Yesterday was a long haul – it was very pleasant in the morning, then there was a heavy shower and although I had bought the obligatory cheese, I decided to go into a nice Auberge for a bite of lunch. On the menu I saw what I thought was warm horsemeat salad and decided to be brave and try it. When it came, it was cheese (apparently goat’s cheese, as I have found out in the meantime) with about 5 lettuce leaves – obviously just a starter, which explains why the waitress was so surprised that that was all I wanted!
After that I could just not find a turning – when I finally realised it would definitely not come it was too far to go back, so I recalculated my route and went into a town – allbeit a small one – which was a horrendous experiemce. You should normally feel quite safe going around a roudabout, as there is a green cyclists lane all round, but an idiot in a car actually cut in front of me and scared the living daylights out of me. It’s a wonder I stayed on my bike! When I finally found my way out of the town, I was very disappointed to find that the white road, which seemed to follow a river valley according to the map, was actually quite a busy road and I hardly saw the river at all. When I reached Beauvais I had already done 100 Kilometers, but I couldn’t face another town, so I phoned and checked that there was a room avalable at this lovely hotel Moulin Forge at St. Omer-en-Chaussee. It was a pleasant run on tranquil roads and the hotel is just as nice if not nicer than it looked on the internet, but it was a big disappointment that the restaurant was officially closed. However the young receptionist was cooking what she called snacks and it turned out to be a nice meal.
Sorry again no photos – I was too tired to blog last night and now I’m running out of time. Hopefully I’ll have more time tomorrow as I am not going to stress myself by attempting to get the ferry today as I have still not had my second day off.. I plan to stay with an English lady 16 Kilometers short of Dieppe and won’t need to leave there until lunchtime.
Trip stats 122,48 Kms., 420 hm., 8:20:27 bike time