A Weekend in Dieppe

Six a.m. rendezvous at Turners Hill?  Yes, of course I can make that.  It sounded easy enough and I managed to get all my packing done the day before as well as wake up at 04:30. But somehow, time slipped by and I was 20 minutes late!  I sent JV a text to let him know and the tone of the next hour or so was set - everyone else (John V, John C, Richard, Peter and Marian) riding along on schedule, me riding hard to try and catch up. Every hill seemed to be hard work and with the wind slightly on my front quarter I struggled to get into the twenties on the long run down past Wakehurst and through Ardingly. It was with some relief that I met up with the waiting JV just before Lindfield. He proceeded to pace me as we carried on to Slugwash Lane. I was still finding the hills a struggle but we were keeping up a good pace which meant we caught the others shortly after Wivelsfield Green. No time to stop and chat, we kept going using several small lanes heading east and south east before emerging on the A275 near Cooksbridge. We passed through Lewes as the friday morning rush hour was getting into its stride and continued south past Kingston, Rodmell, Southease and Piddinghoe to arrive at Newhaven Ferry terminal by 08:40 - 31 miles in a little over two and a half hours of cycling - not bad.

Having passed through Passport Control, we hung around the rather spartan waiting room and were surprised by just how many other cyclists arrived to use the same ferry - fortunately one of them was Barbara who had come across from Horsham by car. 

I posted this bleak picture on Facebook - yes, it was as cold as it looks!!

We were soon aboard and with our bikes all huddled together in a space at the stern on deck 3, we found a table in the bar area on deck 8 and settled down for what we were anticipating would be a bumpy voyage. But no, in spite of the strong crosswind the ship provided a fairly smooth crossing and just under four hours of chatting, eating, drinking and snoozing later we were just outside Dieppe.

It was a short ride to the hotel and having checked in and unpacked, some of us had a quick wander around the town and enjoyed a quiet drink in a bar near the cathedral.

We regrouped, and set off to look for a venue for our Saturday evening meal. We soon found one and managed to book a table, after which we headed off to a bar for a couple of pre-dinner drinks.

Then it was time for something to eat, so we popped into a nearby restaurant.

Saturday morning arrived bright and breezy. We walked into the town  centre to find a cafe for a coffee and croissant breakfast and enjoyed a stroll around the colourful market.

Then at 10:30 we set off, away to the southeast of Dieppe, with the wind mainly behind us. It helped as we climbed up to the plateau and on through some woodland. The sun had disappeared and it was trying to rain, but it didn't try hard enough and we didn't need to don our waterproofs. The roads were generally quiet and the motorists gave us plenty of leeway, so, coupled with the scenery the ride was very pleasant.

After twenty odd miles we enjoyed a fast, double-hairpin descent from the plateau and sped down into a town called Neufchatel-en-Bray.

We found a quiet cafe and enjoyed a very pleasant hour and a half away from the wind, eating, drinking and chatting.Thanks to the linguistic skills of Pete, JV and Barbara we even got exactly what we wanted from the menu!

For the return trip we split into two groups. The first would head back to Dieppe following the Avenue Verte - a very high quality and direct tarmac route laid on an old railway trackbed. The second group headed southwest, climbed out of the valley and visited a V1 launch site at Val-Ygot. This WWII site was well-presented and was free to visit. A memorial at the entrance was dedicated to the memory of the victims of secret weapons of WWII.

A replica doodlebug was mounted on a launch rail on a compass bearing of 336 degrees i.e. straight at London.

There were a few people around and so it was that I found myself in the middle of a French Forest at a German military site, talking to a German in a mixture of my awful schoolboy French, English and hand gestures (polite hand gestures). You try doing this without mentioning the war - I think I managed to do so and I think I got away with it!   I found this historic site to be both informative and moving - for instance I hadn't realised how many launch sites there were (there were over 100 in this region of France) and Allied bombing, misfiring V1's and the use of maltreated slave labour caused many deaths.

Back on the bikes we now had a nice downhill blast into the valley before a longish draggy climb over the next ridge and past a row of wind turbines lying on their sides prior to being erected. Another nice descent was followed by a few miles of quiet lanes and picturesque villages before we too turned onto the Avenue Verte and managed a steady 16mph into the wind and all the way back to Dieppe.

We arrived back at the hotel at about 18:00 hrs having clocked up 60 odd miles for the day.

Then we all headed out to the restaurant for our celebration dinner where we were joined by Edwin and Peter.

We followed  the meal up with another visit to a bar before taking a leisurely stroll back to the hotel taking in some of the sights Dieppe had to offer:

Edwin and Peter also joined us for the Sunday morning ride which was graced by nice sunny weather but with a fairly constant westerly wind. We enjoyed a twenty-four mile loop to the east of Dieppe and had a pleasant stop at a bar-tabac half way round.

Arriving back at the harbour we found a nice sheltered and sunny table at a restaurant and enjoyed what was probably the best food of the weekend.

It seemed a shame to leave but we were booked on the afternoon ferry, so we said goodbye to Edwin and Peter (their ferry wasn't until Monday), picked up our panniers from our hotel and headed to the ferry terminal.

Back on board the ferry (The Seven Sisters) we once again stored our bikes, claimed our space in the bar area and took one last look at Dieppe as we steamed back to Blighty.

The journey back dragged on and on - probably because the weather was closing in and it was getting dark but four hours after setting off we docked at Newhaven and after a long wait were finally able to disembark and rush around to the Railway Station. A few minutes later our train pulled in and we dispersed ourselves along the three carriages so as not to clog up any doorways - this meant I was all alone in the end carriage.

At Brighton we only had to walk our bikes 10 yards from one train to the next and it left almost the moment we'd all got on board. Forty minutes later we arrived at Three Bridges and just a few minutes later we were all safely home from our French weekend.

Everyone seems to have enjoyed it immensely and I'm hoping we can do a similar sort of trip next year.

Details of our routes can be found at (thankyou Richard):
11/05/2013 Arques La Bataille, Upper Normandy, France
and
12/05/2013 Dieppe, Upper Normandy, France

Next weeks ride is the next DA Event. It starts from Sumners Ponds in Barns Green (free parking available, or Billingshurst station is about 4 miles away) at 10:00hrs. It will be a Bicycle Treasure Hunt with a set route of about 30 miles, a pub for lunch and will finish at about 16:00hrs back at Sumners Ponds. Please join in, people usually enjoy it a lot.