Thursday August 7, 2014

It rained during the night, but was clear by the time we woke up at 7:00 am.  We are already noticing a change in when it gets light in the morning and dark at night.  Our lives revolve around the amount of daylight there is available.  We had decided on a short ride to Mortain, and cycling along the road instead of the Velo Route.  The road was much shorter by about 15 kms than by the trail, but much hillier.  However, the hills were such that we got the momentum down one side to get up the other side – I really love it when that happens.

We had planned on a short ride so that we could get some washing done – unfortunately there was no laundromat in Mortain.  We also had planned the short ride so that we could visit the sites in Mortain which included the Abbey and two waterfalls.

I thought the sites were in the Town, I didn’t realize that we would pass the Abbey on the way in to the Town and the Grand Cascade was also on the same road.

I had stopped at the stone gate of the Abbey and could see the arches and the Abbey, Ralf had stopped a short way up the road, can you see much he asked.  \”Yes\” said I you should see the arches in this place.

On the entrance gate it said it was Privée.  We parked our bikes inside the gate and had a good walk around the Abbey it was huge and beautiful.  It was built in 1115 to house a women’s religious community.  The White Abbey was fully established in 1206 the year it was consecrated.  Most of the buildings were restored in the 19^th century.  It was used as a maternity hospital after the second world war.

As we were leaving I spotted Notre Dame la Blanche, I think she had been checking us out as we were looking at the Abbey. She stands 13 metres on a pedestal at its highest point on the rocks which dominate the abbey.

As we came around the corner from the White Abbey we spotted the sign for the Grand Waterfall.  It is the largest waterfall in western France falling from a height of 25 metres.

Unfortunately you do not want to leave loaded touring bikes unattended so we had to take it in turns to go to the waterfall, it was only a short walk down to the falls (250 metres).

As we came into Mortain we spotted this car in the petrol (gas) station.  Ralf took a couple of pictures when the passenger said “Hang on” and scooted underneath the dash board so that he could get a photograph of the car without her in view.  Of course, they were English and the guy had built the car 25 years ago.

We arrived in Mortain at 11:30 and found the municipal campsite and set up the tent.

Because we didn’t have to do any washing we had more time to do some walking in the area.  We followed the signs to the Petite Cascade (the small waterfall).  The path to the waterfall took us down a narrow walkway and then across two small wooden bridges, the path was quite narrow and slippy in places.

However, the walk was well worth it we passed two other small waterfalls before getting to the Petite Cascade.  The Petite Cascade was much prettier than the Grand Cascade.

After the waterfall we followed a trail to the Chapel Saint Vital.

This tiny chapel was built in the early 19^th century.  Count Robert of Mortain liked to come and meditate near these rocks.

Continuing up the path past the Chapel we got a great view of the Town of Mortain.

It was great to be able to spend the time in a Town and see the sites.  This is what we did in New Zealand and Australia and really enjoyed finding things in an area we didn’t know were there.

On our way to get our groceries we spotted a guy that was at the campsite in Vire.  We waved and he came over to chat to us.  He is from the Vimy area – He knew the Canadian history regarding Vimy Ridge.  He was a really nice and funny guy we asked him lots of questions about the Regions and Municipalities.  He explained there were 6 levels of government in France – the State, the District, the Region, the Canton, the Community (which could be split into two).  He says it has to change there are too many levels of government.

During the summer every Thursday evening in Mortain there is a music festival. Different music genres each week, tonight they are playing blues.

Wednesday August 6, 2014

We have been leaving the fly doors open during the night, as it is quite warm and the breeze stops the condensation building up inside the tent.  We woke up during the night to rain pattering on the tent, we quickly closed the fly doors and went back to sleep.  At 6:15am it was still raining and continued to rain for the rest of the morning.  We decided that this could be a non-cycling day.  I checked the forecast, which indicated that it would clear by 9:00 and then rain all afternoon with a chance of thunderstorms.  At 9:00 it was still raining and continued to rain until 12:30pm.  We had decided by 10:00 that we would not cycle today.  It is a real pain to take the tent down when it is raining and if we had got to Mortain, wet and dirty we would have opted for a hotel again.  We really need to control the budget, therefore we decided to stay in this municipal campsite for one more night.  Tomorrow the weather is supposed to improve and we will stay in another municipal site in Mortain.

We managed to eat breakfast and lunch in the tent, very cosy.

Ralf called me a \’net\’ curtain twitcher, I kept opening and closing the fly so that I could see what was happening, who was leaving, who was staying. However, Ralf was taking the photos – who is the curtain twitcher?

The Belgians were the first to make the move out of the campsite.  They had their tent down and cycled of in the rain by 9:30 am.

When the rain eased up at 12:30 the French couple decided to make a move and were on the road by 1:30.

Followed shortly after by the non-communicative couple at about 2:00. Their gear was still wet.

The other French couple on the tandem, were planning on staying here for another night anyway.

The sun came out and we considered breaking camp and heading out ourselves, but it was very humid so we decided to relax and catch up on posting the blog.

We went for a walk in the afternoon to get dinner for tonight – tortellini and camembert buns, more cheap wine.

The waterfalls at Mortain should be spectacular tomorrow, with the amount of rain that has fallen.

Here we are up to date.

Tuesday August 5, 2014

We have been cycling along the Vire river now for 3 days it is 130 kilometres long.  Today we had two options: Option one was to follow the EV4 until we came to Fourneau and then follow the D52 into Vire a distance of about 27 kms, then we would carry on to Sourdeval or even Mortain.  Option two was to carry on with the EV4 it would take us along a very scenic route to Vire, a distance of about 47 kms and stay in Vire overnight.

When we were packing up the tent this morning we could hear a donkey braying.  The light donkey was the noisy one – 2.3 kms down the river, we could hear the noisy animal.

We had to decide whether to stay on the EV4 or take the road, Ralf suggested we stay on the EV4.  As soon as we crossed the road to  follow the the EV4 it came away from the river route and kicked up into the hills and valleys.  We were up and down all day.  It was a good ride even with all the hills.

Here is the source of a waterfall, which we didn\’t find.  There was a sign for it, but it was just a little stream.

The route directed us to this viaduct.  It was a busy train crossing, now it is used for a bungee and swing.  I am not sure the bungee is still being used, but the swing was.

At the top of one hill in the Village of Bures les Monts, we found this lovely old \’castle\’.  Needs a bit of work, but lovely place, great views.

We arrived in Vire at about 2:30 pm, got the directions to another municipal campsite and headed to it.

This area was also badly damaged during June 6, 1944, although they were none to pleased at the Americans.

The centre piece of Vire is the clocktower, dating from the mid- 16th Century, it survived.

After our normal routine of setting up the tent, showering, I hand washed our cycling clothes, I hope they dry by the morning.  There is a nice breeze and the sun is out, I think they will dry.  Tomorrow we will have to find a laundromat.

As I am sitting here writing the blog (Ralf has gone to the store to get dinner) another couple of touring cyclists have arrived they are from Belgium. Now another two – from France.  Now another two – don’t know where they are from they are not speaking to anyone else.  Another two on a tandem with a BOB trailer also from France.  This is amazing 10 touring cyclists all in one camp site.  The couple from Belgium are really nice they came from the direction we are heading tomorrow and gave us a name of a campsite that they stayed in last night.  That is what touring cyclists try and do –  share information with other touring cyclists.

Ralf is back with Chilli con carne and couscous for dinner tonight.  Our general rule of thumb has been to drink on our rest days and have juice on our cycling days.  As we are on a budget in France it is wine every night and juice on our rest days.  A bottle of wine €1.99 – a bottle of Sprite or coke €2.55! C’est Bon.

Monday August 4, 2014

We had a little bit of a lie-in this morning. As we did not know when the shops were going to open, we could take our time.  I was feeling a little run-down, I felt as if I was getting a cold.  We cycled towards the telephone shop, but Ralf wanted to check out one of the medieval gates.  We decided to follow the ramparts around the Town. Saint Lo was built in the middle ages to protect it from invading Norsemen.  Most of the Town was destroyed on June 6, 1944 from the allied bombings.  Hundreds of people took shelter in the underground area in the ramparts during the air raids, many others lost their lives.

The Porte au lait is one of the entrances protecting the south side of the Town.  The gate takes its name from the farmers who used to sell their milk in this area.

The Church de Notre Dame was badly damaged during the bombings.  The church still bears the scars.  Its damaged facade was not restored but was replaced with a wall that closed off the nave.

It was a really nice start to the day.

We got to the telephone shop just after it opened.  We found an interesting appointment system in place at the store. You gave your name and the nature of your business and then waited in turn.  Your name flashed on the screen and you went to the next salesperson.  Unfortunately, the salesperson could not speak English, her colleague could so we had to wait for her.  This made life very easy for us, we were able to get a new SIM card for the phone and a new SIM card for the data stick.   The funny thing was I couldn’t open the data stick from England, but I was able to open the one from New Zealand. I am now reusing the data stick from New Zealand, with a new sim card.

As we left the store we had a conversation with a French couple who are going to cycle in Dorset.  They leave tomorrow for 15 days.  We told them about our trip.   We have had this conversation many times before however, this conversation was held in a mixture of poor English and poor French.  We all understood each other and wished each other well in both languages.  After 4 days in France we can already have a conversation – not a very in depth one but still we can understand what people are saying and they can understand us.

We eventually left the store at around noon.  We went into the Tourisme to inquire about Municipal campsites and how we book them.  Some smaller towns have small ‘natural’ campsites.  They are supposed to be very basic, we weren’t expecting much from them, other than they are cheap.  The woman at the Tourisme told me all we need to do is show up at the campsite or call the number to reserve.  With my limited French I didn’t want to call and reserve, so we decided we would turn up and keep our fingers crossed that there would be space.

We grabbed a couple of toasted ham and cheese paninnis for lunch and eventually left Ste Lo at 1:30pm.  It was going to be a short ride to Tessy sur Vire.  We followed EV4 again along the River Vire.  Very relaxing following the river, the path was partially paved and partially packed limestone.  The bikes and ourselves were covered in dust by the time we got to Tessy sur Vire.

Along the river there was another Art in the Park type of art exhibition.

Remember the one in Lorne in Australia.  This was similar – art is in the eye of the beholder.

As Ralf remarked at one ‘art’ installation, it would have been better to have left it in the recycling bin.

We passed an area along the River that was being used by a canoe and kayak club.  The kids here were attempting to play water polo.

When we got to Tessy sur Vire the Municipal campsite was well sign posted and we were very pleasantly surprised at the size of it and the cleanliness of the utility block.  The utility block has two showers, two toilets, a room with two sinks and four sinks for dishwashing, there are even a couple of power outlets for us to use.  We went into the Town to find the Mairie (municipal office) to pay for a site.  Tessy closes on a Monday!!  Everything was closed, we decided to set up our tent and figured someone would come and check up on us at some stage or we would go into to the municipal office tomorrow and pay.  We settled in to our lovely little site by the river and I went for a shower – I was expecting cold water, but it was lovely and hot and lots of water pressure.  If all of the municipal campsites are this good it will save us a fortune and we won’t have to wild-camp.  This site cost €7.90.  We even have a picnic bench.  We were just putting our dishes away when a municipal worker came to the site – he took our €7.90 and wished us a good evening.  We were the only ones on the campsite.

Sunday August 3, 2014

We were up early and ready to leave our field campsite by 9:15 am.  In the square the Town had an exhibition of photos from 1944 to 2014 highlighting world events the good, the bad and the ugly.  It was very interesting to be reminded of when different things happened.  These two events happened during the years we were born.

The EU was originally called EEC.

We followed the EV4 to Carantan and got misplaced going through the Town due to a Sunday Market that went down all the side streets emanating from the Town square. Fortunately the Office de Tourisme was open and we got directions to get out of Town.  However, we passed a stand that sold BBQ’d sausages – twice. Actually we didn’t pass the stand the second time, we stopped for a sausage on a French stick – a second breakfast which kept us going all day.

The route today was very nice and we followed the River Vire for the last 15kms.  The trail was packed limestone and wide enough for the two of us to cycle side by side.  We came across a family cycling towards us and Ralf knocked the little kid of his bike.  Ralf’s version was he kept staring at me and ran into my back pannier.  Poor kid ended up crying on the ground.  Parents and grandparents assured us the kid was o.k. I was ready with my First Aid kit but it was unnecessary.

What we love about this Grand Adventure is we are often surprised about the areas we are cycling in.  Of course, this area has a lot of history with the Normandy landings and the second world war.  A lot of the villages were bombed by the allies prior to the landings.  There are signs and information boards about the various events that happened on or around the days of the Normandy landings.  We are also amazed at the beautiful flower displays almost every village has.

We arrived in Saint Lo but the Office Tourisme closed at 2:00pm on a Sunday, it was 2:30. We didn\’t know that Saint Lo was a walled City, we will have to investigate the walls tomorrow.

We had no idea where to stay.  We followed the signs for hotel and figured we would ask them if there was a campsite.  The first place said no campsites in Ste Lo but one 10 kms away, they had rooms for €58 (2 star).  The second hotel, on the same street looked cleaner and was €57 (3 star). No complimentary coffee but free wi-fi.  They put our bikes in a secure lock-up for the night.  Ralf went to get dinner, I researched campsites, I found a website listing municipal campsites.  I also checked the route for the next couple of days.

Did you know it is more expensive to buy juice or pop in France than it is to buy wine.  Guess what we had with dinner, it was not orange juice.

Tomorrow we are going to the ‘Orange’ Store to get set up with new sim card for the phone and a wi-fi data stick for the computer – that should be fun.

Saturday August 2, 2014

What an excellent first full day of cycling in France.  We were late getting going this morning, I woke up at 6:15 as usual, but then went back to sleep for half an hour.  We had a leisurely breakfast and cleaned up, by the time the tent was packed away and we were ready to leave it was 9:45, the latest start for a very long time. We had to find the small village of Digosville where we would pick up the Eurovelo Route # 4 (EV4).  Digosville was a really pretty Town, and the flowers were beautiful.

As soon as we got to Digosville we found the signs for EV4 and followed it all the way to Sainte-Marie du Mont.  The route was really well signed, at the intersections along with the regular road signs, which is how cycle routes should be signed.

There was only one section which was a bit of a pain when the route meandered along the beach path, you really didn\’t want to go swimming in this area.

We stopped in Quineville for lunch and then headed towards the Utah Beach area.  Before we got to the beach we came across the Chrisbecq batteries.  We came up a hill and turned the corner and there was the biggest gun placement and bunker I have ever seen.

I turned around to look to see where the beach was and it was a couple of kilometres down the hill.  It bought me to tears.

Here were these massive guns trained on the beaches, that could throw shell after shell at the men coming from the landing crafts.  I was horrified.  All of the memorials, statues and words of peace could not bring the horror of war home to me more than seeing these massive guns.

As we arrived at Utah Beach we were told about the 70th anniversary of the liberation of this area.  This wasn’t about the landings, this was when France had its own army again.  There were various army displays and people were waiting for the parade.  It started in typical French fashion with no-one really knowing where to go or what was happening.

Eventually they crossed the road and did a circuit of the field before coming back to the display area.  They had all sorts of vehicles including the guy on the bike!  In the evening there was going to be a concert.

We arrived in Sainte-Marie du Mont at about 5:30 a little tired from the long ride (our longest day) and very hungry.  We still hadn’t found a camp site for the night, but we were really hungry.  We looked at the menu in the restaurants in Sainte Marie du Mont and decided to eat first then find a campsite.  We had a 3 course meal Prix-fixed menu EU18 each.  The food was fabulous, I had baked camembert with a mixed green salad, pork medallions with fries and profiteroles with ice-cream, Ralf had the same starter, pork burger and fries and Iles de meringue, (Islands of meringue).  Of course that would have broken the budget for today, if I hadn’t spotted a young man checking out the bikes.  I went over and introduced myself. Tom had spotted the Canadian flag on Ralf\’s bike.  Tom is studying at McGill University.  He asked where we were headed for and where we had come from.  I explained we were so hungry we had to stop to eat and then we had to look for a campsite.  He offered up his grandparents field.  His grandparent arrived and they said yes of course we could pitch our tent here.  So here we are in a field behind an Englishman’s house, they have allowed us the use of their toilet facilities.  Tom has lived in France since he was four, his Grandparents moved to France 14 years ago.

Tom was our road angel for today.  I think we would have had to wild camp if he hadn’t been interested in the bikes.