This, the second posting of my 2023 European cycling tour, takes me across the Aisne and Oise regions of north-eastern France along their excellent network of bicycle paths and then along the Normandy coast to catch a ferry to England at Cherbourg.
Day 6: Tuesday 16 May 2023. Reims to Mainville |115 km|
I dithered about in the morning – it was another bitterly cold* windy day, and it was kinda cosy in that PRIM hotel room – I was getting my head together really, but convincing myself I had to wait until 10:00 am for the FNAC department store in the centre of Reims to open at 10:00 am so that I could buy a new SD card reader to upload my camera shots. My new Windows Surface laptop only has USBc ports and my old card reader couldn’t connect. *Disclosure: “Bitterly cold” for me is anything less than about 9⁰C.
The FNAC store is inside the city’s main shopping mall and the security guard came running at me when I guess he saw me on his CCTV wheeling the bike into the mall. He didn’t offer to keep an eye on it for me while I dashed into FNAC – oh nooo… just told me no bikes allowed and I had to take it straight back out again. I tried with the crying-face routine but it didn’t work, so I took it away but only out of sight as far as the pedestrian access to the mall’s underground carpark. There I spotted an ideal out-of-the-way alcove in a blind spot right next to his security kiosk window where I could chain it to a railing. So I took a chance and tethered it there while I quickly went and got the card-reader. The bike was unmolested when I got back after 10 minutes, so that was a relief. This is one of the things you have to think about when you’re travelling alone – keeping a watch over all your stuff. A first-world problem to be sure (ie. inconsequential in the scheme of things), but nevertheless an important consideration for me.
I’d uploaded 3 or 4 days’ worth of routing right across north-eastern France onto the bike’s GPS in the luxury of my hotel room last night, and I’d like to say that for once Ziggy didn’t let me down. But he did, and I soon left off trying to stick to it and just used Google Maps on the iPhone to help me pick a likely route. It worked out quite well actually.
Once I got clear of Reims the going became quite hilly. I passed through kilometer-upon-kilometer of vineyards in the Aisne Valley – not the main part of the Champagne grape growing area by any means, which seems to be more to the south and east of Reims, but I guess they’re cashing-in on the famous appellation by extending the growing area in all directions. A lot of the vineyards looked pretty recent cultivations to me. The names of the couple of wineries I passed meant nothing to me but I got the impression most of the vineyards along here sell to the bigger more famous houses further away. It was too early in the season to see any bustling transportation of grapes to-and-fro, but the infrastructure was definitely there for it.
I did a ‘just-in-case’ charge top-up from 60 to 85% at McDonald’s in the town of Fismes (such was my down-beat mood and lack of chutzpa this morning, I only did about 40 km before finding an excuse to stop), and then promptly drained the batteries again and only just made it to a campground called Camping La Halte de Mainville. And you know what? I can hardly remember a thing about it, except that the caretaker guy was busy caulking the swimming pool in preparation for the coming season. (It’s slowly coming back to me).
Day 7: Wednesday 17 May 2023. Mainville to Beauvais |110 km|
My mood perked up today. It was overcast but at least it was flat and there was no wind. Lots of cycle paths too today (about 50/50 path and road) and some pleasant scenery, especially in and around the towns of Choisy-au-Bac to Compiègne.
There was a big crowd in Compiègne waiting for the start of a stage of the “4-days of Dunkeque” cycling race, and I squeezed through just as the teams were being presented on the podium. I never realised what such a huge production these classic bike races entail, even this relatively obscure one: besides the crowd there was a huge convoy of buses and support vehicles readying to follow the racers and at least a hundred police on hand to keep things in order.
And hey, no need to stop and charge up in the middle of the day today either! That’s the pay-off for me doing 35% of the work instead of 28% like yesterday, in turn a function of only 380 m of climbing instead of 970 m – and NO WIND.
I couldn’t find a campground near Beauvais when my batteries started to run out, so rather than risk moving on further so late in the afternoon with little power reserve I checked into the cheap(ish) Hostellerie Saint Vincent on a whim. Now, some 5 weeks later, little memory of it survives: I can’t glean much information from my notes either. Hope I’m not losing my mind.
Day 8: Thursday 18 May 2023. Beauvais to Pont de l’Arche|95 km|
The route this day comprised the Trans Aisne and Trans’Oise greenways 45%; B roads 45% and 10% rough track through a forest.
I was on the Trans’Oise , the network of bicycle paths right across the Oise region. After 70 kilometers or so I came to the Seine River at its junction with the River Andelle, where it spreads out into some lakes replete with islands, beaches and parklands. It looked like the day trippers from Paris were out in full force enjoying the mild, sunny and windless conditions – boating, picnics, playgrounds, ice-cream vans, BBQs or just lounging on the beach, you name it.
And I never realised that the Seine is such a major industrial artery this far inland – not quite on the scale of the Rhine perhaps, but there was still the odd commercial barge plying its trade.
I could have gone much further for the day, the going was so easy and interesting, but the town of Pont de l’Arche drew me in and I decided to stop there because of the great little municipal campground called Camp Eure alongside the River Eure and right in the middle of town. The caretaker, Stefan, was really helpful and friendly and only charged me €5 (yes, that’s right – five euro!) for a really great pitch with a picnic table and shade cover, and he helped me with some tools to look at the kickstand problem and even loaned me a pressure-hose kit to wash down the bike.
An extensive “Bricante” (‘car boot’) was in progress all over town. That was interesting – A stall-owner even gave me a bolt for my kickstand and I got something to eat from one of the food stalls.
Day 9: Friday 19 May 2023. Pont de l’Arche to Blonville-sur-mer|102 km|
A delightful day’s ride. First, continuing on the brilliant Paris-London cycleway for 15 more kilometres with lots of cycling traffic in both directions – including obvious through-cyclists like me, either with all the touring gear or minimalist bike-packing – then a really steep and long climb up out of the Seine valley and along a tough forest section for 8 km before settling on to both busy and quiet B and D roads for most of the rest.
At 10:30 I had a second breakfast and stocked up on pastries, bread (baguette) and dried sausage (saucisson) at a boulangerie in Boissey-le-Châtel. That was after my first breakfast of flan and pain au raisons and a salad roll at the boulangerie in Pont de l”Arche. Sure do get hungry on these trips.
Once again, for the third day in a row, I hadn’t found it necessary to charge up during the middle of the day. But a consequence this time though, was that the batteries were running down by the time I arrived at the coast and so I figured it prudent to stop at the first campground I came to without investigating others further along (and I did pass several much better looking ones not far along the coast the next day).
Camping sur la Plage , where I did stop, is mainly geared towards campervans and their own on-site ‘holiday cottages’, and the rest of us – us tenters – only get in under suffrance it seems. I was jammed into a corner pitch next to a large family group way out in Siberia miles away from any facilities and the restaurant/ bar area. It wasn’t expensive – €15 – but the people running it were rude and unfriendly.
The on-site “restaurant” was total crap. For the last 200 km I’d been slathering over the happy thought of splurging on mussels in white-wine sauce (moules meuniere) as soon as I hit the Normandy Coast, but the camp’s €17.50 offering was pretty bloody awful and effectively deflated that dream. It’s all in the broth, you see, and their’s was bland – not a patch on the delicious bowl I had in Brittany in 2018 for €10 that I’d been dreaming of. (See last photo in Post #50)
I did have some convivial discussion with a pair of Spanish dentists on a cycling holiday while having a beer and watching the boules players outside on the terrace at least.
Day 10: Saturday 20 May 2023. Blonville-sur-mer to Grandcamp-Maisy |122 km|
This day’s ride was supposed to be all along the ‘Velo Maritime’ (aka. ‘Eurovelo 4’) – and it was too for much of the way – but there was also 50-odd km of busy B road to contend with. There are still some sections of EV 4 that apparently are not completed yet.
Once I got to Ouistreham, after about 35 km of cycling for the day, I was well onto the Normandy Beaches tourist trail where all things to do with the allied invasion of France on D-Day, June 6 1944 are celebrated. There are still bus-loads of mainly American and Canadian tourists coming here, and everything is geared to luring them in, with lots of US and Canadian bunting flying about everywhere. English not so much. Saw more German flags in fact, which is fair enough I suppose since without the German participation there’d be nothing to celebrate.
While it’s still immensely sad to think of the many thousands killed here so recently where we’re all trampling over, the remembrance trail is done quite respectfully and with genuine gratitude on the part of the French, I thought, and serves as a reminder to avoid future wars. There was no malice shown towards the then-enemy either, and the German flag even makes an occasional appearance.
Ol’ eagle-eyes me spotted a free public charging-post in the town of Asnelles that I took advantage of from 2 to 3:30 pm that gave me the ‘legs’ to push on quite a bit further. It looked like a new RV parking-lot they’re building to entice the coveted campervan tourists to stay awhile and I took a photo of it from back on the road that I was roaring past on, just to how you how brilliant I am at noticing these life-enhancing features:
I did another 80 km after that charge-up but then got all twitchy again when I couldn’t find a campsite that would have me. The wind had picked up too into a searing head-wind: my legs felt leaden and I could feel the batteries draining.
On reflection, Ouistreham or it’s beach of Courseulles would have been good places to stay instead, but regular campgrounds are few and far between for us ordinary tent-dwelling micobes: I’d already been turned away by 2 campsites today and another 2 that showed up on google maps didn’t even exist, so I jumped at GCU Grand Camp-Maisy when I came to it. At $13.39 for the pitch with electricity it was ok.
The local beer, fancy bottle and all, was good too.
Day 11: Sunday 21 May 2023. Grandcamp-Maisy to Cherbourg |89 km|
The going was on quiet inland Sunday roads all the way; a bit hilly and still a bit windy from yesterday, but basically an easy ride on into Cherbourg.
That last unexpected short section of forest greenery marked almost the end of my cycling in France for now.
I checked in at the Brittany Ferries ticketing office on the quay and discovered they had a ferry leaving for Poole in England at 18:15 h, so without further ado I bought a ticket for €89 and hung around, first in queue, for 7-hours to board for the 4½-hour trip. It was ok waiting, chatting away to newcomers as they arrived throughout the day – a couple of bikers, plus an 88-year-old Welsh guy and his wife who were doing their annual tour in the tiny 1980s vintage campervan – so lively and lovely to talk to. Almost last to arrive was a large group of cyclists in matching lycra returning home to the UK after 3 days cycling in Normandy . I’d been the only bicycle passenger up till then.
With the one hour time difference between France and the UK, I emerged onto Poole dockside at 10:000 pm just as darkness was falling.
I’d already booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Poole using the ship’s WiFi, but it took me ages to actually find the place as I didn’t quite grasp that the GPS was trying to indicate having to go either up or down a level at a couple of the interchanges.
I was too late for dinner anywhere in Poole so had to settle for a couple of chocolates from the lobby’s snack vending machine, but I thought the Holiday Inn was excellent value overall for £86 (at least, until I did the mental conversion back into Aussi $). Very helpful night manager – secured the bike in a meeting room just off the lobby, and gave me a room almost next door to make it easier for me to-and-froing with the luggage and the batteries.
All-in-all, a very favourable first impression from my first night in the UK, that augured well for the next month-and-a-half I planned on being here.
-ends-
Europe 2023 so far:
End of Day 12 1,150 km
9 nights in tent
3 nights in hotel
bike kickstand broke, repaired at no cost.
This post was composed over 29 June – 2 July, 2033, using Dundee Packpackers’ crappy WiFi and first made public on 2 July 2023.