Day 26: Rouen to Aumale

September 4, 2024

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We had passed by the Jeanne d'Arc church downtown yesterday, and noticed its bizarre modern design. It did not attract us to go in then, but a little further research did indicate that it has some cool 16th century stuff inside. Too bad for today though, since it would not open until 10. We contented ourselves with just looking at the streets as we made our way out of town. There are in fact a number of famous and beautiful streets, and we definitely had not and did not hit them all.

Near our hotel, this half timber building is a little tilty.

I took this shot because it contains a branch of the despicable CCF bank on the corner. We considered waiting until opening time for the fun of going in to shout at them.

The Rue Beauvoisine is said to be one of the oldest in Rouen. An info board mentioned house numbers and their histories.

There must be a long story for this one, on the right.

Once we were out of downtown, we began the vigil for the fields and open roads. It's the same in any big town, you search for the historic centre on the way in, and you search for the open road on the way out. We are just mentioning it here because it seemed to take a very long time to find that open space.

About 5 km from downtown, I took this shot, to illustrate the nondescript area we were passing through.

Some kms later, I took this shot. It looks much like the one before!

Perhaps a dozen km from downtown we began to see daylight. This shot, though, was mainly to note the Citroen Ami, two seater electric car. Since mentioned that we have seen few of them, we have seen lots more. Thanks, Keith Klein, for pointing out that they are by Citroen and not Renault (who have the Twizzy and the electric Zoe).

We finally did get onto some narrow, open roads.

But we hit places like St Andre sur Cailly, that were not inspiring.

The town of Cailly proper was also not much. It seemed to feature 19th century industrial age brick buildings.

We did at last get to the wide open fields, looking like this. It was by then 30 km out of Rouen.

Out by an open field, we came across a strip of flowers. It was strange to see it in the middle of nowhere - not decorating a house, and seemingly not a planting for seed. But we, and the butterflies, really appreciated it.

We are, of course, always looking at the field crops, guessing what they are, and assessing how they are doing. The one below was a mystery, until we actually walked up to it.

But yes, soy beans. We do think the white ones from the other day were not soy.

We leave the soy beans to continue drying.

Our route did not bring us many towns, and definitely no bakeries. I was hopeful, though, when we entered Ste Genevieve. But no, just a church.

Ok, a church with a slightly unique turret.

One thing, we had been seeing the word "mesnil" attached to place names quite a bit, and this meant nothing to us. So I put it to Google Translate, and it had no idea. We rolled along wondering about it, until we encountered a local couple walking in the road. We put the question to them about what does "mesnil" mean, and they assured us it meant nothing. However, they were quick to point out the Mesnil Mauger was nearby.

Well now that I am sitting with time and my big computer, I can offer this, from wiki:

"The name "Mesnil" comes from Latin: mansionilis meaning "little estate". The name "Le Mesnil-le-Roi" could be said "The King's small estate" (Francis I)."

Our attention was drawn from fine points like latin origins of French words as we realized that we had been climbing and climbing. It didn't take much intelligence to figure this out, because first of all the landscape looked like this:

And next, the bikes (Dodie's especially) were beginning to threaten to go on strike. In fact it was clear that unless we walked up all the coming hills, the bikes would die. Since my bike had a little more power and I am a little stronger anyway, we took to sending me ahead, where I would scout out the territory, and also not make Dodie nervous as she laboured to push her bike.

It was during one of my waits up ahead that I watched two baby Charolais "horsing around" in the field. They were butting heads, and chasing each other.

Here is Dodie now arriving to where the Charolais were frolicing.

As we approached Conteville, Dodie was getting really exhausted. I had been watching Google Maps, and could see that 90, then 50, then 10 meters of climbing remaining, and then 120 meters of descent, over a dozen kms, into Aumale. In short, Conteville was the top of some kind of bloody mountain! This was borne out when someone in a small truck pulled beside me and confided that this was the highest spot in the Departement. "Yeah", tell me about it!

I turned off my assist, in solidarity with Dodie, who had turned her bike totally off, for fear of causing battery damage should it hit absolute zero. We pedaled on, like in the unassisted "old days" - but with no trace of nostalgia!

We arrived eventually at our stay for the night, a place called Au Mouton Gras (the Fat Sheep). It looked like we had traveled straight back into the middle ages, to a pair of crooked, half timber houses.

The interior decor was also interesting, with the bed, for instance, surrounded by a canopy. They had called our room the "Zen Room", stocking it with some buddhas, and sayings from the Dalai Llama on the wall. Better than any of that was the fact that the room exited directly to a courtyard (i.e. ground level!) so no stairs or carrying up of bags. And the bikes rolled straight into a garage beside the room. That was all much appreciated, and Dodie has been able to collapse in the canopied, silk covered bed, like the tired princess she is!

p.s. We continue to see Buzzards every day. Here is one in flight:

Today's ride: 77 km (48 miles)
Total: 1,006 km (625 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	6

John FlecknerA long, rough day but looks like few sleeping choices around. Hoping the next legs flatten out. Maybe a rest day in Amiens. Can highly recommend World War I museum in Peronne, a day's ride beyond Amiens. Thanks for your fine reporting.
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1 month ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo John FlecknerIndeed, the choices for accommodation were few. Tomorrow is supposed to be a shorter, and hopefully easier, day to Amiens.
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1 month ago

Karen PoretAmiens! Let me know if you run into a Poret! This is my husband’s Father, Grandfather, and Great Grandfather’s birthplace! Oui! 😁
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1 month ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Karen PoretWe will be looking for any lurking "Porets" now that we know there may be some still there. Fun to have a (long distance) connection to a place.
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1 month ago

Keith KleinHi,
I noticed that your ride with gps map had you passing directly over Mont Gripon. A presage of what was to come?
Cheers
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1 month ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith KleinToo bad we didn't look more carefully before setting off. It could have saved us a lot of grief.
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1 month ago