWI that even now it felt freaky to be near it. But St Valery is not about the war, which did not reach here. Rather, there is a medieval city with a church that harbours a unique tale, and again, a pleasant tourist section. The tale is that William the Conqueror, on his way to go conquer England in 1066, got stuck in St Valery due to adverse winds. He came to the chapel daily to pray for better weather. Finally he got it and went off to do his thing. In gratitude he later gave the church lots of lands in conquered England. I would have recommended using the Weather Network instead - it's cheaper.

St Martin's church in St Valery. That checkerboard pattern by the bikes was a specialty of the builder.

Any worries about hills were now behind us, as we turned to go up the Somme, to Abbeville. It was a totally flat bike path, what a relief. Abbeville is a largish town, but we soon located the key places - like the grocery store, the giant church, city hall, and of course our hotel, the Relais Vauban. The church is worth mentioning, since it is one of those with lots of carving on the front face. Inside it is cavernous, and also has a barrel vaulted wood roof:

At the hotel, Dodie began to look ahead to our route, to figure out where to book for the next night. She quickly realized that the track we had cooked up at home was taking us on 900 level D roads - an oversight, and what you get for using Google Maps. We briefly fired up Geovelo.fr, but Dodie was spooked and did not want to trust its routing. A real, detailed paper map was what she wanted - on a Sunday night?

I had guessed that our hosts - the hotel owners - might know something about bikes, just because of the confident way ours got handled. Dodie went down to ask about a map, and came back with complete maps and advice, including printed out details of the Veloroute de la Memoire. We are now cool to get to Amiens and Vimy, at least. Thanks Relais Vauban!

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 5,034 km (3,126 miles)

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