The final full day of cycling!

 

Last night’s weather report said that we could expect 50% chance of rain in the late afternoon.  Instead, we woke up to 100% chance of rain!  But after a quick look on the web at satellite images, we determined that the sun would probably be out by 10:00 am.  It did break through at 10, and then coastal fog took over until noon.  But once again, we were able to ride the entire day in wonderful partly cloudy (though very humid) skies.

 

We were facing the beginning of today’s route with concern.  The district of Normandy we needed to pass through first is called “Little Switzerland of Normandy”.  Fortunately, it was Sunday and we were able to choose busier highways which did not dip into every valley and river bottom.  Nonetheless, as you can see from the profile, our route was not simply downhill to the coast.  And as we got closer to Caen, and later in the day, the traffic increased to the heaviest we’ve yet seen in the country.  It was even more difficult considering that none of the roads have shoulders.

 

But we finally reached the point on our route where we headed back onto the smaller sides roads and then proceeded into Caen using the back roads.  Much to our surprise and delight – just before we reached Caen we found a bike path that not only lead us all the way through this large city, but took us all the way out to the coast, to Ouistreham where the ferry to England departs. 

 

The bicycle path to Ouistreham was flat, following canals, and reminded us of how we began this journey 4 weeks ago in Holland.  It was a grand finish – returning to the coast and completing over 1200 km through 3 countries and a variety of conditions, foods, people, and customs. 

 

And to top it all off, in our unusual good fortune, we had a surprise at lunch.  Past Caen we decided to stop at a restaurant and began our search.  Suddenly along the path we found a small place by a bridge.  As we were sitting there eating, we noticed an unusually large number of tourists were constantly coming and going.  What we did not realize, is that we were eating next to the Pegasus Bridge.  On June 5^th, 1944 a British Airborne troupe landed there to protect the bridge during the Normandy invasion the next day.   They were successful in not only saving the bridge, but also the building that housed the restaurant we were eating in.

 

Our final task was to stop by the Ferry Terminal and get our reservations.  We will be spending one last day in France, touring this part of the Normandy coast before returning to England.  Three weeks in France has taught Jon that you can’t learn a language in 1 year, but you sure can learn how to eat!  J