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Normandy Cycle Tour

This is the first draft I intend to add more pictures and maybe maps as well

Living on Guernsey does have some benefits, one of which is access to the north Brittany and Norman coastline. For this trip three of us; Gareth Wallis, Steve Mauger and myself, Steve Dorrity decided to cycle from Cherbourg to St Malo via a roundabout route, taking some of the Normandy beaches on the way.

We started by sending the bikes on ahead and taking a scheduled flight with Aurigny airlines to Cherbourg airport, we arrived to find the bikes safely there and after checking tyre pressures and packing set off for our first port of call, Ste Mere Eglise, the place where the American paratroopers had landed. At Ste Mere Eglise we got turfed out of the gardens for trying to eat our lunch and so had to eat in the car park, although it was a very pleasant car park an it had views of the church complete with life-size mannequin of an American paratrooper, Private Steele, hanging from the bell tower. The museum was interesting with some good exhibits and a complete assault glider and was laid out under a roof the shape of a parachute.

After lunch we carried on to Isigny-sur-mere where we found a very nice campsite and did some repairs to Steve Maugers bike, which was starting to make strange noises. The next day we headed up to the coast again and followed the D514 along the coast to the American Military cemetery. The hill pulling up from isn’t too steep but it does go on for just short of forever. The cemetery itself is an awesome sight and it was quite moving seeing the thousands of gravestones there. There is also a monument that displays the state of the allied position after the first few days; it’s amazing to think that they managed to defeat the Nazi forces with such a tiny toehold on the continent. After this we continued on to Arromanches-les-bains, which is the location where the British set up their portable harbour to supply the troops, there is another interesting museum here.

That night was spent at Bayeux at a pleasant site on the outskirts of the town, while we were there an Australian girl came in and after setting up her tent, proceeded to open a tin of beans and eat them cold. I wandered over and offered her a drink, she said she would come over in a few minutes so we put a pan of water on the stove. When she came over we asked what she would like and she asked what we had; 4 different types of tea, two types of coffee, wine, beer and coke was the reply. Well there’s no point in roughing it! We also offered her some chicken casserole but she was a vegetarian.

The next day we headed for Thury-Harcourt and the ‘Suisse Normande’, Thury-Harcourt is a great place all the hills go down! We had a fairly late start because we had looked at the Bayeux tapestry and it was getting late and hot as we came up to the last 10km or so, so it was a great relief to find that we could freewheel the whole way into the town. We found the campsite and showered before heading off to find some food for supper. We decided that we would have a rest day the next day and so headed off to explore the valley with empty bikes, after stopping to buy some food for a picnic lunch we had a beer and noted that there was something odd at the top of a steep cliff, but decided that we wouldn’t bother going up to find out what it was. After lunch we took a wrong turn and headed off up a fairly steep hill expecting to find our turnoff at any minute. Upwards we went with no sign of a turnoff, I can now report that the ‘odd thing’ at the top of the cliff was a take off ramp for hangliders, and no we didn’t find the turnoff, some ‘rest day’. Steve M decided to test his brakes by cycling down the takeoff ramps until his bottle went. The run down to the campsite was well worth the climb.

We managed to amaze a Frenchman staying in a caravan opposite us that night. We had found a nice bottle of Grande Cru Margaut in the supermarket at a good price, whilst I cooked a fine beef bourguignon with fresh green beans and new potatoes for supper we sent Steve M off to get a pudding and find a bottle of rose for an aperitif, he came back with the pudding, wine and a 24 pack of Stella Artois! When asked how we were to carry the beers on the bikes, he replied that he thought we could drink them! Anyway the Frenchman walked past a few times eyeing all of the kit we had and asked where our car was, he seemed impressed when we said we didn’t have one. He then asked if he could buy a beer, so we donated two to Anglo/French relations and he went off happy. The next morning while we were packing he set a chair up outside and ate his breakfast, whilst watching us. When we mounted our bikes and set off he gave a little clap and a ‘bravo, et bon chance’ and then waved us off shaking his head at these mad ‘anglais’.

Getting out of the Suisse Normande proved to be harder than getting in, Gareth and Steve M had decided that they needed some Calvados a la ferme, so we started following some signs, up the hill we went and then back down, then back up again and then back down. Eventually we found somewhere selling said Calvados and then we seemed to spend most of the rest of the day traversing the hillside trying to find a way out. After finally getting to the top we headed for Conde-sur-Noireau where we found a fine municipal campsite and after our hard day decided to head into town for a meal. The following day was payoff time, after all of our climbing the day before we freewheeled for most of the day, we were heading for Brecy and a small campsite Gareth and I had used on an earlier trip. Unfortunately it was still closed and we started to wonder where to go next, a sort of agreement was made that we would try to continue on to Mont St Michelle, which was some 40km away. On the way we met up with some club riders out training and gave them a few pointers, Gareth was concerned that they should understand the proper dress code and by the fact that they seemed to be ill prepared for a day on the road. 

As we passed through Avranche the sun went in and the rain poured down, unless you climb up into Avranche itself there seems to be no way of getting around it without getting onto a dual carriageway so that’s what we did with spray and thunder and lightning all around us. We finally pulled into the Hotel Vert at the start of the causeway to Le Mont st Michel in pouring rain and made a decision that we would try and get one of the camping huts in the grounds. Trying not to look too disreputable we got booked into a fine 4 bed room in the grounds with a huge bathroom, having done well over 100km we felt we deserved it! That evening we went to the restaurant at the hotel and were given an interesting conundrum; they kindly gave us a menu in English but unfortunately our waiter spoke none. This meant that we could only look at the fare and try to remember what it was in French as pointing at the menu (my usual method) was no good as the waiter had no idea what the items were!

The next morning commenced with me setting up the stove in the bathroom so that we could have a brew before setting off, then we headed for St Malo. We headed towards le Mont Dol, which is a volcanic plug that sticks up out of otherwise flat terrain, there are a lot of these in Brittany, Mont st Michel is built on one. Always ones to take up a challenge we decided to cycle up the Dol, which is about 1:4 or steeper, we all made it to the top but were shattered by the effort. Coming back down was interesting and we all got very hot brakes to show for it. The rest of the day was uneventful; we met up with a family touring around on bikes and a load of Americans who were having problems with their navigation. They had a huge atlas, which only showed major roads and were getting nervous at the high-speed traffic they kept encountering. We directed then to some nice sections of the Rance and departed, during the afternoon the wind which had been a bit of a problem increased and as we went around the headland into St Malo it was quite hard work. We said goodbye to Gareth who was heading back and Steve M and I set off to find the Campsite. That evening we met up with some friends of mine and had a few beers at their daughter’s pizza restaurant. 

The night was punctuated by Dutch lads screaming their lungs out at irregular intervals through the night. At about 4am I said that if they did that again I was going to set light to their tent! At which Steve M replied that he would go and bike lock the fire extinguishers. This started us laughing and we had a fit of the giggles for 10 minutes or so. Fortunately for them, the Dutch decided to call it a night or fell unconscious or whatever.