My original routing plans called for me to leave Caen and ride along the D-Day beaches. The whole reason I rode to Normandy in the first place was to visit these invastion areas. But, having seen them the day before, I realized that my idea of what I would see and what was actually there to see were very different. The D-Day invasion was a huge operation that involved thousands of men over dozens of miles. Unlike a civil war battlefield like Gettysburg, where the entire battle can be understood from a single site, the D-Day invasion beaches were separated by long distances and have been transformed by time and people, both local and tourist.
While riding a bike along the coast is nice, the road that we drove on was narrow, full of cars, and not directly on the coast. I felt I had seen enougn and decided to strike out in a different direction. I would still be heading in the general direction of Mont St. Michel in Brittany, but I would do a more direct route instead of heading down the Normandy coast first.
Antoine had to get up early to teach an acting class and I got up when he did. I thanked him for everything and suggested that he come to San Francisco some day. I had yogurt and fruit for breakfast, packed up the bike, wrestled it downstairs, and left. I stopped at a nearby boulangerie, bought two bagettes and a (now daily) pain au chocolate. While I was eating my chocolate treat, a elderly man walked up, pointed to the bike and started talking to me. I had no idea what he was saying, though I did try to nod and smile alot.
Since Antoine lived near the center of town, I had to ride through most of Caen on my way out. The streets were narrow but easy to ride and it was early enough that there were few cars.
As I threaded my way out of town, I passed Caen's city hall. It was a magnificent building. Also, note that it was not a sunny day!
Every day when I started biking, I looked for places to buy food, mostly fruits and vegetables, for the day's fuel. I stopped at a greengrocer and was served by the man behind the counter as I pointed to what I wanted. Such places still exist in large cities like Caen. However, in smaller cities and towns, these stores have been replaced by all-in-one supermarkets on the edge of town or 7-11 type mini-markets with a small vegetable section. Clearly, the French don't see the worth of these businesses as they have mostly disappeared. But, everytime I had the chance, I would stop at one and buy food. Oh well.
Like any large city, Caen was surrounded by lots of suburbs. I rode through a string of them on "beside the road" bike path.
Once I got past Caen's ring road, I was back on small country roads.
The route I was riding was mostly flat. As you can see, the yellow patches are still catching my eye!
I spent some of the time in thick forest, as well.
Of all the "yellow patch" pictures, this one is my favorite. It looks like I am riding right down into one. As you can see, there were a few rollers the I had to get up and down.
Eventhough I knew that I had taken lots of similar photos, I often took pictures like this one because riding on a deserted road through a French forest was always so enjoyable.
I got to Vire about 5pm. It is a good-sized town that intermingled its past with its present.
There was a TI on the road I was on. I went in to see what camping opportunities the area offered. As it turned out, the only nearby place was Vire's municipal campground. Since I didn't have any place to be, I decided to call it a day at Vire.
The campground was about a mile out of town. To get there, I rode through a residential area and along the Vire River.
The campground, itself, was small and completely deserted.
What isn't shown in the above picture is the shower/toilet/office block just behind me. The showers were included in the 3 Euros I paid to camp. I had an interesting conversation with the guy who drove in and registered me. When I told him about my route for the next day, he pointed to some spots on a map and said there would be some hills there but that the rest of it was pretty flat. I liked getting this local knowledge whenever I could. I was the only one who camped there that night.
The Vire River ran right behind the camp and burbled peacefully all night.
