Day 74: Le Havre to Fecamp

June 8, 2018

Our little cabin dug into the hillside at Le Havre was really unique, with its steep stairs and terraces on two levels. The views down to Le Havre from the terraces was 180 degrees. It was intriguing to look at and try to figure out Le Havre, which is mostly made from concrete. From up high, the concrete looks sterile, which is actually a form of praise, since riding through the town yesterday the impression was more of grungy.

Stairs joined different levels and bits of our B&B

It would take a lot for Le Havre to change our opinion of it, after it ran us through the mill yesterday. Certainly, as we started off we struggled to find a way to our route that did not involve stairs. We can't really blame Le Havre for being half built on a cliffside, I guess. We also have to admit that pretty soon we were on if not a veloroute, at least roads with bike symbols painted on the pavement.

We would need to descend a bit before we could leave town. But not this way!

Until at least 2 p.m there was heavy fog and our way most often looked like this.

The stretch that we were starting on is called the Alabaster Coast, because it features white cliffs, like the famous ones at Dover, perhaps. It's about 120 km, from Le Havre to Dieppe, and offers 1000 meters of climbing (and descending) if you follow the wiggles to each beach/port community. Here is what it looks like on a map:

You can see all the little towns along the coast, each with a Tourist Information. A town with a Tourist Information is normally a good bet to also have other useful services, and probably something interesting to look at.

Coming out of Le Havre, the Seine Maritime department was offering us a bikeway that they call Veloroute Rives Manche. This would nominally be part of EV 4. The directional signs for this are a white cyclist on an orange background. Because of Le Havre, we were leery of trusting anyone's route signs, but Seine Maritime turned out to be serious, and we were able to follow these all day.

The orange signs were consistent - only a few missing.

The route fairly effectively kept us away from most smaller towns, so we were free to just pedal through the fields checking on the progress of each type of crop. With heavy mist blowing across the path in front of us, it was a muted, peaceful experience. Two fields we much liked were one with poppies, and one of flax - not yet fully in bloom. Flax in French is "lin", which is the root word for linseed oil, and also lingerie. It's a versatile crop. You can also, of course, put the flax seed in your bread!

Yesterday we had been noticing the amazing buildings all the way to Honfleur, and then got a dose of cold water thrown by what we saw as the soulless Le Havre. But today, slowly, we began to appreciate the buildings again, and by Le Tilleul began to exclaim at how brick was being worked in with flint in the beautiful houses of this area. We had previously seen flint in construction in England, but not in any French region we had been in so far.

In Tilleul a church and below, a bakery using decorative flint and brick.

A lot of times towns are just names on a map to us until we get there. Then we may be surprised by what the town is all about, and sheepish because others have known about the place for hundreds or thousands of years. Etretat was like that. As we drew near we first encountered a municipal parking lot, that offered free parking while assuring users that it was only a 10 minute walk to town. Why would people park and walk, that distance?

We found out. First the town - was filled with tourists - enjoying the quaint and narrow streets with restaurants, hotels, and regional products stores.

We pedalled through this and made our way to the beach. This was a unique one, comprised of plum sized white stones. Looking left and right, there were nearby cliffs that is not white, were at least formed of light coloured stone. A boardwalk joined the cliffs to our right and left.

The church on the hill is one we assumed we would be climbing to on our route as we would leave town. We did.

The boardwalk and one of the white cliffs

Those are the basic charms of Etretat, but it is also famous. Claude Monet loved Etretat and made many paintings of it. One of these is at each end of the boardwalk, where you can look directly at the same scene that Monet was painting. With the mist, the cliffs were very muted for me. But I think my photo rivals Monet's painting!

The 12th century Notre Dame de la Garde church is up on the hill. If I read the French right, the devil moved it there to keep it away from the sailors of the town. In so doing, though, he saved it from floods. The main thing I noticed was that the church ha not been saved from erosion. The facade at the front is starting to look like Swiss cheese. Still the interior is solid, and displays a good mix of Roman and Gothic styles.

The facade of Notre Dame de la Garde, Etretat

Another place where we started with no advance knowledge was Fecamp. We came down a hill and around a corner. Hold it, not quite. Before we could round the corner we had to overcome some barriers in the path. These were part of the insane measures we often see to apparently keep crazed motorists from speeding up and down the bike paths. Only in this case the gap was also too small to allow a loaded touring bike to pass. We unloaded, moved the bikes, and reloaded, only to find another barrier 60 meters further on. This time a man who was working on firewood nearby offered a hand, and he and I lifted the bikes over. Later, in the town TI Dodie bawled them out over these barriers.

Ok, back to coming around the corner. There was a stretch of boardwalk, with cliffs at either end. Ah, we already knew the drill on this, having just left Etretat. We descended to the boardwalk but immediately noticed that the surrounding ambiance had nowhere near the ambiance of Etretat. Turning one more corner, the reason was apparent. This boardwalk was not the main feature of town but just a little diversion in a relatively large city, that also had a big harbour, several large churches, and a commercial centre that we never even made it to.

We did visit one of the churches - l'eglise St. Etienne. The main feature here was allegorical frescoes - or actually they were canvases glued to the walls - that had been expertly restored. These were now bright and beautiful. The stained glass also was exceptionally bright. And finally, they had their own golden eagle - or at least golden bird. Naturalist friends, what is this thing?

The golden bird, St Etienne church, Fecamp

Fecamp is the point at which we could decide to wiggle along the coast, as we had done in Brittany, or try out the new Veloroute du Lin, which goes 70 km, to Dieppe. We chose the "Lin" and were on it for a couple of kms before coming to our booked B&B. The Veloroute looks really good, with a new and smooth hard surface, consistent style elements like the blue paint on the road at crossings, cedar car inhibitors, and attractive signage. We think this may be a rail trail, but in any event we are getting ready to put it on our trophy shelf as a great newly discovered route. A sign near the beginning states the cost as 4,000,000 euros and the time used to build it, one year.

Another really good feature - it goes right by a giant supermarket. Tomorrow we will take advantage of that!

Bonus - where the Grampies have been.

Our friend Michel has been tracking us on GPSies. The basic map comes out quite artistic, we think:

Grampies have now almost encircled France

According to Michel's records, we have climbed (and descended) about 6500 feet. That's not Everest, yet!

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 4,871 km (3,025 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	4
Comment on this entry	Comment	0