Normandy

Day One

While I was feeling really excited to kick off the first leg of my journey to reach the white cliffs of Etretat, I restrained myself and decided to have a quick look around Rouen before I parted. Not wanting to spend too much time exploring I just followed my GPS to the centre and back. My ride there went through a rather depressing and run-down environment. The houses were dilapidated, all the sidewalks were covered in asphalt, a trend that I unfortunately see more and more around Europe, and, in a lot of streets, this asphalt was a ragtag of short term fixes, forming a patchwork of different coloured path all different heights. This changed drastically as soon as I entered the historical part of town. 

Here, the pavement was made of nice, albeit annoying to ride in, cobblestone and almost all the houses were in pristine condition. It really had a French picturesque vibe to it, which made it quite pleasant to explore. The highlight for me was the Church of St Joan of Arc. The shape of this church's roof was very captivating, curving around itself to, according to the Wikipedia, evoke the fire that consumed Joan de Arc's body on that same plaza. To me, it looks more like a very cool looking witch's hat, something out of the anime "Witch's hat atelier", which I like better. When I passed by the church it was closed. Now seeing pictures of the interior online that was quite a pity as the contrast of the classical stained windows and the modernist architecture seems to be quite striking.

Exiting the city proper was pleasant. It was rather flat and it had a lot of bicycle paths, making it a good spot to practice riding my bicycle - something I really needed to do. This quickly changed when I finally encountered the pretty hills that surrounded Rouen. I tried to cycle up them, but it quickly became to steep for me. So, I hopped off and start pushing.

This was nice push workout, perfect to really wake me up. But then, the street morphed into a path, getting more and more rugged, more and more vertical, until I couldn't push my bicycle up it anymore. After struggling a little bit I decided it was best to take my bags of my bicycle and carry each of them separately up the path. Fortunately a nice asphalted road was not far off, where I could continue my effort leaving the valley of Rouen.

The next 70km of this adventure passed in a blur as it was rather easy cycling and the landscape didn't offer many tributes to my memory. The only landmarks that stick out to me are these three you can see below. The first hint of the white cliffs I was chasing after. A monument to a crashed aircraft and its occupants. And, a very cool shaped water tower. Soon after I reached the water tower I really started to feel exhausted, but although I still had 20km to go I really wanted to camp by the sea, so after a long break I pushed onwards.

On my way to Etretat I passed by a little village called Benouville. It was next to the sea and rather close to Etretat, so I suspected I would be able to find what I was looking for here without having to continue cycling further. Soon enough I found a path to the white cliffs and, having a feeling I was going to stay the night there, I want to find someone to say "Pourriez vous remplir ma bouteille s'il vous plaît" to - something I was already a veteran at this point. 

I quickly found a nice lady, that lived next to the path to the cliffs, working on her garden and she happily complied with my requested. We traded some words in French and she mentioned the existence of a resting place for cyclists nearby. After I told I was first going to follow the path she seemed visibly not pleased. I didn't really understand why, and in this case, not because of my bad comprehension of the language but because her total lack of an explanation. So, I decided to ignore her concern.

I was, and still am, very happy that I did so. After passing some friendly cows I reached a place that was truly awe inducing. I could try to describe it in words, but that would be hard, so I would advise you to just look at the pictures below.

I decided this would be the place to stay - I couldn't pass the opportunity to spend the night in such a location. I found a spot somewhat shielded from the wind and set up camp. It was slightly uncomfortable to me when people passed by, I supposed that people were judging me negatively for camp there. This intensified when a couple of guys came to see the sunset where I was set up. It was a little awkward at first, but soon enough we stroke a little conversation where I explained the trip I was doing, and they were very enthusiastic about it, which was comforting.

Day Two

I didn't have the best night of sleep of my life. I would go as far as saying that it was on my top 200 worst nights of sleep. Which doesn't seem that bad, until you get to know that I am almost 10 thousand days old - crazy stuff. This resulted from three things: I was simply not that used to sleep in a tent, I was sleeping next to a cliffside and my sleeping mat decided to spontaneously disinflate in the middle of the night. Terrible. One more concern for my trip. Regardless, I was still excited to finally get to what was supposed to be the final destination of the previous day - Etretat.

On the way there I passed by rest spot for cyclist the nice lady of yesterday pointed out to me. It was surprisingly nice: it had a very clean toilet, some tables and benches, a water tap and some plugs for electrical bicycles, that I used to fill up my batteries. More places should have this kind of facilities for bicycles, specially along an eurovelo routes, which from this point onwards I was going to very loosely follow.

Although Etretat provided a similar kind of landscape as the one I just camped in, it was either way incredible. Wanting a photo of me with my bicycle there, I accidentally found a couple from Gent that were visiting the area - resulting in the second photo below. Part of me just wanted to stay there as long as possible to bask in the sun, go swim and enjoy the view; but at the same I knew that if I wanted to get to La Havre and eat lunch there as planned I should get going as fast as possible, before the sun rose to his highest, most dangerous place. 

I decided to quickly hike up one of the cliffs and not wanting to leave my bicycle completely behind with no one keeping an eye on it I tried my luck with a woman of an ice cream shop. She didn't seem very pleased with my request and complained a lot about it, I think something about she coulnd't anything if someone did anything to my bicycle, which I find peculiar, I just needed a little scream to scare of those people, but I am not sure, because I didn't really understand anything she said. Either way, this provided a slight bit of comfort to scoot over to the cliff. The view that I found was the view you can see on the third photo.

So after running up and down the cliff - powered by the fear of something stealing my bicycle or bags in broad daylight, I decided to get on to La Havre, having to know cycle up these cliffs. I would soon enough know to regret this decision.

Climbing this hill was hard, way harder than I expected. The lack of sleep and training was really getting to me and although it was not that warm that day, the constant direct sun in my head felt really harsh. The problem was that now there was no decent spot to stop as between Etretat and La Havre it was all suburbs and fields, so I just had to soldier on.

But I couldn't soldier on anymore, I was exhausted and so, so hot (and not in the positive sexy way). So, feeling desperate I found a little shade in a field that was provided by a couple of trees and decided to rest there. It was really not such a good resting spot, I had no good place to sit and the shade was really not ideal. Still, I spend here almost an hour just chilling, watching some videos, eating some food and drinking a lot of water. I was really regretting not having stayed in Etretat and had lunch there. Then, I noticed a novel problem, the battery of my phone and powerbank were almost dead. This together with my increasing levels of hunger provided the push I needed to get on my bicycle again.

I don't remember much of what happened next. And because I had barely any electronic juice left I was not able to take any photos to refresh my memory. I remember very faintly reaching a viewpoint to La Havre and being relieved it was already in sight, specially I saw that the rest of the way was mainly downhill. Just when I arrived in the city my phone died, and now not having any way to navigate to the very nice looking poke bowl restaurant I scouted beforehand on Google Maps I settled on a hamburger place I found.

The staff seemed a little grumpy about me being there, I don't know if it was because I didn't speak French or because I looked every so slightly like a hobo. Regardless, the food was pretty bomb and I manage to juice up my batteries a little bit there. 

Feeling so not ready to proceed on my journey I went to a nearby public library (Oscar Niemeyer Library) to rest some more and continue juicing up my phone and powerbank. This library was really nice, a nice little white modernist building, with a lot of windows to boot, but it was a sauna inside. And look, I am all in favour of not using air conditioning in buildings, but for that please build buildings that are good against the heat. Architects please don't make a wall full of windows with no curtains. Engineers, create a lot of natural ventilation in the building and maybe put a lot of trees around it. And politicians, maybe consider that if all the public spaces are hot as hell in the summer people will just start using more and more air conditioning at home, which will be way worse for the energy grid and climate, and the ones unfortunate enough to not have a home or the money to have AC will just have a heat stroke. I was the second, kind of.

Well, I don't know if it was really a heat stroke, probably not a full on one. But I started feeling unnaturally hot (and again not in the nice sexy way) and incredibly thirsty. I was a dazed - my thoughts were covered thoroughly in mud, making it harder to decided on what to do. This was probably caused by the combination of the physical exhaustion, the direct sun, the big meal I ate and the hotness of the Library. I left all the things I needed to be charged inside and found a relatively fresh spot just outside the library that was also shielded from the deadly rays of the sun. 

I spent here around two hours in a semi-vegetative state, slowly bringing my temperature down. Going frequently to the bathroom to fill again my water bottle and wet a little my clothes. Here I fully regretted my decision to leave Etretat so soon, wishing I was able to go back in time and change my ways. Eventually I started feeling better, but still felt very hot. I decided I should try my luck and go to the nearby beach and have refreshing dip. This turned out to be a good decision as I felt so much better afterwards, and more or less ready to start working to my next goal, reaching Honfleur.

Before leaving La Havre I decided to quickly check out the Saint Joseph's Church, I am very pleased that I did. Although the outside of the church was far from being impressive the inside really stroke a chord with me. It combines bare concrete walls with extremely colourful stained-glass that shone spotlights everywhere. The simpleness of the materials used here really was effective to highlight this effect, and also put focus on the scale of the building, specially of the huge central tower. Definitely one of the most impressive and striking churches I visited.

Ah! And La Havre was unexpectedly a really pleasant city to be in. A lot of pedestrian areas, big open spaces and a lot of bicycle paths. It felt also very lived in, a lot of people just going around and doing their stuff.

To reach Honfleur I needed to pass through the gigantic La Havre seaport, which would make for an unexpected nice change of scenery that I sorely needed - after the greats swaths of monocultural fields I have been cycling through. But before that I passed by a shopping mall that had an action and a decathlon, which was perfect because I was able to buy a much-needed extra powerbank and some extra repair supplies for my bicycle I forgot to bring.

While researching online for this route I heard that the Normandy bridge, the bridge that crosses the river Senne, is one of the most dangerous parts of the eurovelo network. Its part of a highway where many trucks, coming from the port, speed along right next to you. The intended bike path is just a berm with zero protection from the car traffic unless you count a white line as protection. I, of course, feeling not suicidal this day decided to take the pedestrian path, right next to it. Although not being ideal, it had at least little more distance between me and the cars and a small little curb (not that I think it would provide much protection against a truck going 90km/h).

I was part lucky and unlucky for this crossing. I was worried about the possibility of it being really windy, but actually encountered very little resistance from the gods. My mate Fūjin and my buddy Notus were probably still hangover from one of their legendary parties. But, my bro Tláloc decided to take inspiration from non other than Judas himself and decided to backstab me. So it suddenly started to downpour.

This was one of the care cases I actually came prepared - I had a rain jacket with me! Thus, I put this jack on and started tackling the bridge. It started fine, the fact that there were vehicles zooming past me was not so comfortable but okay. But at the halfway point, this started to get to me. The rain was also getting more and more intense, which was not helping with my morale. And then I started to go down. The rain and the cars combined with descending a quite steep bridge was nothing short of terrifying. Fortunately, it didn't last long, and soon enough I was off that stupid thing.

And then I noticed I forgot to put my sleeping bag in a safe spot, protected from the rain. It was completely drenched...  This meant I was almost for sure not camping tonight, as I did want to have a decent night sleep. Still pouring hard, I reached Honfleur and took way too long deciding on a restaurant, finally settling on a pizza place. I started looking for a place to stay a night and was dismayed to see the cheapest option was 70 euros a night, way higher what I was normally willing to pay. But, my choices being that or a terrible night of sleep, I decided it was worth the cost.

The hotel looked like something that should be max 30 euros a night. I reminded me of those motels that you often see in movies. Regardless, it was comfy enough and it provided me a much needed good night of sleep.

Day Three

Feeling refreshed, I went to explore Honfleur. I quickly realized that this is one of those small little rustic village that look beautiful in postcards but in reality are a car infested tourist hotspot that was not so pleasant to be in. It had some pretty buildings, but felt rather underwhelming, nothing to write home about.

On my way out of Honfleur, I passed by a garden that had statues of famous people, including Eric Satie, who was born in Honfleur. And right next to it, I found a place where I could look and giant transport boats and see them passing the Normandy bridge in the far distance.

The two first days of this trip made me very aware of how monotonous Normandy can be. Sure, it had some incredible spots, but in between those it was as insipid as it could. There was very little in terms of actual nature, just non-stop monoculture fields and suburbs, everything felt artificial - too organized. This was not really what I was looking forward to experience on my trip, I want to be in nature or places that although human made, made in a smaller scale, more organic. I heard that Brittany was more what I was looking forward - wilder; so I decided I would change my initial plan of cycling to Caen, and then go to Avranches (close by Mont saint Michel) by train, and instead take a train to Caen, stop there a couple hours to explore the city a bit and then catch another train to Avranches.

The closest train station to Honfleur was in Trouville-Deauville, so I rode there. Funnily enough the scenery around the road was way lusher and wilder than what I grew accustomed to. Despite it being quite a busy road with a lot of passing cars, most of them were quite respectful of me, so it ended up being quite enjoyable. The station of Trouville-Deauville was a surprisingly interesting building, I suppose in a traditional architecture style from the region. 

Arriving at Caen I then had a look at the city. I passed by a guy doing tricks on a bmx bike and we started chatting a little. He was originally from Caen, but he also spoke a little of Portuguese (because he worked some time in Portugal) which was really cool. I asked him what I should visit in my limited amount of time, and he pointed advise me to go see the city hall and a central part of town I forgot the name of. It was a rather pretty city, especially that part he advised me to see, but unfortunately, feeling rushed because of the train I needed to take, I didn't take the time to take many pictures of it.

After the rather long train journey to arrive at Avranches (as the train took a long roundabout way to get there) I was quite excited to finally get to Mont Saint-Michel. It would be my first time there, but looking at the photos online it really seemed like something straight out a fantasy book, which is something I love. So I very enthusiastically started cycling there. The way there was very, very pleasant; being almost entirely made up of bicycle paths going through the middle of endless sheep farms and the Mont Saint-Michel's bay.

I think I never saw so many sheep in my life. Mostly in the bay to my right but some of them were also just walking around the bicycle paths, blocking my way forward in the cutest way possible. One got somehow stuck outside the bay and was trying to get back there. I, feeling generous, popped out of my bicycle and tried to help him. To his perspective he probably seemed was going to try to kill him, so my attempt of being a good-Samaritan felt as flat as a pancake. 

Then, I got blocked by sheep going from their farm to the bay. Like blood gushing out of a wound, they came pouring out - non-stop, for around 10 minutes. It was rather incredible at first, but after a couple of minutes it became annoying. I thought I couldn't pass even if I really wanted to - as there were gates impeding me, gates I thought should be only moved by the sheep farmer. But after they all finally passed, no one came to move them. I was a little confused, but then I realized it was me that had to that. Then I was finally free, free to go on.

It was getting dark, and I was getting tired; but seeing mont Saint-Michel getting bigger and bigger in the horizon was really stunning. I was not checked by the doctor to be sure of what I am going to say now, but I think I was awe struck countless times. This gave me the motivation I sorely needed to go on. Still, I felt worried about where I would find a camp spot.

When I finally arrived, there was around 11pm and there was a lot of commotion by the entrance. Policeman and fireman were prancing around doing god knows what, while others, inside their vehicles were trying to park. There was group of young guys washing themselves in the water, which added a good extra amount of absurdity to this situation. A young firewoman came to me and said something in French, I didn't understand exactly what, but it had for sure something to do with my bicycle. She tried to say it in English, which was somehow even more confusing than with French. 

Eventually, one of the guys that was washing themselves in the water came to help. He quickly explained I needed to move my bicycle so that the fire engine could be parked. At this point I was confused were the entrance was, so I took my chance and asked for help. Apparently the main entrance was flooded, because of the high tide, but he pointed me to an alternative one. We chit-chatted a little bit, and he told me they were scouts that were doing a bike tour but without the best of one, the bicycle. They just walked 30km or so, so probably because of that they were washing themselves.

I have to admit, most of the magic of mont Saint-Michel is at least to me the outside view of it, at least for me. Inside was nice and pretty, but at the same time just a standard medieval castle feel to it.  Maybe it didn't impress me much because I am so used to this kinda of scenery, living in Gent. I wanted to get to the top of the sanctuary to get a look at the abbey and see what kind of view I could see up there. Meanwhile, the aforementioned scouts caught up to me. Their presence was very noticeable, considering they were singing together rather loud. So noticeable that a resident decided to throw a bucket of cold water, I mean only the cold water, you get what I mean. Unfortunately, I was trailing the scouts and got hit with some nice refreshing water as well, but fortunately nothing major. 

I got the abbey, and I was not able to see much, so little I didn't even go to the trouble of taking a photo of it. Going again back down, I crossed the paths with the scouts again, they were just outside their accommodation for the night. Needing water to survive the night I asked them and they obliged.

I went back to the wild dark to try to find a decent place to set camp for the night. I didn't want to go too far as it was so late, and I was so tired. Also because I wanted to come better explore mont Saint-Michel the next day. Before arriving in the sanctuary, I scouted a gate to the bay just before the bridge there. Happily enough, the gate was opened and it led to a nice trail through the bay. It was not ideal, but it was comfortable enough. This was my first time setting up the tent in darkness, which was hard and slightly frustrating, but soon enough I was in my cosy sleeping bag - ready to sleep.