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Published: November 12th 2007
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So this is a bit behind but here goes (by the way, check out the Paris article again to see the attached pictures).
After the bustle of Paris it was good to get into the quiet countryside of Normandy. Of course, smaller cities have disadvantages too as I would find. Hopping off the train, I found there was no map or tourist information at the station. I started out to the centre of town, figuring that in a place this small it couldn't be too hard to find the hostel. Eventually I stumbled into a place that looked like a hostel but it was called a "Family House" and it looked like there was no one there. It was open so I waited for a bit and ended up looking at a map on the wall in which a traffic circle was starred and it looked like there was another auberge. The one I was at looked more expensive than the one in the guidebook and at a totally different address. As it turned out, the guidebook lied to me (not for the last time). When I hiked about 1.5 km I found that the traffic circle was on the
edge of town and surrounded by commercial buildings. After hiking back to the original spot (with backpack), there was still no one at the desk but there were other people waiting. I sat next to the "We be back in 2 minutes" sign for about half an hour (the other guys had already been waiting for half an hour). Eventually got checked in and realized that I was bunked up with another Canadian, from Medicine Hat in fact. That night I had the traditional traveler's meal of donair. Here is why all travelers eat donair: a) it's cheap, b) you get a healthy portion, c) it's open when nothing else is, and d) it's slightly different in every place (your physical travel is mirrored by your gastronomical travel).
The next day, I wanted to go to the Canadian D-Day beach (Juno). The bus tours were expensive so, at 10AM, I set off with Calvin, my Canadian friend, by bike. The French countryside looks like it's been frozen in time from 100 years ago. At one point we stopped on the side of a little backroad and it was completely silent. It was the first time I'd heard such silence
since I left Canada! After we got to the beach and wandered around a bit Calvin wanted to try to make it to the American cemetary (at Omaha beach). We figured it was about 20km away and we thought that we could make it (and still get the bikes back on time) if we kept a good pace. It turns out that the coastline is not nearly as flat as further inland. The first hill was almost enough to make us reconsider: we climbed to the top of a bluff overlooking the remains of the British "Mulberry Harbour" which was a temporary harbour made of concrete blocks used in the D-Day landings. Calvin decided that he was on a mission to see Omaha so we continued on. By this point each hill was becoming painful and we groaned everytime we went downhill because we knew we would pay for it with an uphill around the corner. Finally, we arrived at the cemetary. It was now 3:45 and we could only spend 30 minutes. The scope was incredible, the graves just seemed to go forever. Reluctantly remounting, we headed for home. We thought it was about 10km, it turned out to
be over 15km. Passing old fortified mansions at which we would have stopped at the beginning of the day and navigating the back roads as best as possible, we finally made it to the main road into town. We had 6km left to go and 15 minutes to do it. Facing us was a hill up into town. Putting my head down, I pedalled with everything I had. At a few points, I became so focussed on pedalling that I swerved into the road a bit, getting too close for comfort with the cars whizzing by. Finally reaching the top I ran a yellow light and looked behind to see Calvin 20 metres behind. He went through the light anyways. We rolled into the bike rental place at 5:33 and thankfully it was still open. My legs felt like rubber and my arse was in some considerable discomfort. 7.5 hours, 3 beaches (we saw a British beach too), and 60 km later we had completed our tour. We celebrated with pizza, wine, and some horrible tasting apple cider and then went to bed early.
Wrapping up the rest of my adventures more quickly, the next day I saw the Bayeux Tapestry (which recounts the 10th century invasion of Britain by the Duke of Normandy, William the Conquerer) and a D-Day museum. Next day I headed out to Lille (I wanted to see Vimy and the hostel in the closest town, Arras, was closed due to water damage according to Calvin). I spent a day going to Vimy, which was really interesting, and then planning where to go next. Stay tuned for the next blog entry on that...
Cheers,
Stefan
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