St Valery to Biville

The wind still hasn't died down. When I woke this morning it was raining too but that stopped, thankfully. The other cyclists camping near me got up at sparrows and buggered off. They're all super keen. I packed my stuff and wandered out half an hour after checkout.

I waited around until about 1 until the rain had well and truly disappeared then set off. The route google gave me was super hilly, so I found one closer to the coast. I visited a couple of little seaside hamlets and stumbled upon this weird sculpture. I'll post a picture (Edit: No I won't, because I didn't take one with my phone) There was no plaque so I dunno what it is for.

The road I found was more of a rocky track (I need to stop trusting the grey lines on google) so I looped back towards the main road and cycled up bloody hills until I got to Treport. The road into Treport was really steep and I had a truck up my bum so I managed to get the bike up to almost 50km/h while riding the brakes. Doesnt sound like much but when it's loaded up the old beast likes to wobble.

Treport wasn't what I expected. Far nicer. I heard port and thought coal loaders and cat food smell (ie Kooragang Island for the Aussie novacastrians). Instead it was a decent sized town built below some enormous white cliffs where a canal (or river, but looked like a canal to me) meets the sea. A chapel looms over the town from a few streets above the main street. Apparently they've got a few churches too, but every speed bump gets its own church here.

I walked along the foreshore right around to the cliffs, then found the funicular. For those that don't know a vehicular funicular is a train that goes almost perpendicular. Been waiting to bust that out all day! I didn't think they'd let me take the bike on, but there was no they. It operates kind of like an elevator. No ticket, no operator; it even has buttons like an elevator. It went up through a tunnel in the cliffs and saved me riding up one hill at least.

I carried on towards Dieppe with more bloody hills. I spent a good half an hour riding through back streets in some little town trying to avoid going down hill so I wouldn't have to come back up hill. I hate hills. On the last not very steep hill of the day there was a bit of traffic and a truck was coming but couldn't go around so he just honked his horn as a warning for me to move and I had no choice but to ride off the road. When I got to the top I saw a sign for a camp ground so I thought that'll do me for the day.

The place I've camped is right near a nuclear power plant, which explains some of the residents. I went to have a look but couldn't find it. If I wake early enough I might go down for a swim. The water should be warm around the discharge pipe. The town itself is really nice, but geez did I see some dregs of society.

I checked the route to Dieppe for tomorrow and that last hill was THE last hill. So the plan for tomorrow is to zoom down hill until Dieppe, which is 16 km away and might actually be reachable in the time google says it is if it really is down hill. I'll gorge myself on seafood then ride out the other side and camp within striking distance of Etretat.

I'm going to post a few pictures but for some reason I can't caption them, which is ridiculous. So do your best to figure out what they are!

I've also included a picture of my bike loaded up.