Alistair, Brian, Carol, David, Graham, Mark, Mick, Peter, Sue C and Sue P were all prepared for our trip to France. Alistair had kindly hosted a bike maintenance session at his house before we went. This proved invaluable as brake pads, a brake disc, chains and cassettes were in need of replacement and or attention. Alistair had also planned and devised all the routes which were uploaded to Garmins accordingly. This made the fact that Alistair had to drop out at the last minute a real shame and of concern to us all – how would we cope without him.
On Sunday 24th April we all made our way to Portsmouth to catch the 20.15 Brittany ferry Bretagne. Everyone was on time for the 1800 hrs meet at the terminal. Three cars travelled down, Graham and Mark with Graham’s son and Mark’s wife who drove the cars back after the unloading of bikes and panniers. I was the only one to book the car park as others trying to book were advised that the car park was full. However, when we got there we discovered an almost empty car park!
We boarded with no problems and were let onto the ferry first. There was a fairly spacious metal room forward on the starboard side and we locked all the bikes in that. We did have to lug our heavy panniers up and, in some cases, up and then down, to our cabins. This was followed by a leisurely dinner in the self -service restaurant and then we settled in the bar for drinks, dancing to what turned out to be quite a good duo. A magician had a session which personally I could have done without, however he finally disappeared to allow us to enjoy ourselves.
Monday 25th April
We were woken up – those who were asleep that is – by music and we quickly met up for a breakfast, put our watches forward an hour and before we knew it we were getting our bikes out of the storage area and queuing at the bow to be let off first. It was here that the worst thing that can befall you as you enter another country happened. One of our party could not find their passport. They searched everywhere and had to leave their bike and go back to their cabin. Meanwhile the 8 of us remaining had to disembark. We waited outside the entrance having gone through passport control and I am not sure who was more relieved but at last among the cars came our poor hassled team member.
So, at last we were in St. Malo at 0845 hrs in very chilly but sunny weather. Our route took us through St Malo on quiet roads and then on country lanes to pick up the EuroVelo 4 at Saint Benoit des Ondes on the coast. It was here at 0943 hrs that we paused to admire a very unusual sculpture/statue which was in front of a dilapidated hut on a rough patch of ground depicting an apparently dead person in the arms of an African lady who had a girl’s head on her shoulder. Interpretations are welcome! We continued along by the sea on the cycleway mainly. This was oyster and shell fish country and there were many outlets no doubt busy in the summer. At 12 miles we paused for a break at Degustation Tonneau, Le Vivier-sur-Mer where I managed to sample two oysters with my coffee.
Shortly after this we took a gravel surfaced cycle path through the coastal salt marshes and then took a steep climb around hairpin bends to a park with extensive views of the coast. As we climbed the hill we paused. Firstly, there was a loose, friendly and energetic dog that had been following us and was now impatient for us to climb the hill. Secondly all the Garmins seemed to want us to do a U-turn. Mick realised that it was due to the hairpin bends, so luckily, we were saved going down only to find we needed to go up again. At the top, at Roz-Sur-Couesnon was the park, Les Randonnees du Pays Gallo et de la Baie du Mont-St-Michel. From this great height you could clearly see Mont-St-Michel.
Mont St Michel in background
We continued to follow our route to Mont-St-Michel where we stopped for photos. Most of the cafés were either closed (it was Monday) but there was a café with brightly painted cow figures where we had our lunch at 1400 hrs. Our route then followed the coast to Pontaubault on the River Selune where it changed to the gravel surfaced rail trail to Ducey.
Ducey turned out to be a very pretty village and although the sunshine helped, the architecture and the river made it all very attractive and very French. All were pleased with the hotel and the dinner they served in the evening. Our bikes were secured in a large hanger like building across the road.
We recorded 46.6 miles with 298 m of ascent.
Tuesday 26th April
Today found us setting off for Vire at 0900 hrs. We joined the EV4 along a former rail line for almost the entire day. It was surfaced in fine gravel with fairly gentle gradients although most found the long stretches of slight incline quite tiring as there is no respite from pedalling.
We diverted off to visit St Hilaire du Harcouet in time for morning coffee arriving at 0947 hrs. It was here that the group got split into two as there was a misread Garmin moment as the route took us around the streets to view the town. However, we did all meet up and had coffees etc at Café Le Havre.
We returned to the gravel track and followed this further before diverting for lunch to Mortain-Bocage the site of a famous battle after D-Day. The town is at the top of a hill and we found a small family run pizza café – Les Cascades - which served mini (Bambino) pizzas.
Returning to the track we were nearing our destination, Vire when we thought we might be missing Graham. Mick and I stopped while I rang Peter at the front to see if Graham was there and Mick rang Graham. We discovered that Graham had had a puncture and was back along the track mending it. Mick then found that his electric bike was not working although the battery indicator was showing three bars. So we thought we ought to limp on and Graham said he would catch up. However, when we turned off the track for the last few miles into Vire we remembered that Graham’s Garmin was flat (like his tyre ! ) and he would merrily be cruising along the track not knowing where to turn off. As Mick was on pedaller power only I stayed behind to show Graham the way while Mick limped on to Vire. As it happened Mick’s bike decided to start working which was good as the entry to Vire is a very steep and long climb.
I arrived with Graham about 1730 hrs and went with him to the Hotel St Pierre where six of the group were staying. I entered to find that the not so customer friendly receptionist was saying she had no rooms in their names. I had luckily brought the booking emails with me and showed her the email. The names had changed as we had had changes to those going and cancellations but she reluctantly allocated rooms accordingly. Due to their confused administration all paid the same price although the booking had stated some differences.
Meanwhile at the Hotel De France Brian, Mark, Sue and I were well looked after and while the rooms were a bit tired all nine of us ate in the restaurant and had an excellent meal – three courses for €24. Both hotels had good lock ups for the bikes. Some of us managed a walk after dinner to look at the old Norman gateway.
We recorded 44.9 miles with 689 m of ascent.
Wednesday 27th April
We departed at 0900 hrs, down the hill to join the EV4 again for about 12 miles with the rail trail ending after 4 miles at La Graverie and thereafter was mainly on quiet country roads. Somewhere here we took our first wrong turn which was quickly corrected. One of the things worthy of note were the wild flowers that we had seen all along the EV4, including bluebells and purple wild orchids. The route dropped down to a river, La Souleuvre in a steep sided valley where there was an adventure park offering dry luge runs and bungy jumping from the piers of a former rail bridge.
Bungy jumping at La Soulevre
It was here at 1019 hrs we stopped for refreshments. We then had a real challenge, long and steep to get out of the valley. At the top we came across the WW2 monument at Les Loges of the battle of Normandy, July 1944. We continued on lanes to Caumont-L’Evente where we stopped at 1350 hrs for lunch.
By 1509 hrs we were in sight of Bayeux Cathedral and it wasn’t long before we arrived at our hotel, the Campanile. Here all was fine while there was a short delay while they contacted the adjacent hotel which was providing the lock up for the bikes.
We set off to view Bayeux and visited the cathedral at 1800 hrs. We looked at some restaurants but they did not open until 1900 hrs so we finally found a bar – not usually a problem in France! We then decided we would go back and eat at the hotel only to find that a coach load of Danes had arrived and that there was no room for us until 2100hrs. Graham, Peter, Sue and I agreed to go back into town. We tried three restaurants, all of which were full before squeezing upstairs into a fairly packed restaurant. We did well, the food was excellent and the service quick and cheerful. Meanwhile with the reduced numbers the rest of our group got a table at the Campanile fairly quickly so all ended well.
We recorded 38.4 miles with 741 m of ascent.
Thursday 28th April
We found the dining room full at breakfast but were ushered into an alternative room which we had to ourselves. There was a slight contretemps over the price of breakfast as Mick noticed that they were charging €11 plus tax instead of the quoted to us price of €9 plus tax. They amended our bills to the quoted price. Then we were all ready to depart at Mick’s commanded 0845 hrs.
We followed our route out of Bayeux to pick up the EV4 again on the coast at Arromanches. Here we climbed another extremely steep hill to the old war battle tank overlooking the Mulberry harbour remains and an anti aircraft gun. After the photos at 1000 hrs we climbed again steeply to the top where the Arromanches museum and cinema is located. We took some more photos before moving on to the coast past the Gold, Juno and Sword invasion beaches on our way to Ouistreham. The cycle way took us across a field and another off road track by a stream before arriving in the port of Courseulles-sur-Mer where we stopped at the Boulangerie Du Port for coffee and patisseries.
Arromanches overlooking the Mulberry Harbour
We were then looking for toilets but there were none to be seen so we set off and in a short while came across a swimming pool with a toilet outside. This was an automatically flushing toilet which almost resulted in some of the team being flushed away. The other sight was a set of ladies going for a swim in the sea. This was our coldest day with no sun and a very chilly breeze. The French as always had things organised and there was a set of lockers available for clothes etc of those braving the water.
We continued further and were cycling right next to the sea into the breeze. There was a walkway immediately next to the sea and the cycleway another three metres in with a grassy bank between. Sand had blown up onto the cycleway making in quite tricky in places because of the depth of the sand and the weight of our bikes. So we occasionally went onto the walkway which was less sandy.
EV4 crossing a field
As we neared Ouistreham at 1400 hrs we came across a café where we decided to have our final lunch in France. Graham chose the café and chose well – it was very good with quick service and a wide ranged menu. I managed a very French six oysters and some pate de foie gras, while others had anything between salads, pizza and gallettes.
We needed to be at the port by 1500 hrs and Mick got us there at 1459 hrs which I thought deserved an accolade. We sailed through all the ticket and passport checks and were able to wait in a bike shelter – like a large open bus shelter – right at the front of the queue to board. In due course we boarded Brittany Ferries Normandie first and were shown an area in which to store the bikes. We then took our luggage to the cabins. Alistair had kindly booked a cabin for luggage purposes and as a changing facility and this was used by all except Sue and I – as I had booked a cabin for us in case of a rough crossing. The cabins were still being cleaned so we had to wait in the corridor as they insisted they must be cleaned for Covid reasons.
It was a calm crossing spent eating, drinking, sleeping and solving puzzles. The ferry was late leaving as there had been a breakdown of another ferry and we had waited to load those cars, lorries and people. As a result instead of arriving at 2115 hrs we arrived at 2230 hrs. Graham and Mark had managed to communicate with their drivers so they would not arrive too early. Mick and I loaded my car and Sue P joined us as before for a lift home with her bike on Graham’s. I thought the drive back would be simple at that time of night but no. The M27 was soon reduced to 50 mph then 40 mph and then, with no real warning, we found the M3 junction was closed so we had to go on to the next junction and turn around.
I finished the evening at 0100 Friday morning.
We recorded 30.8 miles with 222 m of ascent.
Many thank to Alistair who made it happen, Mick for looking after us all and everyone else for the great company, understanding and perseverance!!
Au revoir
David