Sunday, May 18th, 2014
Route Map and Garmin Ride Statistics
The view from my hotel window at 7:00am promised another day of sunshine, although in the distance there was a sea mist or fog over some of the house. If you ignore the construction site in the foreground, the view wasn't too bad.
By 8:45am when most of us set off, it was warm enough to discard the arm warmers and gilette tops that some of us had worn the previous day to stay warm for a while longer.
First stop was Samer at 24km, and in the delightful town square at 10:00am people were either preparing to go to church, or doing something else to enjoy the fantastic weather.
We chose a nearby coffer shop to have our first rest break of the day - this time coffee and a relax.
We had already done 30km of rolling hills with the occasional very steep incline, followed by a long and gradual descent. At one point we had two powered hang gliders follow us along the road (no picture, unfortunately). Here's Les, Peter and Trevor leaving me behind as I stop to take a photo for the blog (blame them for the lack of pictures on some sections of today's ride!).
At 48km we came to Montreuil, the recommended lunch stop for the day. Apparently, there weren't too many options after here, and that proved to be good advice. Trevor and I had lunch in a restaurant by the main square, and I was probably not sensible in choosing two courses - pate with onion and toast, followed bu tagliatelle with salmon. It was delicious, but perhaps one course too many for this time of the ride (OK, you know how much I enjoy French food).
This is the view from near we we ate back along the road from where we entered the square. Other rider chose various restaurants in this square or an earlier one in the same town.
There are Plain trees and forests all over France, and this avenue typifies much of today's riding. There were so few cars that we could virtually ride wherever we wanted (well, not all of the time).
Entering one very large forest, we came across a river and a mill. I have no idea whether this is 100 or 500 years old, but it was idyllic and a nearby restaurant attracted a large group of motorcyclists out for a Sunday afternoon ride.
On the other side of the road was an old house with a couple of castle turrets - again, we have no idea of their history.
Just after the mill and the castle we entered a very large forest. It seemed to be criss-crossed my a mesh of small roads that were perfect for cyclists, and which only carried a few cars. We put our heads down, and bums up, and made very fast progress through about 10 to 15km of straight country roads - perfect cycling!
We were four cyclists during this part of the day - Trevor, Peter, Les and me. This is Les who is doing 1,000 mile charity ride from his home in Eastbourne to Barcelona. This means he'll be cycling (alone) for four or five days after we leave him in Carcasonne at the end of our ride.
You can help Les with his fund raising at:
All donations go to support St Wilfrid's Hospice.
At about 72km we all needed to top up our drinks, and out energy, so we stopped in this little cafe/bar for an orange juice, iced tea or ice cream.
Energy and liquid renewed, we pedaled on with the terrain getting appreciably easier. At the 90km mark, and with 10 km to go, we set the "beer alert", meaning that if we found a good place to stop for a beer, then we would. Then, as if to plan, at 95km we came across this bar in the square of a small town.
It's fair to say that we haven't yet found anyone who isn't understanding, accepting and hospitable towards we foreigners with little or no french. A short time later, the rest of Team Tony arrived, along with our new Australian "mate" Graeme, and our old Irish mate David.
A beer at the hotel was easy, but dinner not so easy. We believe we are a little way out of the city of Abbeville, so restaurant options weren't great. However, what's wrong with a (French) pepper steak washed down with a bottle of (French) Burgundy!
And so to a very well earned bed - early for a change. But never before writing the day's blog.
Goodnight!
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