05.30.09

The bit in Northern france

Posted in The journey journal, Wine and cheese and bikes at 7:35 am by Administrator

So it seems to me that the people of northern france are really scared of trees as there were hardly any to be seen, that they are a mountain loving people due to the excessive number of hills across the countryside and that they constantly endure a strong southerly wind that is the bain of all cyclists trying to cross south to Paris.
Well that was the feeling that we all got from the few days that we spent crossing to the south.
The absolute best thing about cycling in the mornings in France is passing through the small towns and smelling the patisserie cooking up its heavenly goods to sell to the world. That smell would make a strong man cry it is so good. I now know how the ancient sailors felt as they tried to resist the charms of the Sirens because I nearly dashed my bike against the rocks trying to get to the patisserie many times.

So as the map will have shown we spent nights just outside Calais, in montreiul (pronounced mon-troy), on the south side of Poix de Picardy and just north of Paris before a great few nights in Paris with my old friend from College, Alexis.

Once we got off of the ferry we headed south and I thought that taking the coast road would be nice and flat and good. I was a little wrong. The road was nice and scenic but it was anything but flat and with a roaring head wind we only made it a little way south before stopping for the night in an abandoned (and falling down) farmhouse on the cliffs overlooking the English channel (the the marche as it is know to the rest of europe). We were all stressed about being caught and thrown off the land but as we found out later, no one really seems to care where you sleep if you area cyclist and don’t leave a mess. The french airforce did a few fly overs and we thought that the were on patrol for vagrants such as ourselves but our comoflage worked and the never found us. Also we found out that bbq lighting fuel isn’t the best thing for our stove and so we couldn’t get it to work and ended up eating cold cans of chicken korma (and vege curry for Jen) for dinner. Mmm cold canned food. We were also out of water and since it was late, I back tracked into town to find some. My mastery of french got a few drink bottles filled at a small shop so that was all good. Basically I knocked on the door after closing time and when the guy answered I held up the bottles and pleadingly asked “Eau” (pronounced badly as Ooh). He didn’t seem happy about it but filled the bottles anyway.

We have discovered that if the French know you then they are welcoming and helpful and hospitable but if they don’t know you then they don’t really seem to care and will only go out of their way to help if really pushed. We hit that a lot while asking for directions and things.

Day 2 of france was an early start up and down the rolling chalk hills of the Normandy coast. None of us was mentally or physically prepared to carry the weight up these hills into the head wind and so going was pretty arduous. Lots of stopping at the top of hills for a photo and a drink. The scenery was stunning though and so that made a good excuse to stop and rest.. I mean have a look at. I got my first flat in Bourgne sur Mer. It took a whole screw to penetrate the kevlar liners in the tyres but it did and I heard that horrible and scary hissing noise of air leaking from my back tyre. One thing that I liked about riding along the coast were the hundreds of concrete bunkers still left over from the world wars. Its interesting to see them all still in place and gives a really perspective on the scale of the wars in that area and the invasion size. There are also war monuments everywhere and many towns are dedicated to the forces that ‘liberated’ them.

From there we decided to head inland a bit to try and avoid the wind but couldn’t escape it and after a pretty tiring day we stopped in the camp ground in the town of Montreiul. It took a car load of french guys about 35 seconds to try to pick up Nic afer she asked for directions and even though she pointed out the fact that her boyfriend was standing 5 m away they were not to be dissuaded. But she resisted their charms and I got to keep my girlfriend. That night we wandered into town for a restorative ale in the local bar and felt much better about having had a gloriously warm shower and a comfy spot of grass on which to park the tents.

ok rounding off for now. We’re just outside Lyon with some great couchsurfers but its time to head into town and so I’ll finish the updating later.

Tc

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