Biking Day 19

• Length ridden: 125 km
• Ascent: 430 meters (half of those in the last 20 km or so...)
• Rating: 8 out of 10 - great to have reached Honfleur
• Highlights: Évreux
• Lowlight: That the days only have 24 hours - 48 would be better
• Map of the day

In the morning still at the campground, I met a Dutch couple, each preparing to ride a very heavily loaded bike, both schlepping a small kid on a trailer - they did sleep in a tent, but did not seem to complain. The husband told me he was an extreme biker, having taken part in all sorts of crazy rides, e.g. the Ride Across America. Chapeau!

Taking a look at my digital map, I thought it would be a good idea of reaching the coast by that evening - though there were over 100 kilometers to cover. I was not really consequent, as till 9 am I was still chatting with other bikers, but then I finally rolled on.

At around 10 am, I reached a pretty town called Saint-André-de-l'Eure (SADLE - the French names are far too long), known for a church from the 16th century and a city hall built in 1933. I had breakfast on a park bench, with people smiling at me and mumbling "bon appetit". Hmm, reaching that coast was getting further and further.

Holding me back (just kidding...) was the next amazing town, called Évreux, which had received the title of "city of art and history" just a few days prior to me getting there, after a 10-year procedure. If they had asked me, it would have taken 10 minutes to get this prestigious title granted, but then they did not consult me. Especially pretty was the cathedral, which is the seat of a bishop. It seems all towns with an "x" at the end are wonderful, just think of Dreux the previous day.

As my research now shows, I could have visited even more sights, but I was very happy with what I had seen, and then I had that specific goal in mind - which was to be at the coast that night.

In Normandy (and later in Brittany), I started seeing some "exotic" architecture. Just look at this house with a reed roof, on top of which grass (or something similar) is growing.

I also liked the pattern on the side of this chapel.

At around 3 pm, I got to Le Neubourg, where there was a nice church, the photo of which I will not paste in, as you might think I became a religious zealot or something, however, the city hall was quite pretty. I had lunch at a McDo, I went there mainly for their salad, which they were out of. Oh, whatever.

I rode past some homes that must have popped out of a fairy tale...agree? I raise my hat to all the gardeners of France - there is a love for wonderful flowers and vegetation.

Without planning to, I bumped into a very, very beautiful small town, with a large abbey, called Le Bec-Hellouin. The village itself is listed as one of the most beautiful villages in France. The Abbey Notre-Dame du Bec was founded around 1034 (i.e. 990 years ago...) by a man called Hellouin. You can read more info in the link, should you want to.

There was an ongoing guided tour in French, of which I understood next to nothing. The guide told me I could join for free, in return I would need to buy something at the shop. There I got some delicious candies, which I devoured on for multiple days, reminding me of my visit to the abbey.

I was now riding through real romantic Normandy, small alleys flanked by bocage. As usual, I saw large villas - or smaller castles - and a lot of green, with lazy rivers.

OK, no zealot, but this church, at Saint-Philbert-sur-Risle (SPSR) was quite pretty - and I cannot paste in the road leading there, it was crossing a beautiful river, most probably the River Risle, or its tributary.

To keep me from making progress, I met a jogging couple, who told me there would a castle ruin ahead, from where I would have a nice view of the surroundings. Oh darn, now I had to backtrack a kilometer, climb another kilometer steep uphill, but I went for it.

So, I got to the ruins of a Normann castle at Montfort-sur-Risle from the 11th century. The view was nice, you could see the outline of the River Risle slowly making its way towards the coast, just as I was (more precisely, it first flows into the Loire, which then flows into the Channel).

It was close to 7 pm and there was somewhat over 40 kilometers to go to the coast. Earlier on the trip, I had planned to reach Le Havre on the coast and that is the destination I told everyone when asked about my trip. Based on recommendations as I got closer, this goal changed to Honfleur instead. When studying the map, it made perfect sense - if I wanted to, I could still cross over a bridge to Le Havre. So, I entered Honfleur into the GPS.

Yet again, I gazed at wonderful reed-roofed buildings along the road.

A bit of further hold-up was in the mediaeval town of Pont-Audemer, also called the Venice of Normandy (which I find a bit of an exaggeration, but then who am I to judge...).

From there I still had some 25 kilometers to Honfleur and it was 8 in the evening - a bit more to go, but it looked doable. I jumped into the saddle and thought the road would now descend all the way to the coast. Wrong. I somehow took a route with a rather unpleasant incline, nothing all too bad, but I was quite upset when I saw a climbing lane added in my direction - a bad sign for a steep ascent. It was just 150 meters or so of elevation, but when you are getting tired in the evening, it is a bit yucky. But everything that goes up, must come down...and around 9:30 pm, I spotted the bridge connecting Honfleur to Le Havre.

Finally, after a roadway typical of large cities (car dealerships, furniture stores, fast food places, etc) I made it to Honfleur proper - where I spotted a small bridge and, being quite exhausted, I sat down on the middle of this bridge - and could hardly move for about 10 minutes. Yes, I was a bit tired, but also energized that I had made it. I was looking at a channel leading to the Channel.

Here I started looking for accommodation, no luck on a Saturday night. There was a campground, called Camping du Phare, not the nicest I have even encountered, hmm, I would say probably the least sympathetic one - though it claimed to be completely full. I still went in and it turned out half of the campground was cordoned off, as it had rained so much that parts of the ground (behind the boundary) was quite wet (or was supposedly wet). Still, there were others having pitched their tents behind the boundary, so that is what I did as well - nobody seemed to mind. So I had an entire section to myself. I struck up a conversation with some people from Vienna in the evening - and my "next-door" neighbors were from Salzburg, as it turned out the following morning.

Talking about Salzburg, it tool me 19 days of biking to get from that Austrian town to the coast. As I had ridden, the distance was roughly 1,700 kilometers till there and it was roughly 10,000 meters of elevation, so about 90 kilometers a day and a bit over 500 meters of elevation. To be honest, I would say this is not bad, but then I also noted that I am not as strong as 10, 20 or 25 years prior to this, which is the way things are. Still, I was quite glad to have made it until here. And this was just roughly the first half of the trip, there was a lot more amazing rides ahead.