Saturday April 15th

We travelled to Newhaven in the late afternoon with a view to catching an early boat the next day.

To travel from London to Brighton, we picked up the Thameslink train at Blackfriars, where there are ramps all the way to the southbound platform and no ticket checks (where the tandem could get spotted). We were sure of getting on because the tandem can be taken apart, and we would have done so if challenged. But we were lucky - nobody noticed.

Unfortunately it was raining very heavily and a strong east wind was blowing as we left George's daughter's house in Brighton and rode eastwards for our night's stay in Seaford (beyond Newhaven). We used a rather bumpy section of Sustrans route 2 between Saltdean and Newhaven - it took us past the dock, so we could check where to pick up the boat next morning. We missed using a nice off-road track on the other side of the road into Seaford. The B and B at Malvern House was comfortable and we got a meal in the nearby Seven Sisters pub.

Easter Sunday April 16th

The landlady kindly gave us breakfast at 6.30 and we hurried off using the nice new off-road track we'd spotted the night before and arrived at the dock in time for the 8 am boat. We even had time to fix a puncture while we waited to board the ferry - it was late to leave. It was an enormous new boat run by French staff and did the crossing in three and half hours.

On arrival in Dieppe at about midday, we went into the colourful town over a couple of lifting bridges and set off up the hill along the coast with a white chalk cliff on our left and others behind us on the far side of Dieppe.

It was at this stage that we discovered that the wind had gone round to the west and was just as strong as the day before. Fortunately no rain. But being Sunday afternoon, it seemed hard to find any shops open until the very posh resort of Varengeville, where we bought some rather heavily filled sandwiches and other snacks in a patisserie (open even on Easter Sunday!). We stopped in a fairly sheltered spot by the beach in Quiberville Plage to eat our picnic. At this stage the headwind was so strong that we did wonder whether we would reach our destination before dark.

To avoid the combined adverse effect of steep uphills typical on the Normandy coast and strong wind, we diverted inland onto some attractive wooded roads passing through villages (le Bourgdun, la Chapelle sur Dun, Blossville, St Valery, Paluel) until we reached Auberville la Manuel, where we had booked into a Chambres d'Hôtes.

This was in an old brick building - probably had been a small farm - with some original features (timber beams, brick walls) but had been cruelly 'restored' by the previous owners. It was on the hilltop above the seaside resort of Veulettes, where we went for an evening meal. Veullettes is an attactive small town by a little river with church and mairie inland and with restaurants on the sea front. We chose les Frégates for a 3 course meal for 15€. The cycle ride back up the steep hill in the moonlight was traffic-free but tough.