Cycling Normandy and Seine Episode 9: Etretat to Norville

The weather continued to be wet and windy. Luckily, we had a day in Etretat. After going into the Tourist Office, we took their suggestion to take the bus to Le Havre with the bikes. This was an extremely easy process of buying tickets from the newsagent and turning up to the bus with our bikes. We had 2 days in Le Havre and finally the weather was better for the ride to Norville. There were some scary moments when trucks were passing us. This video covers this part of our trip.

Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. [Music] It is. It’s like it was someone’s old house. Yeah, I think so. This is our building. It’s called the resident and um fantastic Airbnb. I don’t know if it’s Airbnb or booking.com. We’re staying on the third level there. It’s got a good lift and 100 meters from the beach. Not that the beach is much chopped today, but pretty. Well, we’re in Etrat and uh another fantastic place. I don’t know if you can see the wind turbines out in the ocean there. There’s rows and rows and rows of them. We came in, the weather was sort of like this, which is pretty ferocious. And we’ve got a lay day today and we cycle off into it tomorrow. Last day along the Normandy coast before we head inland. Here’s another German bunker. Imagine trying to bring a boat in while they’re machine gunning you with this. The bunkers dul bunkers of the Clif Valley. And you can walk from here obviously up to the top of the cliffs, but it’s a bit wild bother doing that today. And we have to ride up there tomorrow morning anyway. So the gardens are so beautiful. Pretty amazing uh cliffs of Normandy. I guess the locals Young people grow up here and get ugly and wow down at the barbecue series. I split the fantastic. The weather continued to be stormy and we didn’t want to battle the elements again. So we visited the tourist bureau and they gave it us advice that we could for a few euros purchase bus tickets to La Av and put our bikes on there. So that’s what we did. We caught a bus. We’re so much better. Look how beautiful this apartment is. We can’t believe some of the beautiful apartments that we’ve got during our stay here in France. Wonderful. Really good value. Um, this is an Airbnb and uh really really good value. So, we’re so glad that we didn’t cycle today cuz it’s very windy and it’s rainy and it’s cold. It’s a windy night, but still we’re just walking over to car 4. Gardens are at the end of summer, but they’re still very beautiful, aren’t they? There’s city hall. There’s a lot of activity just around the area because tomorrow in the next two days is a great celebration of the liberation of Laav in September of 1944. We’re really pleased. Today is a much better day than it has been for the last 3 days. And they said it was going to rain at 10:00 and it looks just delightful out there. It’s cool. 14° little bit windy, but that’s fine. It’ll be mostly behind us as we’re traveling along the same. I love to is the name of this placeville. Norville. I don’t know if we’re going to need sun shade, but the rain off. All right. They’ve got the president uh Macron coming today. Closed off roads. We are getting rained on now. You cannot believe it. We’re leaving at 11, which is pretty late, but the way it is. Yep. They’re going. [Music] But anyway, we’re going to Norville. It’s about 50 56 km, something like that. But for the first time on this trip, it’s all should be should all be really quite uh flat. We got the bus into La Hav two days ago. We’ve had a couple of quite nice days in um in La Hav on the eighth floor of our apartment lock with secure storage for the bikes at the bottom. And we’re leaving at just 11:00 and it’s only just starting to rain. All right. Well, we’re having an easy time of it today. No batteries required. Just puttering along at 15k about 15 km an hour and uh very easy. Well, unlike last week, I think a lot of our cycling for this coming week is all going to be it’s not going to be all flat and it’s going to be substantially flat and it certainly won’t be Normandy. very important day in Laav today and tomorrow because it’s the anniversary of the um of the freedom of Lah on about 80 years ago. It must have been the early first couple of weeks of September 1944. And there celebrations. I think Macron is here tonight and tomorrow. Um well maybe they’re doing a whole series of uh celebrations as they move down the coast. So, Sherburgg and some of the towns further west where the Normandy landing was and then I guess the troops just sort of slowly moved east and they have uh celebrations of their li liberation uh rolling through I guess couple of months getting out of Laava it’s so different because we had a hill back there it was 2 m And uh my bike is really made for this stuff and it’s not really made for Normandy. I’ve got a feeling that I’m going to have a completely different experience, but we’ll see. Currently on the VO 33. Um really substantially well um well prepared for Cypus. Fantastic. where we were about uh 18k. Are we south of the har or I don’t know what direction we’re going actually east of the har. We’re just looking for a cafe in this little town, but we can’t find one. It’s quaint little town. Even a peticissery would be nice or a lingerie. Does not look like there is one place to get a coffee. Keep going. [Music] Well, we’re about 20 maybe 22 23 km in from La Hive heading towards Norville. They got Look at this road. It’s This is not a It’s not cycle way, but it’s substantially. It’s a shared road. It’s pretty good. This is the first land we’ve seen which doesn’t seem to be cropping land. We are waiting for a little cafe on the side of the road. We’re halfway to Norville. Easy ride. It’s been raining here, but it hasn’t rained on us, thankfully. So, uh, we’re cruising along without the batteries. Just describe what happened. We went in. Well, I didn’t go. You went in for a Jackie went in for order a meal, which is listed on the board here, and to get a coffee and had very, very little success. I went in and didn’t have a lot more success, but uh I did figure out that they’re not taking any poor orders. We were able to get coffee. Yeah, we were. And it’s 1:30, so we’re This is the only place in this town. And uh close 20 km. 20 km. Uh anyway, and that’s Chockers. And that’s Chockers. And there’s a lot of people in there. And nothing else is open, of course, cuz it’s lunchtime. So, we are going to wait and have have food later. Congratulations. [Applause] Come on. We’ve got another beautiful uh place that we’re staying in. Can’t believe it. We’re just so lucky with the places that we’ve had so far. Really nice. Isn’t that beautiful? Wish we could stay more nights in all of these places. They’re just fabulous. Look at that view. And then we get to leave our bikes in that little shed there. It’s lovely. big boat to be going up the I don’t think that is a canal. I think that’s the same river. Um there’s lots of industry over behind us here. That’s pretty impressive. That’s quite a big boat. [Music] Greg is always at least 150 m to 100 meters behind me. And I’m not cracking a mean pace here. And yet again, I have lost Craig. He is just stopped looking at stuff on his phone cuz that’s what he does. And I have to turn around and go, where is he? Where is Wally? Where is Wally? There he is.