Tick, tick, tickโฆ Basically thatโs what Iโve spent today doing. Ticking off all the things that you might, in an ideal world, want a disused railway line, converted into a walking-cycling greenway – voie verte here in France – to have. If the dรฉpartement of Seine-Maritime set out to build what I consider to be an unbeatable bit of cycle-touring infrastructure, they succeeded.
CURRENT LOCATION: Dieppe If you missed anything, hereโs the first week in video. Enjoy! LATEST CYCLING EUROPE POSTS: Subscribe to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now even a podcast, The Cycling Europe Podcast. If […]
Letโs start with some good news. Upon arrival in Dieppe yesterday after a long cycle in the heat, I sat down for a beer by the harbour and was, imhoโฆ fleeced โฌ9 for a 50cl Leffe Blond on draft. (Thatโs a price Copenhagenโs harbour cafรฉs would be proud of.) The evidence in my favour was a menu that said the price was โฌ4.50 and that the drinks were served as 50cl or 75cl, giving the impression that it wasnโt an option for the premium Leffe to be a modest โdemie pressionโ (25cl). The drink was delivered and โฌ9 demanded. I immediately complained and walked out in digust. Well, OK, being British, I smiled and tossed a cherry โmerciโ in the waiterโs direction handing over my cash while seething internally. So whereโs the good news? Well, having visited the local tabac-cafรฉ this morning and paid the princely sum of โฌ1.50 for a coffee (all in the name of price research), Iโm back here now enjoying a 25cl draft Kronenbourg for โฌ2.80. Success!
Phew! What a scorcherโฆ And itโs apparently going to get hotter. I daubed myself three times today with factor 50 but Iโll be investing in a cap of some description tomorrow (as well of more supplies of the sun cream). Yet Iโm staying well hydrated and fed by the French. Todayโs food has all come courtesy of the toil of French labour; pastries from the boulangerie in Le Crotoy, fruit from a market in the same town and now a three-course meal in Dieppe at a restaurant called Le Sully. So far – a starter of smoked salmon and herring on a bed of new potatoes – so good, but Iโll update you as the meal progressesโฆ I feel like Rick Stein without a film crew (and a bicycle).
A day to rememberโฆ Some of you may think that politics has no place on a website such as this. Yet I disagree. A head of government represents the country. He or she is not seen by those in other countries as a Tory or a socialist or a liberal or whatever. They are simply an embodiment of what the โmajorityโ are thinking. (Majority! Well, not in our archaic first-past-the-post system but thatโs another argument.) So when I meet people and ask them what they think of our prime minister, itโs embarrassing to be told that he is thought of as an โidiotโ or โjokerโ because in a small way they are saying that about me and you. We, collectively, gave him the power. I never voted for him but I am part of the system that did. I am glad that he will soon be gone. I watched him speak live on my phone this lunchtime. Just as he finished, I passed in front of a magnificent hotel in Le Touquet calledโฆ Le Westminster. Everyone, irrespective of the politics, should be glad that he will soon be replaced.
Is he still there? By the time you read this (posting is going to be delayed until Thursday morning due to the lack of a good mobile signal) he may well have been dragged out of Downing Street, kicking and screaming. Last night I had the pleasure of staying with a WarmShowers host in the outskirts of Ostend. He has lead the development of a co-housing project and he now lives on a large plot of land not far from the airport along with 17 other families – around 70 people in total – with separate homes but shared facilities. Itโs a real village and it was wonderful to spend a few hours last night in their company talking about the development, the motivation for creating such a place and the practical advantages of doing so. (There are many – Iโll list them in the book!) I spent much of the evening chatting to a retired firefighter called Michel and the subject moved on to politics. I asked him what people in general thought of Boris Johnson in Belgium. โA jokeโ was his responseโฆย
This trip is turning out to have more ferries than a cycle up the west coast of Norway. Another two today; at the start from Vlissingen to Breskens and a short one at the end across the harbour in Ostend. I think, however, that may be it for the time being. Sandwiched between the two boats was a 69km cycle along the coast to Ostend and it was somewhat different to what I had expectedโฆ
Iโm coming to the conclusion that The Netherland is one big engineering project. Today was dominated by the dams and dykes of the west coast. I was told yesterday- I think it was Professor Matthias – that a dam is a barrier between water and water and a dyke is a barrier between water and land. I couldn’t quite work out if the barriers upon which I cycled were dams or dykes as although most separated the sea from the land, the land itself was fully of large lakes. Answers on a postcard. (Or in a commentโฆ)
