Time 6:37
Climb 853
Weather Sun(:)) & wind
Woke up and headed down for petit dejeuner. The illusion that I was in a home rather than hotel continued as I found I was the only guest and I effectively had breakfast with the family, including their toddler son who played cars under my table.
Following the lull yesterday, Sunday would be no day of rest with a 150K or so planned, including crossing the Seine. I was not sure which route the Tour was going to be taking out of Beauvais. This was because the detailed route the tour takes each year is a closely guarded secret. The main route and "Villes d'etape" are published with a fanfare around October time, but exactly how the riders will get from start to finish (Beauvais to Caen in this case) is not revealed until the June edition of the Velo magazine hits the newstands. When I left the UK I had expected to be able to pick up a copy on my arrival in France, since in the UK magazines usually appear a full month ahead of their cover date. However the French are obviously more literally minded than us Brits and so the Velo was due to appear on 1st June and not one day before.
So I had to guess the route, which meant when I missed my first turning just a couple of km out of Beauvais I did not get too stressed and just took the next turning to get me back on track. Happily on the weather side things were looking up. For the first time since day 1 I was able to start pedalling without first donning my Pack a Mac. The sun was visible and the wind, though still blowing, was doing so with less gusto on previous days.
The route was pretty flat and enjoyable. It being a Sunday other cyclists were also out and about. I played catch up and pass with an older cyclist, who, when I stopped 20 or so minutes later for a quick natural break stopped to ask me where I was heading and gave me some route advice.
I crossed the Seine just south of Rouen, the approach being along its banks via the D92 which took me through some very nice villages. One of the good things about France is that their approach to building houses means they are all different, and this road was a good example of this with lots of variations on the comfortable family house, one even resembling a mini-castle.
Once over the Seine the road passed quickly by and I decided to stay at Cormeille in the Auberge de President, named after President Reny Coty (1954-59) ate there (and if good enough for the president of France should be good enough for me.)
Auberge de President
I telephoned ahead to book a room and when I arrived I was very happy with my choice. Cormeilles is a beautiful Normandy village full of old timbered houses of many different colours, the hotel, in pale blue, being one of the best examples. A marriage was just coming to an end when I turned up but nonetheless the manageress found time to show me to my room and a place to stow my bike. The room was newly decorated but in a rustic style and very welcoming. I also had a large bath and plenty of bubble bath so I indulged in a wallow. It was not late so I set off for a wander round the town, taking a beer at a local bar whilst trying not to look English by reading L'Equipe and the local papers.
(Cormeilles websites)
http://www.office-tourisme-cormeilles.com/index.php
http://ecoles.ac-rouen.fr/freneuse27/morainville/cormeille.html
In fact I need not have worried too much about appearing a tourist. In the first place the town was obviously used to having the English come over and settle, the estate agents mostly boasted of "English spoken", looking at the prices of house I could see the attraction. For the price of a 3 bed semi in Newbury you could buy a big detached house with huge grounds near Cormeille. What's more, as I read the local paper, the folk in Normandy were getting worried about how the number of English visitors was dropping off, due to the weather and cheap flights luring us to the warmer climes further south.
I strolled back to the hotel, taking note of a shop to get some croissants in the morning. At the hotel I had a truly superb meal, cooked in the local style so calvodos, apples or cider figured in most of the dishes. Being greedy I asked for both the cheese and dessert courses and polished off a couple of bottles of cider (when in Normandy...).
All in all a very good day, the best of my trip so far. The only very minor problem was my arms were a bit sunburnt, a quite tolerable alternative to the frostbite they had suffered only a couple of days earlier.
No comments:
Post a Comment