Orléans to Dieppe – the final stage!

Day 18 to 22   Stage 4 – the final section from Orléans to Dieppe! 

 

Day 18 –  From Orléans to Chartres. 90 km
Day 19 – Rest day

Day 20 – Chartres to Vernon on the River Seine near Rouen. 102 km
Day 21 – Vernon to Forges-les-Eaux. 90 km
Day 22 – Forges-les-Eaux to Dieppe. 58 km 

 

Day 18 – 7th June

Today I left the Loire Valley at Orléans and travelled north to Chartres. Although still very tired from my epic cycle ride the day before I knew I had to get on and it didn’t seem that far, at about 77 km, with much lower ascent than earlier experienced on the trip. The ride should have been easy. The weather seemed fair, not massively sunny, not too hot and not too cold. Weaving my way out of Orléans I finally found myself on some minor roads in the countryside but what I hadn’t accounted for was the crosswinds. The countryside north of Orléans is really a vast dome of fields as far as the eye can see with no hedgerows. The wind was quite fierce and worse still it sometimes was a headwind.  If it had been raining it would have been game over!  

The mistake on this section of the journey was to think that I didn’t need my paper map. I know many use electronic maps all the time but I like to have a paper map as well to see the lay of the land in one go. It seemed to be fairly simple, – go straight up from Orléans to Chartres. Well, it’s not quite like that. I was trying to stay off the main roads and thought it was going to be fairly straight forward to follow side roads. Some of these roads were heading directly north. I don’t know what happened but at quite a few points the headwind was too strong and diverted myself off to a road where the wind was more behind me. So the whole journey turned out to be 90 km when it should have been 77 km.. 

But the highlight of the journey was when I stopped to check where I was and I realised I had a puncture. I was in a small hamlet. Oh no! Fortunately, it was in the front wheel so it’s easier. As I was turning the bike over to get the wheel off, a vehicle turned into a farmyard opposite and soon there was what I think was a grandad and his grandson coming over to offer help. Well the young lad, not much more than about nine years old, took complete charge!  He went off to the nearby farm workshop building telling me to follow. What a place – a massive array of tools and a great big long workbench. He set to work with, believe it or not, tyre levers for farm vehicles. I had to ask him to be a little bit more gentle but it actually did work with a bit of liquid soap from his family’s kitchen. He’d got the tyre fixed!  

The young lad pumped up the tyre with the farm compressor. Grandad had to go off into another part of the workshop and start a very noisy motor which delivered high-pressure air through a hose to the main workshop.  A wonderful little experience! Such an enthusiastic little boy, and the grandfather was standing by all the time, beaming all over his face. I thanked them and shook their hands and they disappeared as quickly as they had arrived.  So I set off on my way again. Cresting each hill, I could see the twin towers of Chartres cathedral in the far distance. The first sighting must have been 15 miles away.  After further struggles with the wind and the cooling temperatures I arrived at my hotel on the outskirts of Chartres.  

Day 20 – 8th June

I headed north again today out of Chartres and quickly found the River L’Eure valley. The river was heading in my direction. It eventually flows into the Seine just south of Rouen.   Following the river valley turned out to be a great route with very few hills and quiet roads with picturesque scenery. It’s a peaceful valley with lots of ancient villages and mostly away from the wind thank goodness! For most of the journey it was a very pleasant sunny day. On the way, I saw many old mill buildings, some of them, sadly, derelict but some had been turned into homes.

 

The river valley was dotted with small ancient villages.  It seemed to me that it had been settled since at least the Middle Ages. Some of the villages were well kept and other villages were sadly a little bit dilapidated. It was Sunday and those people who were lucky enough to have their gardens leading down to the river were having their Sunday parties. At one point the smell was so enticing I just wanted to get off my bike and join them. These days finding a patisserie open, especially on a Sunday in France, is much more difficult than it used to be. but I was lucky  and I found one that served coffee as well!. 

Eventually the river valley widened out and at one point I came upon a large lake where the surrounding area was open for public access with beautifully kept grass slopes down to the lake’s edge with benches for people to have their picnics on.  Quite a lot of people were enjoying their Sunday. How wonderful!  There was also a sailing centre at one end with dinghies and windsurfers out on the water. The French do seem to make good use of their natural facilities. 

 

Cycling on, I came upon a Mesolithic ancient site with great stones forming what may have been a burial chamber. Nearby there is the site of one of the Roman Emperor Caesar’s major camps. 

One place which wasn’t all closed up on Sunday was Maintenon. The central area must have had about four restaurants open plus shops!  The very grand looking château was open to the public with the gate leading onto the town square. There was still a long way to go so I had to leave this scenic little town and make my way on to  Vernon. It proved to be quite a task as I had to leave the L’Eure river valley and cross over some hills. There were some steep climbs before I was able to drop down into Vernon. 

 

Day 21 – 9th June

Vernon has ancient fortifications on the river and was obviously a strategic crossing in centuries past. It is very near Giverny, Monet’s home in Normandy. A visit there will have to wait for another day. 

On this, my penultimate day, the destination is Forges-les-Eaux. I crossed the River Seine with a plan to go up over a range of hills to my destination. I hadn’t really prepared for any of the journeys properly, all the way from Orléans to Dieppe. This is where again my navigation skills came undone. The side roads made it difficult to make a direct route to Forge-les-Eaux unless you wanted to take a series of main roads. In the end I decided to head for Gourney-en-Bray which was signposted quite well. Once more I found myself on a high plateau of Normandy farmland with wheat field after wheat field and potato field after potato field going in all directions and now I had the wind almost completely against me again.   At Gournay-en-Bray I thought I would be able to follow the Avenue Verte signs but this was a bit of a failure as at one point I saw Avenue Verte signs pointing in four different directions at a small crossroads in the middle of the countryside so I gave up and headed for the main road. It was a tough ride with headwinds and getting colder by the hour.  

Having checked in at the hotel I thought I deserved a beer after all this. I went into a bar and joined a group of guys who were obviously having their evening drink after a working day. They called me the Viking! We had a great laugh! I guess I looked a bit weatherbeaten by this time!  

Day 22 – 10th June

 

My final day on my epic expedition from the south of France to Dieppe in the north!   I expected the ride to be easy, straight down the well-surfaced Avenue Verte at a distance of about 55 kilometres. I’m familiar with this route. Despite the weather forecast saying it was going to be a sunny day it was cloudy, overcast and chilly….. and I had a headwind! Not exactly what I wanted on the last day!

Some sunshine would have been very nice which finally arrived while I was on the front at Dieppe chatting to two French cyclists.  I boarded the ferry and the full sun came out once we’d left the harbour. We left the clouds behind and had a wonderful crossing with the sunshine and a gentle swell on the sea. Very pleasant. 

On the journey across I met a number of cyclists. Chatting to other cyclists about their journeys and where they’ve been is great fun and I really enjoyed it. I met one particular guy from Shoreham, John, who had also made an epic journey himself – 800 miles to Germany and back! Well done him!!  He had done lots of long-distance cycling on the continent.  I felt in good company.  The ferry arrived on a warm evening in Sussex, – the evening sky was lit up with the  orange afterglow of the sunset, and there was no wind to speak of so I sped my way up on a relatively quiet C7 road to Lewes.  There was just enough light for me to see my way around the many potholes. Yes,  I’m back in England !!