June 29 – July 02
Bonjour!
Hello summer! Yes, it’s that time of year when teachers get
to escape from their working lives for the best part of two months. I won’t
bang on about that fact too much; I know many people who are reading this are
cooped up in offices, longing for the chance to be outside rather than gazing
longingly at the sunshine through a double-glazed window.
We’re kicking off our summer in a tranquil region of
northern France. The nearest town of note is the rustic port of Honfleur on the
Norman coast. We were staying approximately five kilometres inland from this
village, in a gîte in the lush, green
countryside. Spotting people along our lane was a rare occurrence; we were more
likely to see horses and donkeys.
This was very much a retreat from the urban landscape which
we have been situated in for the past year. Aside from a good internet
connection, which allowed us to keep in touch with the World Cup and Wimbledon,
our gite was hidden away from civilisation.
This is not to say that we completely isolated ourselves
during this French sojourn. It would have been a missed opportunity to watch
the France game in private, so we observed Les
Bleus (whilst secretly rooting for Nigeria as they were one of my
sweepstakes teams) as they struggled through their second round match. Possibly
due to the location in the port of Honfleur, possibly due to the relatively
early start of 6pm, possibly due to the older, middle-class crowd accompanying
us, it was eerily quiet throughout their laborious 2-0 win over the African
side.
Whilst watching the game we treated ourselves to a French
beer (treated is the word: at €7.80, I’ve never drank a beer so slowly), and
later sampled some traditional seaside cuisine from the region. Essentially, a
very large bucket of mussels. We also tried a delectable crème brulee which was
drowning in caramel sauce. Sometimes it’s good to have such a long walk home!
Lots of time was spent walking, but we hired bikes to travel
across the Seine River to the larger town of Le Havre. This involved crossing
the colossal eyesore that dominates the skyline in this area: Pont du
Normandie. On a scorching morning, we set off from Honfleur to the other side
of the river. It was slightly irritating to walk 5km into town, only to cycle
back along much of that route.
People who know me will be aware that I’m not the most
confident soul when it comes to moving on two wheels. The deceptively steep
bridge was thus a bit of a biking Everest to me. There was a cycling lane on
the bridge…which seemed as narrow as the wheels on my clunking, metallic
machine. Luckily, roadworks reduced traffic to one lane, meaning I had a wide
berth to wobble and grunt up to the apex of the bridge. Zipping down the other
side was a great reward for the lactic acid pooling in my hamstrings from the
climb.
Prior research suggested to us that there was a cycle route
all the way to Le Havre. Having spent more than enough time almost being blown
off the bike by lorries and trucks zipping along right next to me, I can assure
you that no such continuous route exists. Nonetheless, we made it through to
the industrial, manufacturing eyesore pleasant seaside town that is Le
Havre.
What we saw of the town itself was nice; a small, modern
marina area which played host to some wakeboarders. However, the length of time
we had to spend travelling through the industrial section of the town in order
to reach the marina led us to being fairly unimpressed with Le Havre. Honfleur,
on the other hand, is a very pretty little village, though clearly after the
tourist euro.
Normandy has been a nice place to relax and recharge our
batteries after a long summer term. Next stop is France’s grande ville – Paris.
Love you all,
Matt
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