The hottest day on Earth?
Passing a rotisserie stall at the morning Marché in Le Tréport I bought pomme de terre for the midway morning matter conversion and three large slow roasted saucisse for petit dejeuner.
And I leave vast Normandy and cross a frontier into petite Picardie once more.
A very elongated circular walk... With two assistances forward thanks to SNCF, when I had run out of options, and a few nice little auto-stops, when shuttling between places,and I will be back in Beauvais by Saturday for a mid afternoon flight.
There is a toilet on the beach front where I can deposit spent fuel rods before another long day and the heat will be unbearable (it's 8 o'clock).
***
It's around one so finding a restaurant catering to my Galette complet needs, with air-conditioning and peace for a little while away from the European hordes; ideal? But now I must deposit again then away(I think heat exhaustion plays havoc with my bowels)?
40% left on the phone, but a filled belly and a place to stay in Abbeville: I must just get there, or as far as is possible before my body stops me, then auto-stop
Coming down from a 'difficulty', off of the cliffs with its relentless up and down, I am on another difficuly - the flat open uncovered pan of La Baie de Somme.
After today I will be heading inland, after a brief (2 day) flourish alongside the coast on the Sentier Littoral: coastal walking is excellent if it's not coming into seaside towns that they forgot to bomb...
Eating free seabuckthorn on a duneland path: sticking to the one for velo traffic, rather than actually passing into the one suggested by the yellow arrows at the start of the Duneland. On a day like today I was going to kill myself walking through that 'desert'? The mouth of the Somme is just ahead where I turn inland as the temperature hits 40°C.
***
What a day. Intense. The going was challenging... Firstly the up and downing along the 'downs' and then flat and baking along the bay with no tree cover alongside the dunes from Ault. Since I arrived in Dieppe I forgot how much I dislike coastal habitation: the lady who picked me up outside Saint-Valery sur Somme was correct when she called the people on the promenade 'French potatoes'. The seaside attracts couch potatoes - people who need 'entertainments' like fairground attractions, candy floss, ice lollies and Moules in there billions... I love the landscape and what grows on the banksides, but the people and the gulls they attract to a wound festering sore and gangrenous... Merde.
***
The accommodation for the passed two nights was awful, considering the price (it really wasn't value for money) and I didn't sleep very well in Le Tréport - Dieppe, although miles from the centre - was quiet-ish with fewer gulls and only two dogs barking at shadows...
In Abbeville I struggled to find the accommodation, but once I did I discovered a gem. For a two person apartment it's ideal - gym, sauna, pool, bar and old people (it's a retirement home and hotel rolled into one)! Last night I washed my smalls and sat in a bath robe at the bar where I had 2 Hoegaarden Wit (which I discovered has glucose syrup as an adjunct (Inbev meh)) for happy hour (the last 30 minutes) as I watched octogenerians play a game of cards which seemed to have no skill involved?
Back in room 3 I had a shower, a long cool shower, and lingered in semi-sleep a long time. I think my body was overwound up from an exceptional day? Here I sit listening to the fall of water, from without, while cradling a filter coffee. I am in Abbeville which I believe was where the BEF came for convalescence during WWI? Today is a day off which gives me three days to get to Beauvais?
Comments