Friday the 13th really is the day to take a long bike hike! We were determined to bike the bridge called Pont de Normandie, and when the weather forecast showed a non-rainy day for change, we grabbed the chance. Success! But not without some challenges on the way…
In the morning, the garage door was blocked and our bikes were thus inaccessible, but luckily we found someone to open another door for us. We almost missed the bus, but got to Pont-Audemer on time and on our way to Saint-Opportune-la-Mare, 9 km, 11 am. The cider farm we had planned to visit on the way was closed and we took a wrong road to find a geocache, but eventually ended up finding the cache easily.
On our way to Foulbec (13 km, 1 pm), Tuomas’s bike chains fell, and kept falling from then on, because some part of the gear was blocked – pedaling was ok, stopping wasn’t, so Tuomas had to keep pedaling to keep the chains from falling. Downhills were hilarious. Of course, there are no bike repair shops in the French countryside. Between Foulbec and Honfleur (18 km, 15 pm), the weather got really hot, and we stopped every now and then in order not to get too hot. In Honfleur, we spent a couple of hours and found two geocaches. One of them was on top of a high hill, and on the way back we rested at a cold fountain to regain consciousness.
By the time we got to the bridge (7 km, 18 pm), the temperature was 33 C. The bridge itself was great! About 1 km uphill, then another 1 km downhill, and a superb view on the way. And biking there is free, cars pay a toll of 5 euros.
Another cache waited for us on the other side of the bridge, and the last 20 km took us to Le Havre and the train to Rouen at 20:41. No need to repeat that the weather was boiling hot? Even when we got back to Rouen at 21:42, it was really warm. Now we have shiny sun tan marks and no hope of sunbathing to fix them – it’s raining again.
