A gravel bike adventure in northern France takes an emotional turn when I find an abandoned kitten by the roadside. A sad moment in an otherwise brilliant ride—one that also includes the biggest meal I’ve ever bought!
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Welcome to my second video, my second bike ride in Normandy. And well, firstly, I’m not in Normandy. More on that later. I’ve once again gone with Garmin Connects suggested route despite the problems I had on my last ride, which you may have seen. But it’s quite a chilly morning. A little bit of wind, but not much. And it should warm up as I get going. [Music] So yesterday I had all sorts of problems with my Garmin Connect route and with the Garmin as well. Now I borrowed this Garmin 530 of Jason with a view to baby buying it and it was beeping at me all the time. I was having trouble reading the display. It wasn’t bright enough. Didn’t really know how to change it. But I think I got all those issues sorted. Well, most of them anyway. And I’m heading north. Even though it’s probably a week since I put the video out of my first ride for me. This is the next day. I feel a little bit tired, a bit more tired than I thought I might. The original route he gave me was 57k. So, I’ve reprogrammed it and got a shorter route. It’s around about 45k. Pretty flat as all the rides are around here. Haven’t bought a map. Forgot to do that. There should be quite a bit of wildlife on this ride. Well, birds anyway. This is a bird watchers heaven. There’s salt sanctuaries everywhere. Let’s see what we [Music] find. I am riding into the wind and yeah, I’m a bit chilly. Yeah, I’m going to put my jile on. Not exactly a busy road, yet it still has cycle paths on both sides. I should say I did select gravel unpaved as my terrain I wanted for this ride, but it’s all been tarmac so far. As I know from yesterday, that might not be the case for the entire ride. It sounded like uh something being squirted out, i.e. my tubeless ceiling, but I don’t see anything there. I was pretty well organized on this trip. I remembered everything. He bought a waterproof. The only thing I didn’t remember was cycling socks. I’m cycling in the same socks I might wear to work. really doesn’t make any difference, but doesn’t look very cool. And now I’m going off [Music] road. Sign of a man on a bike. Don’t know what that means. A cycle lane next to a country road. You just got to love France, haven’t you? When it comes to cycling, they really know what they’re [Music] doing. And so it goes on. Still on a cycle lane, separated from the cars. Except there are no cars cuz they’re in the middle of nowhere. Just about to enter the village, the town of Monaw. Like yesterday, if I do get the opportunity to go to a calf and get a lovely cup of French coffee, I will take it. But I didn’t see anywhere yesterday. Well, I’ve left the side of the road. I’m on the same cycle path following the route and it’s taken me into the countryside a bit more. This is such a lovely route. It’s very easy, but it’s very relaxing and just pleasant, you know. Felt quite tired when I got on the bike this morning, but uh yeah, I’m enjoying [Music] this. So on my last ride I kept going on about how I was going to explore Normandy and I was in Normandy and I was starting my ride in Normandy. Well I’m not in Normandy. Did a little bit of research last night. I’m actually in Picardi which is the region just to the north of Normandy. So I wasn’t a million miles off but I’m actually not in the region of Normandy. Don’t know how much difference it makes. I’m sure there’ll be some keyboard warriors out there who will look at the place names and go that is not Normandy man. Come on. Too much fake news out there. Hello. That’s weird. That white van I just approached, he pulled away as I got close and behind him was a little kitten. Don’t know if I’m putting two plus two together and making five. Has he just dumped his kitten out in the middle of nowhere? Well, the route’s been pretty good so far, but this is actually a fairly busy road. Okay, my mistake. There is a completely separated cycle path next to the road in perfect tarmac that I missed. To be fair, my Garmin does say road and it does mark cycle lanes normally, so could be forgiven. But, uh, another absolutely perfect cycle lane. Does say there’s a calf that way. I don’t know how far away it is, though. Might just go to those line of trees down there and just see if there starts to appear some houses. Could really do have a cup of coffee. There are a few houses here, but doesn’t look like there’s a cath anywhere. Oh, let’s just go a little bit further. Well, I boughted that coffee run. didn’t seem to be going anywhere and I got my phone out which was actually working for a change and there didn’t seem to be any towns nearby at all. So, we’re going to head back onto the route. Oh, might have found a coffee spot. Ordered some food as well. Got lucky. Yeah. Well, I think I have. It’s the middle of nowhere. It’s just a coffee place and food. So, I ordered with my pigeon French some an American sandwich with sausage, mayonnaise, and chips and a coffee. Not quite sure what I’m going to [Applause] get. That’s a coffee. Lovely. That is absolutely massive. Massive. There’s a meal for about four people in there. [Music] Oh my god. That was the biggest single portion of food I think I’ve ever had. So effectively my American sandwich was basically a hot dog in a baguette. They asked for salad. asked for tomato and I could choose a a sauce like a condiment. So, I went for mayonnaise, which is a bit odd, but I didn’t realize quite what the sausage was going to be like and just the most massive portion of chips. I mean, it was would have been way too much for two people. Even though I sat there and I ate more than I needed really, I feel quite full. There was still this much left. The coffee was really good. actually wasn’t even that hungry when I went in there. But I just thought, well, maybe I’ll just order a little something. Oh my god, that definitely wasn’t a touristy place. And that’s the joy of going out on your bike. There’s no better way of seeing the countryside than uh the local area than on a bike. Takes you to places that you just wouldn’t go if you’re in a car or by train. And even though it was like the equivalent of a in the UK of like a snack wagon you get on the side of a road in a layby, they sold beer. There was people drinking beer there and it’s only about midday. Terrible. The route seems to be taking me down a dual carriageway. Going to have a look see if there’s some sort of cycle path here. I really don’t want to cycle down a dual carriageway. It’s definitely down there. If there’s anything on the other side of the road, it looks private, doesn’t it? Okay, I can go down that small road there bare left and it will rejoin this big uh main road further down. So, let’s try that. I was thinking just how good this route had been today. Compared to yesterday, all the travel I had getting directed into a dense forest. This route’s been really good. There’s been a little bit of off-road, lovely country roads, the odd busier road, but it’s not that busy and not very often, but that’s a pretty epic fail taking me down a dual carriageway, but I’m sure I’ll be able to negotiate around [Music] it. I’m kind of following the dual carriageway, so so far so good. I’m close to the route. I’m just waiting to see whether it detours and I need to pick that up. route continues on this dual carriage. I can’t believe it. Okay, I think I can get back on route. It goes around to the left. I’m in the town of Rue and I know that’s pretty close to where I’m staying, so I’m definitely going in the right direction. [Music] [Music] I’ve had a great ride. A great ride. I really enjoyed it. It’s been easy. It’s been flat. I’m not great riding on the flat, which is a bit weird to say. I kind of need a few hills. It’s kind of what I’m built for. I’m not built for just chugging along. I haven’t got a great diesel engine. And I think if I live around here, I’d probably get pretty bored. But cuz it’s all new to me, it’s been really enjoyable. I’ve had a huge lunch. Garmin have done pretty well the route, apart from sending me down that dual carriageway. Unbelievable. You don’t get any cars on the roads, but when I do a little off-road text, I see a car. But I’ve been so impressed with the roads here in France and the infrastructure and the cycle lanes. It’s just wow. Cycling heaven. I know they’ve got a lot more room than we do in the south of England particularly. But oh yeah, it’s a bit of a cyclist paradise really. But I’m going to be out again tomorrow. So please stick around for that video if you’re interested. You probably won’t see that for at least a week. But thank you for watching and I’ll see you on the next one. [Music] [Applause] [Music]
1 Comment
Oh no! poor kitten 😮