Goose
Registered user
It just so happened that at the same time I needed a break from the MIL’s house (we have been living in a bedroom with 2 single beds for over a year now – without cupboards and living out of suitcases and a few plastic storage boxes in the garage)
Jenni knew I’d been climbing walls and needed to escape so she suggested I take the bike and go and have a break…
Now my good friend Rian (Grizz) came to the end of his work contract and was effectively “unemployed” …….. so I took a chance and SMS’d him a suggestion about maybe doing a quick trip to France. Expecting him to decline – but it was a speedy response after he received his wife’s blessing to go!
WOW!!! What a lady!!
Rian needed to do a bit of a shake-down for his prep for his planned trip to SA next year. Not much to shake down really – more that he needed more time in the saddle to stiffen up and tone his backside for the anticipated long saddle days.
The plan for France was…….. well NOT to have any plans…. and best of all was that neither of us had travelled to Europe by bike before…….. so riding on the “wrong” or should I say Right side of the road was not only going to be a new experience (we’d both done it by car before) – but will be darn right interesting.
We wanted to just go – no route planning, no accommodation at all………… everything would be spur-of-the moment.
So we agreed on Tuesday the 11th for the outward trip and that we should return sometime on the Friday. A mere 4 days but at least this way we’d get a break – stay away from the weekend madness and still ensure we’re back to spend the weekend with our wives.
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At this stage of the report - I feel that I had to add a bit of a story leading up to the planned jaunt over the waters.
Grizz will be doing that trip next year in SA........ and we needed to setup bike-2-bike comms for him and ensure that he'd be able to operate the setup as well as whether it would indeed benefit his trip with his brother.
My bike has an existing installation - his not!
Grizz's impending Memorial tour to South Africa (http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=106063.0) had us chatting about fitting 2-way radios on the bikes in SA to allow comms between their bikes.
Now any decent, intelligent biker knows that ANY excuse is a good excuse for a ride...... so a ride around the block/area is definitely NOT good enough if you have access to some of the best biking roads in Europe for a mere £16.00 ticket price away. P&O Ferry's have a great 2 hour service from Dover to Calais at 6am ..... which allows a full day's travelling on French soil!
Grizz managed to get hold of a Kenwood 2-way radio and early this morning he arrived at our place to start the installation.
We also needed to visit Halfords for some goodies to comply with the new French touring laws....... a spare set of Bulbs & 2 'orrible Straws that one has to blow into to prove to the Gendarmes that we can still ride a bike....
..... just love the Wilddog Paws!!!
Remember to look out for the special guest - "Cling-on" (a soft Wilddog' toy that was sent to South Africa via ROyal Mail to cheer up a 5-yr old diagnosed with Brain cancer...)
"Cling-On" the Wilddog groupie!
I must say that it's an absolute pleasure spending time with another dude that can "Make-'n-plan" ........ as we had 1 x Autocom system + 1 x Kenwood, 2 x Other radio's and a kak-huis full of cables.....! :mwink:
Well Autocom installed - we found that there was no way we could get the two smaller radios working - the Kenwood was ok - but powered off the Autocom - however no PTT was in the bag, so out came a set of Sharman headphones......
A quick installation of the Headset and we were ready to connect the radio.... or so we thought
Two small 1,5mm screws were needed to allow the Kenwood to be connected via cables to the Autocom for it's power... but we had none - so off to Maplin and their wonderfully skilled Electronic experts to assist!
Hier kom kark. (here comes shit!)
I watched Grizz's stare and if he could have BLIKSEM'd the salesman - he would have.............. the DUDE insited on ïnserting" the screw himself and after 2 turns both of us could see the thread was wrong into the aluminium housing.
Before either of us could blurt out a word... the bloke forced the screwdriver and snapped the head of the screw off............
Idiot of a twatwaffle
Fortunately......... working on radio equipment is right up my alley .. so with the salesman realising he was in deep kark......... (he would potentially be liable to replace a 70 quid radio) we were given carte blanche by the store manager to open and use ANY of the tools and equipment in the store to rectify the situation!
So on the Maplin counter top......... we did a strip & repair........... but not just ANY repair... (as the old screw was totally jammed) we promptly proceeded to strip the unit, drill a new hole (check the size of the hand-drill)
..... the drill-bit being so thin & flimsy - required Grizz to stabilise it with his farmer-brown "vingers" .....
and as a first ever.... used a nifty miniature Tap & Die set to tap a new thread for our fastening screw!
Finally we were given the screws by the salesman after being more than grateful that we were not holding him liable for the stuffed screw.
Amazingly he commented on how he found it fascinating to watch us with the inhouse repair as he'd not realised what some of the tools we used were for.....atch: - he works there... but no clue!
The Autocom connector had rust and some broken wires inside the power lead sheath... causing intermittent functionality that really screw'd us around.... but nothing a soldering iron would not sort out!
Eventually a whole rewire of the cable system was required to get it working........... using old dvd power lead (recycling's big here you know!)
EUREKA!!!! Comms finally working.. a quick test and a blast up to the M25 was needed to make sure it works. (another excuse for a spin on the boney :mwink:)
Interestingly we had 9/10 reception at speeds approaching "licence threatening" with a distance of close on a mile and no signs of any break-up at all.
Needless to say - we are really chuffed with the performance and this adds a new dimension to riding with your mate!
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Right - back to the Ride Report...................
A quick search on the Internet provided us with some “Discount Codes” for the various Ferry companies – with P&O Ferries giving us the best rate of only £32.00 per bike & rider for a return trip.
Now a quick conversion to ZAR - meant it was around R 425.00 for the return trip…….. not bad at all considering that it was a nice cruise, relaxing enough to allow us to try and make some sort of plan for the road ahead….. and where else could you get such a fantastic deal to travel across the waters to another continent!
There was ONLY one downside to the trip………. there was rain forecast for the whole of France and as we had talked of maybe camping, this would put a damper on our limited finances if we were forced into more “upmarket” accommodation.
I ended up packing everything I needed and headed over to Grizz’s Pad the night before so we could do a final check, have a braai (thanks boet – you outdid yourself with the meat!) and get up at 4am for the dash down to Dover for the ferry that left at 6am.
JUST LOOK AT THAT STEAK!!!!!!!!
Strange bed ….there’s just no flippen way that you can sleep if you haven't done it in a while....
I got up at 3:30am and managed to get some of my goodies sorted before Rian went downstairs to put the kettle on.
Funny though… THIS morning should have been ringing the warning bells as to Grizz’s sleeping habits as Nicola was downstairs fast asleep on the couch in their lounge.
(Later I was to find out that this is her favourite place to sleep – Rian’s unbelievable snoring has serious repercussions)
Hiding in amongst the clothing & kit…………
Got dressed with full liners, waterproofs and buff against the impending cold and wet …. Felt like the Michelin man!
Slugging down a few cuppa’s and we were ready to push the bikes from the garage (no noise this time of the morning…) Weather was very overcast, ground wet and snotty like a slug-without-a-shell….. but we were like two kids with our new toys.
So not bad timing at all….. we roared off towards the freeway and the Dover coast at exactly 4:45am
Needless to say – our “dry-spell” did not last too long and soon the rain started pelting down. Fortunately the freeway’s were pretty clear and we made good time down to our destination.
Check-in time for the 06:20 ferry was 6am and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare…. And we received our boarding passes that indicated we were allowed to jump the queue’s and board first! Now that ‘s service!!
As Grizz called it…. “Stupid-o-clock” in the morning!!
One thing I have to comment on is the huge benefit of having Comms between the two riders.
Not only was this proving very beneficial on this leg to the coast (when traffic got heavy and we were separated – it was great to still be able to advise each other when & where there were traffic and road dangers. I’d say that even at a 2 Mile distance – our communications were still 7-out-of-10)
This was Rian’s first taste of Bike-2-Bike and he was loving it!
We arrived in Calais around 8am (7am UK time as France is an hour ahead) and decided right away to turn South – however we were going to avoid Motorways as much as possible.
Riding through Calais, we then turned off towards a small area called COQUELLES, where we stopped to check camera equipment and try to set the GPS for our route down the coast. We also on the spur-of-the-moment decided that DIEPPE was going to be a destination…. No specific reason, just that it was a decent distance and the name jumped out from the map!
We started off on the E402 in a southerly direction towards BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, then FORT-MAHON BEACH and afterwards LE HOURDEL, LE TREPORT and finally DIEPPE.
The map shows the routing with the places listed.
Our first stop (not really - just a lay-bye) was Esplanade de Sainte-Cécile, Camiers
History (From WIKI)
Camiers belonged to the Lordship of Noailles. However the waters of the lagoon between the dunes and the shore of the solid geology, for many years, presented an obstacle to its development.During the First World War the flat lands were the site of the huge base depôt of the British army in France. It is usually known nowadays as Étaples camp. Through most of the war, close to it and part of the same complex, Camiers camp was the base depôt, in France, of the Machine Gun Corps.
Deserted parking area’s allow for perfect freedom with the bikes. A good view of the nice dark clouds awaiting us in the direction we’re travelling.
Massive beaches…………..
Grizz & I were sitting just contemplating the sheer size and totally exposed beaches that we were seeing – fantastic !
The next stop was Fort Mahon Plage (PICARDIE REGION)
History (From WIKI)
Fort-Mahon-Plage is not a very old town. It seems certain that it did not exist before the 18th century, except, of course, the superb sand dunes and the sea. Then considered rather cold and wild, this part of the coast would have welcomed only fishermen and shellfish gatherers. Indeed, the first town was raised there only a little more than two centuries ago, with a few small shepherds’ huts in 1790. Fort-Mahon-Plage was not considered a commune at all until 1923, when it was officially identified as a separate village from its neighbour Quend-Plage-Les-Pins. Urbanization was steady, notably in the 1950s, with the immense beach of fine sand, in contrast to many of the pebble beaches of Normandy, doing a lot to attract tourists, as well as a soft and pleasant sea during the summer. The huge beach later became famous for its water activities, most notably land-yacht racing, wind-surfing and kiting. …….. a town that has huge beaches that were actively used during the Normandy Landings. Now however these vast sandy beaches cater more for tourists and sun-lovers.
The Main road looking up from the beach area….
What I immediately loved about this place were the older vehicles ambling along……… the place was exceptionally clean and definitely worth a visit again.
A Renault 2CV Panelvan – still in daily use
A French Saviem 4x4 Truck (nice…)
Not forgetting our VW lovers…….
And old Grizz……… on the phone! A pose that I’d come to recognise…. Often!
We spent some time just to relax and then also visited the Tourist Information office.
Struggling to communicate with the limited French I know and the limited English that the chap behind the counter knew… was soon resolved when Grizz and I started speaking and joked in Afrikaans.
The attitude quickly changed once they discovered we were Saffers and not the “Dreaded Anglaise” from across the channel.... whatever did the you guys do to the poor Frenchies
We were also handed some really nice commemorative stickers for the panniers!
There was a bit of sunshine now and we decided to head on down the road to see what else attracted our fancy.
This was great – with no set route or time we could really enjoy the riding. Kak-praat (talking shit) is also something that goes hand-in-hand with two blokes riding nowhere – something which I thoroughly enjoyed with old Grizz.
We noticed a huge bay-area as well as what appeared as a lighthouse in the distance… so a bit of confer and we ended up in a very small village (more like a clump of houses) ………
So our next on the list was Le Hourdel
No real history on this place apart from the fact that it used to be a small fishing village but now seems pretty deserted…. Possibly kept alive by the odd tourists.
Parked at the lighthouse…
Up the main street……..(not much there)
……. And Grizz in one of his famous poses….
We did not stay long before we started down the road again. Our asses were itching to get to Dieppe – mainly to get settled as neither of us had a good night’s sleep before the ferry trip. And we did not want to ride on foreign roads without our wits about.
I decided to ride ahead as Rian wanted to check out an old church – this was another situation where the 2-way radios showed their worth…. Rian could stop and tell me what he was doing – I merely carried on about 2 or 3 miles ahead of him, stopping for a few pics and then waiting for the man to come riding along for some action shots.
……….. mmmmmm we’re tired!!
This pic shows Rian pulling over on the left-side just before a bend in the road – suddenly realising he should be on the other side…. correcting his line........ A few laughs indeed!
We had approximately 60km to go to Dieppe, so decided to hussle it for the last bit – however we still stayed off the motorways as these held no interest for us at all.
The ride to Dieppe was uneventful – however nothing could have prepared us for the ride into the town. WOW!!!! We had a long straight section down a hill and the closer we got to the town – the better the views and the more historic the buildings became.
There was a true awe factor looking at buildings that were indeed centuries old.
Final stop for the day – Dieppe (Upper Normandy)
History (From WIKI)
First recorded as a small fishing settlement in 1030, Dieppe was an important prize fought over during the Hundred Years' War. Dieppe housed the most advanced French school of cartography in the 16th century. Two of France's best navigators, Michael le Vasseur and his brother Thomas le Vasseur, lived in Dieppe when they were recruited to join the expedition of René Goulaine de Laudonnière which departed Le Havre for Florida on April 20, 1564. The expedition resulted in the construction of Fort Caroline, the first French colony in the New World.[4] Dieppe was the premier port of the kingdom in the 17th century. On July 23, 1632, 300 colonists heading to New France departed from Dieppe. At the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Dieppe lost 3,000 of its Huguenot citizens, who fled abroad.
Dieppe was an important target in wartime; the town was largely destroyed by an Anglo-Dutch naval bombardment in 1694. It was rebuilt after 1696 in a typical French classical style by Ventabren, an architect, who gave it its unique feature for a sea port. It was popularised as a seaside resort following the 1824 visit of the widowed Duchess of Berry, daughter-in-law of Charles X. She encouraged the building of the recently-renovated municipal theatre, the Petit-Théâtre (1825), associated particularly with Camille Saint-Saëns.
During the later 19th century, Dieppe became popular with English artists as a beach resort. Prominent literary figures such as Arthur Symons loved to keep up with the latest fads of avant-garde France here, and during "the season" sometimes stayed for weeks on end.
Our arrival as mentioned was spectacular and we took the first opportunity to stop just on the inside of the harbour wall.
…………… and guess who’s popped out of the topbox…?
We were very intrigued when we noticed some big kites flying in the distance.
A quick stop to draw some funds from the “Hole-in-the-wall” and we started on a little exploration tour towards the other side of the harbour.
This was unbelievable….. we saw THIS poster on a wall….. what amazing luck. We’d arrived right in the middle of a major International Kite Festival that’s only held every 2 years.
We quickly found a hotel (bugger the camping) and were welcomed with open arms. We were also told that our bikes would be safer when we parked them on the pavement, right next to their reception to ensure the concierge could keep an eye on our “Moto’s”
A quick shower and a change after being relieved of €110.00 for the room (with separate single beds) and we were off to go and have a looksee.
The massive beachfront was covered with kite-flyers. Massive things that filled the sky. Every conceivable shape and design and we found that even SA was represented… although the poor Saffer sitting on his own in a small tent with his Springbok jersey on… looked a bit dishevelled and even Rian’s amazing sense of humour could only wring an attempt at a smile from this dude……. what-a-twat……..!
From our hotel room!
I’ve got so many pics that we’ll just throw a few in here without comments chaps….
This story/RR is taking forever and this is only the first day!
Some stunning displays though…
Evening time came all too soon and we had to go and find some food. Lots of restaurants and café’s – so we promptly chose one – sat down and waited for our turn to be served. The waitress finished with a couple that arrived before us and then sauntered over with a smile. Bonsoir Monsieur she said with such a cute smile – WITCH!!!
As soon as I’d greeted her and explained we wanted to eat and drink… she realised we spoke “that dreaded language” and just said – “No – Impossible” no drink & no food…FINI!!
We tried everything – pointing gesturing but all to no avail. Désolé!! And off we went with a huff.
A few blocks further we were beckoned in and although the restaurant manager became farking rude to us (pretending that he does not speak a word of English…) his wife eventually came and helped us out – changing her attitude again with us once realising no English connection. And here we thought we as Saffers were racists!
Rian enjoyed a really good Moules Fromage Bleu and my Moules Marinieres was also delicious! We hardly spoke as we shucked and gobbled…. It was nice but we were flippen hungry as well! Total cost for the meal, coke and a Leffe Blond came to €50.00 (with the single Leffe ripping €8.50 out of the bill amount)
We had to do the tourist thing and decided to do some walking taking in the sights …….. however the mistake was made when we walked down a narrow road section and noticed this lot in the windows…!
DAMN – we should have bought fresh and sat on the beach with a picnic ……..
Some of the town centre and harbour shots………….
This dude tried doing something that was……………. (no comment)
Check this painting on the side of this old building………
Amazing indeed!
Well so ends day 1 of our trip.
The News & Weather on the telly was not very positive……….
A good sleep is needed and we’ll decide where our next destination will be!
Day 2 to follow!
Jenni knew I’d been climbing walls and needed to escape so she suggested I take the bike and go and have a break…
Now my good friend Rian (Grizz) came to the end of his work contract and was effectively “unemployed” …….. so I took a chance and SMS’d him a suggestion about maybe doing a quick trip to France. Expecting him to decline – but it was a speedy response after he received his wife’s blessing to go!
WOW!!! What a lady!!
Rian needed to do a bit of a shake-down for his prep for his planned trip to SA next year. Not much to shake down really – more that he needed more time in the saddle to stiffen up and tone his backside for the anticipated long saddle days.
The plan for France was…….. well NOT to have any plans…. and best of all was that neither of us had travelled to Europe by bike before…….. so riding on the “wrong” or should I say Right side of the road was not only going to be a new experience (we’d both done it by car before) – but will be darn right interesting.
We wanted to just go – no route planning, no accommodation at all………… everything would be spur-of-the moment.
So we agreed on Tuesday the 11th for the outward trip and that we should return sometime on the Friday. A mere 4 days but at least this way we’d get a break – stay away from the weekend madness and still ensure we’re back to spend the weekend with our wives.
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At this stage of the report - I feel that I had to add a bit of a story leading up to the planned jaunt over the waters.
Grizz will be doing that trip next year in SA........ and we needed to setup bike-2-bike comms for him and ensure that he'd be able to operate the setup as well as whether it would indeed benefit his trip with his brother.
My bike has an existing installation - his not!
Grizz's impending Memorial tour to South Africa (http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=106063.0) had us chatting about fitting 2-way radios on the bikes in SA to allow comms between their bikes.
Now any decent, intelligent biker knows that ANY excuse is a good excuse for a ride...... so a ride around the block/area is definitely NOT good enough if you have access to some of the best biking roads in Europe for a mere £16.00 ticket price away. P&O Ferry's have a great 2 hour service from Dover to Calais at 6am ..... which allows a full day's travelling on French soil!
Grizz managed to get hold of a Kenwood 2-way radio and early this morning he arrived at our place to start the installation.
We also needed to visit Halfords for some goodies to comply with the new French touring laws....... a spare set of Bulbs & 2 'orrible Straws that one has to blow into to prove to the Gendarmes that we can still ride a bike....
..... just love the Wilddog Paws!!!
Remember to look out for the special guest - "Cling-on" (a soft Wilddog' toy that was sent to South Africa via ROyal Mail to cheer up a 5-yr old diagnosed with Brain cancer...)
"Cling-On" the Wilddog groupie!
I must say that it's an absolute pleasure spending time with another dude that can "Make-'n-plan" ........ as we had 1 x Autocom system + 1 x Kenwood, 2 x Other radio's and a kak-huis full of cables.....! :mwink:
Well Autocom installed - we found that there was no way we could get the two smaller radios working - the Kenwood was ok - but powered off the Autocom - however no PTT was in the bag, so out came a set of Sharman headphones......
A quick installation of the Headset and we were ready to connect the radio.... or so we thought
Two small 1,5mm screws were needed to allow the Kenwood to be connected via cables to the Autocom for it's power... but we had none - so off to Maplin and their wonderfully skilled Electronic experts to assist!
Hier kom kark. (here comes shit!)
I watched Grizz's stare and if he could have BLIKSEM'd the salesman - he would have.............. the DUDE insited on ïnserting" the screw himself and after 2 turns both of us could see the thread was wrong into the aluminium housing.
Before either of us could blurt out a word... the bloke forced the screwdriver and snapped the head of the screw off............
Idiot of a twatwaffleFortunately......... working on radio equipment is right up my alley .. so with the salesman realising he was in deep kark......... (he would potentially be liable to replace a 70 quid radio) we were given carte blanche by the store manager to open and use ANY of the tools and equipment in the store to rectify the situation!
So on the Maplin counter top......... we did a strip & repair........... but not just ANY repair... (as the old screw was totally jammed) we promptly proceeded to strip the unit, drill a new hole (check the size of the hand-drill)
..... the drill-bit being so thin & flimsy - required Grizz to stabilise it with his farmer-brown "vingers" .....
and as a first ever.... used a nifty miniature Tap & Die set to tap a new thread for our fastening screw!
Finally we were given the screws by the salesman after being more than grateful that we were not holding him liable for the stuffed screw.
Amazingly he commented on how he found it fascinating to watch us with the inhouse repair as he'd not realised what some of the tools we used were for.....
atch: - he works there... but no clue!The Autocom connector had rust and some broken wires inside the power lead sheath... causing intermittent functionality that really screw'd us around.... but nothing a soldering iron would not sort out!
Eventually a whole rewire of the cable system was required to get it working........... using old dvd power lead (recycling's big here you know!)
EUREKA!!!! Comms finally working.. a quick test and a blast up to the M25 was needed to make sure it works. (another excuse for a spin on the boney :mwink:)
Interestingly we had 9/10 reception at speeds approaching "licence threatening" with a distance of close on a mile and no signs of any break-up at all.
Needless to say - we are really chuffed with the performance and this adds a new dimension to riding with your mate!
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Right - back to the Ride Report...................
A quick search on the Internet provided us with some “Discount Codes” for the various Ferry companies – with P&O Ferries giving us the best rate of only £32.00 per bike & rider for a return trip.
Now a quick conversion to ZAR - meant it was around R 425.00 for the return trip…….. not bad at all considering that it was a nice cruise, relaxing enough to allow us to try and make some sort of plan for the road ahead….. and where else could you get such a fantastic deal to travel across the waters to another continent!
There was ONLY one downside to the trip………. there was rain forecast for the whole of France and as we had talked of maybe camping, this would put a damper on our limited finances if we were forced into more “upmarket” accommodation.
I ended up packing everything I needed and headed over to Grizz’s Pad the night before so we could do a final check, have a braai (thanks boet – you outdid yourself with the meat!) and get up at 4am for the dash down to Dover for the ferry that left at 6am.
JUST LOOK AT THAT STEAK!!!!!!!!
Strange bed ….there’s just no flippen way that you can sleep if you haven't done it in a while....
I got up at 3:30am and managed to get some of my goodies sorted before Rian went downstairs to put the kettle on.
Funny though… THIS morning should have been ringing the warning bells as to Grizz’s sleeping habits as Nicola was downstairs fast asleep on the couch in their lounge.
(Later I was to find out that this is her favourite place to sleep – Rian’s unbelievable snoring has serious repercussions)
Hiding in amongst the clothing & kit…………
Got dressed with full liners, waterproofs and buff against the impending cold and wet …. Felt like the Michelin man!
Slugging down a few cuppa’s and we were ready to push the bikes from the garage (no noise this time of the morning…) Weather was very overcast, ground wet and snotty like a slug-without-a-shell….. but we were like two kids with our new toys.
So not bad timing at all….. we roared off towards the freeway and the Dover coast at exactly 4:45am
Needless to say – our “dry-spell” did not last too long and soon the rain started pelting down. Fortunately the freeway’s were pretty clear and we made good time down to our destination.
Check-in time for the 06:20 ferry was 6am and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare…. And we received our boarding passes that indicated we were allowed to jump the queue’s and board first! Now that ‘s service!!
As Grizz called it…. “Stupid-o-clock” in the morning!!
One thing I have to comment on is the huge benefit of having Comms between the two riders.
Not only was this proving very beneficial on this leg to the coast (when traffic got heavy and we were separated – it was great to still be able to advise each other when & where there were traffic and road dangers. I’d say that even at a 2 Mile distance – our communications were still 7-out-of-10)
This was Rian’s first taste of Bike-2-Bike and he was loving it!
We arrived in Calais around 8am (7am UK time as France is an hour ahead) and decided right away to turn South – however we were going to avoid Motorways as much as possible.
Riding through Calais, we then turned off towards a small area called COQUELLES, where we stopped to check camera equipment and try to set the GPS for our route down the coast. We also on the spur-of-the-moment decided that DIEPPE was going to be a destination…. No specific reason, just that it was a decent distance and the name jumped out from the map!
We started off on the E402 in a southerly direction towards BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, then FORT-MAHON BEACH and afterwards LE HOURDEL, LE TREPORT and finally DIEPPE.
The map shows the routing with the places listed.
Our first stop (not really - just a lay-bye) was Esplanade de Sainte-Cécile, Camiers
History (From WIKI)
Camiers belonged to the Lordship of Noailles. However the waters of the lagoon between the dunes and the shore of the solid geology, for many years, presented an obstacle to its development.During the First World War the flat lands were the site of the huge base depôt of the British army in France. It is usually known nowadays as Étaples camp. Through most of the war, close to it and part of the same complex, Camiers camp was the base depôt, in France, of the Machine Gun Corps.
Deserted parking area’s allow for perfect freedom with the bikes. A good view of the nice dark clouds awaiting us in the direction we’re travelling.
Massive beaches…………..
Grizz & I were sitting just contemplating the sheer size and totally exposed beaches that we were seeing – fantastic !
The next stop was Fort Mahon Plage (PICARDIE REGION)
History (From WIKI)
Fort-Mahon-Plage is not a very old town. It seems certain that it did not exist before the 18th century, except, of course, the superb sand dunes and the sea. Then considered rather cold and wild, this part of the coast would have welcomed only fishermen and shellfish gatherers. Indeed, the first town was raised there only a little more than two centuries ago, with a few small shepherds’ huts in 1790. Fort-Mahon-Plage was not considered a commune at all until 1923, when it was officially identified as a separate village from its neighbour Quend-Plage-Les-Pins. Urbanization was steady, notably in the 1950s, with the immense beach of fine sand, in contrast to many of the pebble beaches of Normandy, doing a lot to attract tourists, as well as a soft and pleasant sea during the summer. The huge beach later became famous for its water activities, most notably land-yacht racing, wind-surfing and kiting. …….. a town that has huge beaches that were actively used during the Normandy Landings. Now however these vast sandy beaches cater more for tourists and sun-lovers.
The Main road looking up from the beach area….
What I immediately loved about this place were the older vehicles ambling along……… the place was exceptionally clean and definitely worth a visit again.
A Renault 2CV Panelvan – still in daily use
A French Saviem 4x4 Truck (nice…)
Not forgetting our VW lovers…….
And old Grizz……… on the phone! A pose that I’d come to recognise…. Often!
We spent some time just to relax and then also visited the Tourist Information office.
Struggling to communicate with the limited French I know and the limited English that the chap behind the counter knew… was soon resolved when Grizz and I started speaking and joked in Afrikaans.
The attitude quickly changed once they discovered we were Saffers and not the “Dreaded Anglaise” from across the channel.... whatever did the you guys do to the poor Frenchies
We were also handed some really nice commemorative stickers for the panniers!
There was a bit of sunshine now and we decided to head on down the road to see what else attracted our fancy.
This was great – with no set route or time we could really enjoy the riding. Kak-praat (talking shit) is also something that goes hand-in-hand with two blokes riding nowhere – something which I thoroughly enjoyed with old Grizz.
We noticed a huge bay-area as well as what appeared as a lighthouse in the distance… so a bit of confer and we ended up in a very small village (more like a clump of houses) ………
So our next on the list was Le Hourdel
No real history on this place apart from the fact that it used to be a small fishing village but now seems pretty deserted…. Possibly kept alive by the odd tourists.
Parked at the lighthouse…
Up the main street……..(not much there)
……. And Grizz in one of his famous poses….
We did not stay long before we started down the road again. Our asses were itching to get to Dieppe – mainly to get settled as neither of us had a good night’s sleep before the ferry trip. And we did not want to ride on foreign roads without our wits about.
I decided to ride ahead as Rian wanted to check out an old church – this was another situation where the 2-way radios showed their worth…. Rian could stop and tell me what he was doing – I merely carried on about 2 or 3 miles ahead of him, stopping for a few pics and then waiting for the man to come riding along for some action shots.
……….. mmmmmm we’re tired!!
This pic shows Rian pulling over on the left-side just before a bend in the road – suddenly realising he should be on the other side…. correcting his line........ A few laughs indeed!
We had approximately 60km to go to Dieppe, so decided to hussle it for the last bit – however we still stayed off the motorways as these held no interest for us at all.
The ride to Dieppe was uneventful – however nothing could have prepared us for the ride into the town. WOW!!!! We had a long straight section down a hill and the closer we got to the town – the better the views and the more historic the buildings became.
There was a true awe factor looking at buildings that were indeed centuries old.
Final stop for the day – Dieppe (Upper Normandy)
History (From WIKI)
First recorded as a small fishing settlement in 1030, Dieppe was an important prize fought over during the Hundred Years' War. Dieppe housed the most advanced French school of cartography in the 16th century. Two of France's best navigators, Michael le Vasseur and his brother Thomas le Vasseur, lived in Dieppe when they were recruited to join the expedition of René Goulaine de Laudonnière which departed Le Havre for Florida on April 20, 1564. The expedition resulted in the construction of Fort Caroline, the first French colony in the New World.[4] Dieppe was the premier port of the kingdom in the 17th century. On July 23, 1632, 300 colonists heading to New France departed from Dieppe. At the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Dieppe lost 3,000 of its Huguenot citizens, who fled abroad.
Dieppe was an important target in wartime; the town was largely destroyed by an Anglo-Dutch naval bombardment in 1694. It was rebuilt after 1696 in a typical French classical style by Ventabren, an architect, who gave it its unique feature for a sea port. It was popularised as a seaside resort following the 1824 visit of the widowed Duchess of Berry, daughter-in-law of Charles X. She encouraged the building of the recently-renovated municipal theatre, the Petit-Théâtre (1825), associated particularly with Camille Saint-Saëns.
During the later 19th century, Dieppe became popular with English artists as a beach resort. Prominent literary figures such as Arthur Symons loved to keep up with the latest fads of avant-garde France here, and during "the season" sometimes stayed for weeks on end.
Our arrival as mentioned was spectacular and we took the first opportunity to stop just on the inside of the harbour wall.
…………… and guess who’s popped out of the topbox…?
We were very intrigued when we noticed some big kites flying in the distance.
A quick stop to draw some funds from the “Hole-in-the-wall” and we started on a little exploration tour towards the other side of the harbour.
This was unbelievable….. we saw THIS poster on a wall….. what amazing luck. We’d arrived right in the middle of a major International Kite Festival that’s only held every 2 years.
We quickly found a hotel (bugger the camping) and were welcomed with open arms. We were also told that our bikes would be safer when we parked them on the pavement, right next to their reception to ensure the concierge could keep an eye on our “Moto’s”
A quick shower and a change after being relieved of €110.00 for the room (with separate single beds) and we were off to go and have a looksee.
The massive beachfront was covered with kite-flyers. Massive things that filled the sky. Every conceivable shape and design and we found that even SA was represented… although the poor Saffer sitting on his own in a small tent with his Springbok jersey on… looked a bit dishevelled and even Rian’s amazing sense of humour could only wring an attempt at a smile from this dude……. what-a-twat……..!
From our hotel room!
I’ve got so many pics that we’ll just throw a few in here without comments chaps….
This story/RR is taking forever and this is only the first day!
Some stunning displays though…
Evening time came all too soon and we had to go and find some food. Lots of restaurants and café’s – so we promptly chose one – sat down and waited for our turn to be served. The waitress finished with a couple that arrived before us and then sauntered over with a smile. Bonsoir Monsieur she said with such a cute smile – WITCH!!!
As soon as I’d greeted her and explained we wanted to eat and drink… she realised we spoke “that dreaded language” and just said – “No – Impossible” no drink & no food…FINI!!
We tried everything – pointing gesturing but all to no avail. Désolé!! And off we went with a huff.
A few blocks further we were beckoned in and although the restaurant manager became farking rude to us (pretending that he does not speak a word of English…) his wife eventually came and helped us out – changing her attitude again with us once realising no English connection. And here we thought we as Saffers were racists!
Rian enjoyed a really good Moules Fromage Bleu and my Moules Marinieres was also delicious! We hardly spoke as we shucked and gobbled…. It was nice but we were flippen hungry as well! Total cost for the meal, coke and a Leffe Blond came to €50.00 (with the single Leffe ripping €8.50 out of the bill amount)
We had to do the tourist thing and decided to do some walking taking in the sights …….. however the mistake was made when we walked down a narrow road section and noticed this lot in the windows…!
DAMN – we should have bought fresh and sat on the beach with a picnic ……..
Some of the town centre and harbour shots………….
This dude tried doing something that was……………. (no comment)
Check this painting on the side of this old building………
Amazing indeed!
Well so ends day 1 of our trip.
The News & Weather on the telly was not very positive……….
A good sleep is needed and we’ll decide where our next destination will be!
Day 2 to follow!
