We've just spent a week in Normandy and (of course) we took the bikes with us. An overall height of
2.6m and length of 5.5m gave us a prime spot on the ferry over, but we were last off coming back. Ho
hum. The boat crew were very good about spotting the height, and bunged a big notice on the car on
the way back saying "do not move until specifically instructed." Next time I might try lying the
megabike down going through the port, as we were only a few inches over the usual height limit. We
saw several tandemists on the way over, mostly tandem club members on the way to a rally, and the
racks which set the fork at roofbar level (front wheel out) seemed to get the bikes under the magic
limit. That probably wouldn't work with the Megabike though; the frame is more complex.
I was impressed by the remains of the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches. When you think that the
harbour had a design service life of six months and was assembled on site in under two weeks,
the fact that a substantial part of it still exists sixty years later is amazing. By
comparison the average British cycle track takes years to plan and build and is unusable after
about three weeks :-(
I noticed a number of differences between Norman driving and British driving - most notably less
impatience and far better overtaking. When driving at the speed limit, around half the cars which
overtook us were British registered. This rose to close to 100% when we were off the roads to and
from ferry ports. When cycling we were agreeably surprised to find that people seemed quite content
to wait for a safe place before overtaking, to leave plenty of room when passing, and nobody cut in
before they were all the way past. Probably because they didn't overtake into oncoming traffic.
Roads are uniformly excellently signposted, and every individual hamlet is marked on the larger
scale maps so it's easy to find out where you are. Harder to spot the big hills, but you get used to
the scale after a while.
We enjoyed the cries of "regardez! le velo!" and groups of astonished French people rubbernecking as
we rode by on the triplet - we saw no tandems or recumbents, but lots of bikes of all sorts.
The man at the crêperie at Carolles-plage was only to pleased to remplir our bouteilles for us,
which was just as well as the weather was "scorchio" all week. Luvverly :-)
Top entertainment was watching the locals trying to decide how to handle the mini roundabout outside
the restaurant where we ate lunch on Thursday. They don't really "get" roundabouts in France yet, I
reckon, and this turned into a chaotic free-for-all reminiscent of the scene in the Pink Panther
where the old man is trying to cross the street and cars come at him from all directions.
We did see the Norman conker trees which gave William his name, and huge quantities of mistletoe. We
did the touristy thing and visited le Mont St. Michel (having seen it from the beach at St. Jean le
Thomas, great view across the bay, huge hill to get out of the town). We arrived at 18h00 on
Thrsday, a French bank holiday so it was open late - that meant it wasn't too hot to climb up to the
Abbey, and we had time for a fair look round. Amazing place. Best appreciated with minimum numbers
of les grockles, though, so plan your visit for very early in the morning or last thing in the
evening I reckon. If cycling, watch out - the road to le Mont had the worst driving standards we
came across. Also staggering numbers of coaches and an unbelievable quantity of mobile homes, many
of which seemed to be Belgian.
We didn't ride very much - too hot and the boys really wanted to play on the beach - but we rode
some and were sufficiently encouraged to try it again some time. Point of information: Normandy
is not flat.
Guy
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