2024 Oise-Seine-Manche-Somme

Oise, Seine, Manche et Somme 2024

Tuesday, 23rd of July

In the morning we drive to Andy Schleck’s „Cycling Shop“, rather desperate, since Gaston has trouble with his bike: trying to replace his front wheel mantle (it was thinning out…) turned into a technical disaster. The thing is really stuck, almost like „glued“to the wheel, Gaston tears it apart and thinks he has damaged the rim. So we stand in the shop asking for help. They are fantastic: a very competent mechanic repairs everything right on the spot, he even lets Gaston watch, so he can learn! This saves our trip since we have already reserved a number of hotels, against our habit, but we thought it necessary because we will come close to Paris and the Olympic Games….A couple of hours later the car is loaded and we are off to Mézière-sur-Oise ,+- 370 km. 

Here we booked Hotel Robinson, a place where we stayed 2 years ago. We get the permission to leave our car on their grounds during our trip. The landlady Rita is extremely friendly and helpful. We eat our picnic and after a lovely stroll through their parc (these hotel owners are very hard workers and keep the giant parc in a good shape), get a good rest and wake up early to launch ourselves into the adventure…

Wednesday, 24th of July

We start our ride along the canal de la Sambre à l’Oise. It is a perfect cycling day: not too hot, not too cold, NO rain, no headwind and a flat track. Delightful! 

We follow it for a good while and cycle to a piece of the Artificial Port of Arromanches, that port that was built especially for „D-Day"during WWII. After the war the artificial harbour got dismantled and the separated pieces went all over France, any town/place that had lost a bridge could apply for these pieces to help rebuild the bridge. 

After this interesting episode we follow the signs to „Abbaye Ourscamp“. We enter the place through a large parc with old old (and giant) trees. This is a real monastery, still active, with monks wandering around in brown robes. The chapel ruin is fantastic and extremely photogenic. The monks are friendly and do not mind us walking around taking pictures.

Campiègnes

On we go, discover on signs along the track that Robert Louis Stevenson travelled by boat along the canal to explore the area. He even wrote a short book about it. We continue our route all the way to „Compiègne“and find to our total surprise a little jewel: the town is old, full of ancient half-timbered houses, churches with „filigrane“ spires, all carved in stone and lovely little flower gardens. We stroll around and after our visit get to „B&B Hotel “, a place that welcomes bikers in a friendly way. Dinner next door, a Pizzeria. 82km

Thursday, 25th of July

An early start rewards us with rabbits that cross our path and peace and quietness around us. The greenery is stunning, with a very lush undergrowth, some nettles and yarrow are really tall. No wonder after 10 months of rain! 

We pedal on, get to „Sénlis“, quite an amazing little town with St Pierre church and a spectacular cathedral, „Notre Dame“, all in an old gallo-roman surrounding. The cobblestone gives us a hard time with the bikes but we push the bikes through the little streets and enjoy the sights.

Senlis

After that we get into the woodlands, „les domaines forrestières“ with long tracks right through the forest. We are +- 100 km away from Paris and this whole area reminds us of Fontainebleau, the houses are rather similar, very rich and posh, sometimes even mansions or tiny castles. A luxurious summer area for the Parisian high society? Soon the next surprise: „Chantilly Castle“ , towering splendidly on a hill, wonderfully maintained. Instead of visiting the castle (it would take all day), we have a little picnic right outside and enjoy the view. We detect a huge „Hippodrome“for horse races, we have been right, this is indeed a place for rich people and their entertainments. Chantilly sounds wonderful to me; I visualize heaps of delicious whipped cream while I push into the pedals. 

Chantilly

On we go through some forests and a number of small villages until we are back at the river Oise. From this „crossroad“on we start moving away from Paris in a big circle ,glad to be away from the tumult of the Olympic Games. To end the cycling day we get to the „Île d’Adam“ and „Parmain“. Here we reserved a little B&B „les Volets bleus", we get up a steep hill and find the keys where the landlady indicated it to me (via WhatsApp, very easy ).

We get settled and clean and return to the town centre to shop for our dinner and breakfast. 80km We can still eat outside of the little house, very pleasant. Later a few rain droplets…

Friday, 26th of July

After our self-catering breakfast (quite early) ,we close up „les volets“ and leave. The weather is not really convincing, heavy rain all night so we have our rain gear at hand. Good thing: it is not cold! We are still following the river Oise and all is fine. After a while we get to the Confluence of the rivers Oise and Seine. Here little signs teach us some history: for a long time this was the area, where people would get the lime stones („ pierres calcaires“) that were used for building the nobles‘ houses and palaces. And it is still there, we see the white cliffs peeping out from the woods above the river bank. -Unfortunately we miss Van Gogh’s tomb, we have a long way to go and cannot afford some long detours…so we skip it.

And right we did since we ride on terrible tracks now: gravel, and being wet is NOT helping! big holes, stones, all in all very unpleasant for wrists and necks, and slowing us down enormously. A highlight after this rattling and rumbling is beautiful Cathedral Notre Dame that we find in Mantes-la-Jolie. After our quick visit there we lose our track several times: various „routes barrées“ and no signs for the detour- annoying! In the end we choose some roads (not too much traffic) and speed up a bit to make up for the lost time. 

We finish in „La Roche-Guyon“ ,our destination ,and get rewarded with the sight of a splendid castle. (a castle built in right into the rocks, amazing!) Hotel „Bord de la Seine“, Where we get dinner and spend the night. 100km

La Roche-Guyon

Saturday, 27th of July

In the evening we are a bit down: the weather forecast announces heavy rain for the whole day. -Indeed, rain all night and in the morning but, lucky us, it stops after breakfast! Happily we start cycling, although under grey skies but dry so far. Next sweet surprise: we are prepared for some more wet gravel, but no, the tracks are fine and we advance without any trouble. In „Giverny“ we pass Claude Monet’s house and gardens. We refrain from visiting any, long queues, so we skip the impressionist experience. The ride through the village is nice and makes up for it.

Vernon

Later in „Vernon“ we can see a nice castle but the most outstanding sight is the old mill „le Vieux Moulin“, built right as a bridge and the river flowing through underneath.

On we go and see „Château Gaillard“, a big castle over towering the river,  with solid walls and partly in ruins. Very impressive. -As we go on we come along these white cliffs (pierres calcaires) ,they are indeed an eyecatcher. 

-We circle a lake, where people have a swim, barbecues and some fun. The atmosphere is nice, soon we sit down and have a picnic, too. We think that after the last 60 km there are some more 30 to go and then arrive in Rouen. Big mistake: we miscalculated the meandering river, instead of 30km we are facing some more +-70km. Oops! So no more relaxing but riding full speed for a long time. -In the end we get to Rouen, Hotel Ibis, with 119 km in our legs, shop for the coming day and get dinner and a well-deserved rest.

Sunday, 28th of July

Enjoy the great breakfast and off we are, a chilly but sunny day on the menu! To get out of Rouen is very easy but not interesting, „zone Industrielle „basically.- After a while we hit a smooth track at the bank of the Seine and follow it. But then we get carried away, we are chatting and enjoying ourselves and cycle past the turning off for the ferry. So we have to cycle back (in total 16km) and get to the ferry just in time to cross the river. And for free.

On the other side we decide to cycle through a „route barrée“: we climb over some stones and have the road all for ourselves, very handy. We get sobered up by a real steep and long ascend, all high up to the plateau. We realise we are above the white cliffs that we saw the day before from the other bank.

The track is smooth, and we go along endless apple orchards (after all this is calvados country…), many pear trees as well as prunes. The track is still good quality, so we make speedy progress.„Abbaye de Jumièges“ is nice and big, worth a stop and peeping inside ( some old ruins, rather picturesque). We enjoy a picnic right in front of it before getting on. We get on the ferry and cross over to the other shore again. After 105km we end up in „Lillebonne“, Hotel de France. An unpleasant surprise: everything is closed, no one there. We call them, get the answering machine. After several calls someone picks up the phone and we understand that they made a mistake about the date of our arrival. A lady arrives by car, gives us the code to the door and we get installed. Pooh, we are relieved, eat a pizza next door ( only place open in the deserted town, in plus it is Sunday …) and rest.

Monday, the 29th of July

In the morning, we reserve some more hotels, we certainly don’t want to get into the same stress situation again…We move on, this time on some roads with some unpleasant traffic that we still can cope with.

The houses we saw the day before were really nice: beautiful mansions, half-timbered buildings in the Nordic style with lovely little „corniches“ (roof ledges). Today no more of these. -A nice castle in Tancarville, then we get to Harfleur, with a pretty church and a general feeling that reminds me so much of England! Finally we arrive at the sea, in „Le Havre“, cycle to the port where the docks are nicely restored with shops and restaurants. We have a tiny snack right at the lighthouse and go on. This time we climb really steep hills, cruel ascents and sharp descents, and me thinking the road is totally flat at the seaside! 

We continue, all in rollercoaster style until we get to Étretat and plan to see the famous rocks. Unfortunately  we arrive at a time of the day when the cliffs are in the shade, a bit of a disappointment. It is hard to get through the enormous tourist crowds, so we have a very quick look at the cliffs and move on. Our motel is outside of Etretat, we have a hard time to find the „La ferme du Manoir“. It is a farmer’s place with camping like „cabins“. Being a bit prejudiced we are positively surprised to get into nice rooms, with a bathroom and a little „kitchenette“. So we cycle 8 km to the next village, shop at a tiny supermarket and return. We dine outside on our porch and are jolly happy.

Tuesday, the 30th of July

Get a little coffee in our cabin and a nice breakfast in the main house. We pack up and are on the road again. Cycling through various villages, we make it to „St Leonard“, „Les escaliers de Grainval“. A steep way down leaves us at some stairs, so we park the bikes and continue by foot. It is worth the while, we enjoy the sight of spectacular cliffs, all along the seashore.

Next bigger town is „Fécamp“, with a nice port (photo) and 2 churches: one solid and square, Norman style, the other one high ,with a delicately carved spire.

Fécamp

From here on we follow „La route du Lin„ on a good track. Then we find a „voie verte“, cycling for some time through the green „tunnel“. After so many kms we get back into the open and to the coast.

 

Here I decide to take some pictures of a field with a plant that intrigued me before: yellow- greenish stems with small grains at the top. Google explains: it is linseed. So, finally, we get it: la route du lin or „entre mer et lin“ as it is called on other signs.

A funny little episode, one that we had on another trip as well, is the dangerous "roadcrossing": there was actually a little plane crossing, we had to stop and could only marvel at the things you can experience in traffic....

 A last larger town at the seaside is „Saint Valéry en Caux“, we photograph the port.

Saint Valéry en Caux

From there we continue to „Quiberville“. Here we discover that we booked the wrong thing: „Domaine Saâne“is a camping site, we’ve booked a night in a very basic tent! We change the reservation into a kind of „cabanne“, after all we absolutely need electricity to charge the batteries and we don’t carry ANY camping gear, so we need a proper room. The cabane is fully equipped, sinfully expensive and the WC is not working. We dine on a crêpe at the camping’s bar and that’s it. We survived. 

In the night a really heavy and alarming thunderstorm shakes the cabanne. We are grateful to be indoors and dry! In the morning it is much cooler and everything is sodden, but it starts clearing up.

Wednesday, the 31st of July

We have a modest breakfast in the morning with fruits, nuts and biscuits and cycle on. The ride is hard, same cruel ups and downs along the coast. In „Dieppe’s“ harbour we take a break and a coffee after taking pictures of the port and the church. -On we go, high and low, until we get to „Tréport“. The town has a lovely seafront, very English, with colourful houses and a lovely décor. 

Dieppe

Tréport

We cycle on and after some 60 km get to a proper cycling track, a pleasant surprise. Following it we end up at a nice place, right on top of the cliffs: we get a great view of the whole area, it almost looks like the „delta“of the river, the main stream splitting up into „fingers“ and ending up in the sea. After a break we continue, leaving the coast and heading towards „La Saume“. At „Salicorne et Basse Pierre“ we reserved a chambre d’hôtes, a very clean and stylish room, owned by extremely friendly landlords. Dinner at the local „friterie“ and reserving our hotel in Amiens.

Early morning hours: again a heavy thunderstorm, heaps of rain hammering down with a terrifying rumbling noise.

Thursday, the 1st of August

We are a bit downcast, the weather forecast had nothing announced like this. First we get a lovely breakfast, all on homemade goodies from our landlords ,and leave. It is softly raining, we cycle for a while without our rain gear. Unfortunately we hit some gravel, quite wet of course, mixed with a kind of sticky, white mud. After some time we feel like a „coated“ German schnitzel. Then it starts to rain a bit harder, and we put on our proper rain gear. Luckily it is not cold. We bear the rain until it stops, change our clothing again and get to „St Rémy“, take pictures of the cathedral.

Then, to our relieve, the sun gets out. Only disadvantage is, the sun is „baking“ solid that white mud, so the poor bikes look a total mess! Right now we have to put up with that, so we pedal on. After a short distance we start riding the best 40 km ever: on our right hand side the river is running, it is a channel but not the boring, dry and lifeless version. No, it is a meandering channel, full of greenery at the banks. On the left side, the view is great: a wild landscape, a swamp, „Le Marais“, with water labyrinths, lakes zig-zagging, reeds and trees, flowers, hedges, brambles, you name it. So idyllic! So wild and beautiful, ducks and swans on the „étang“, little river arms changing into ponds and disappearing in a lush and green undergrowth. We simply can’t get our fill of it, it is almost mystical to cycle here, such pure nature, quietness and peace. Gaston looks at the river with some nostalgia, this would be perfect for some kayaking and exploring…..

We get to „Amiens“, Hotel B&B, friendly at the reception. We quickly sort our things out and start our visit of the town. This is a Jules Verne town, who lived here for 34 years, active member of the townhall and writing novels and plays, of course. The cathedral „Notre Dame“is just magnificent, beautifully restored and outstanding, great buildings, like the Palais de Justice, the Townhall and more. We enjoy ourselves walking around and taking pictures until we treat ourselves to a delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant. 70km

Amiens

Friday, the 2nd of August

It is cloudy and damp, it still looks like some rain. But hope dies last, so we put on sunscreen and cycle on. On our way out of town we pass Jules Verne’s house and his scientific tower. That rounds off our visit of Amiens.

We are happy to be back on the channel and the „Marais de la Somme“, and are looking forward to the next 50 km : around us lakes, swamps, reeds, a lot of marsh Marigold, many ducks, and ,not to forget, hundreds of dragonflies in all colors and shapes. Sublime! We just have to stop every so often, looking around and letting the harmonious atmosphere sink in deeply. At the 50 km mark (so far on good gravel),we have a break and a picnic. On we go , all the way to „Péronne“, a very modest little town with a nice townhall (photo) and a WWI Museum. Best Western hotel, 65km. Dinner at the Brasserie Centrale

Saturday, the 3rd of August

Last day, we thoroughly enjoy our ultimate breakfast buffet, tuck in and get ready to leave Péronne. Again, we are not sure if we shall come through the day without any rain shower. But we don’t worry, it is just too good to be back at the „Marais“. We take pictures wherever something special catches our attention, which means basically everything! Sometimes we can peep deep into the marshes, the willows are standing in greenish, bracken water and we realize, this is really marshland, where a walk is simply not possible. Swans, ducks, egrets, all of them are familiar with these grounds and their colourful presence makes the place even more worth the sight. The ride is so easy, no hardship at all to pedal in such a landscape. At one point we leave the Somme and get back to the Oise. The track leads us through various villages until we hit the canal „La Sambre sur Oise“again. We have a lazy, little rest on a bench and after that attack the final kms to round off the loop.

We happily get back to Hotel Robinson in Mézières sur Oise, to lovely Rita, who gives us a warm welcome and listens with interest to our stories. So nice!

Some 1000km overall…

The other day back to Luxembourg.