Hydrangeas, Hollyhocks and Hedges
France: Tour de Manche Stage 2 – Thu 23rd July 2015 – La Haye-du-Puits to Saint-Lô (70 Km)
I was looking forward to getting a good night sleep last night so I would be good for the ride today, but something awoke me at around 2 am. I switched on my old iPod Touch and selected the Tune-in Radio icon, thinking that the talkback on station LBC London would soon lull me back into the land of nod. I waited for ages for LBC to start streaming, but instead I got a scary pop-up message in French with words including ferme, sessione, and deporte. With my limited French vocabulary I took this to mean close the session immediately or I would be deported. Surely the French government does not ban the streaming of media from a fellow EU country! Anyway, I eventually drifted off without the help of any inane talkback. Then I was awoken out of a deep sleep by a bright light shining straight in my face. What the dickens! Was it a torch or a searchlight? Were they coming to take me away ha ha? With my heart racing I focussed enough to realise that the TV high up on the wall had mysteriously switched itself on, the wand still sitting on the desk at the other side of the room. Maybe I had upset the witches when I rode through their forest yesterday!
By 8 am I was on the road out of La Haye-du-Puits headed for Saint-Lô about 70 Km south. During the first section, from La Haye-du-Puits to Baupte, I found myself cycling through some very pretty parts of the flat, low lying marshlands of the National Park. There was a rich array of birdlife and a few rabbits hopping across the trail in front of me, blissfully unaware that lapin features on many French menus and is regarded as a delicacy.
The second section, from Baupte to Carentan, took me through the rich pastures that make Carentan a major centre of the regional dairy industry. There were lots of cows grazing contentedly on the lush grass growing in the fertile river flats, filling their stomachs to produce milk to make the magnificent camembert I have been enjoying.
The third section was from Carentan to St-Jean-de-Daye. During this stretch I moved from the lower lying wetlands, with their characteristic network of channels and canals, through to the hedged pastures that are home to many of the stud farms that make this part of France the centre of the racehorse industry.
Finally, the section from St-Jean-de-Daye to Saint-Lô took me alongside the pretty, winding, Vire Canal through lush countryside all the way to Saint-Lô.
Today’s ride was mainly on compacted dirt paths along disused train lines, but there were also some delightful country roads winding through pretty little villages. Wherever I went there were beautiful hydrangeas with massive florets and vivid pink hues, and also lots of lovely hollyhocks. Normandy has a lot in common with England, so it is not surprising to see the French and English flags flying side by side in some of the towns.
And so ends another great day of riding in this beautiful country.
