No
internet or cell service yesterday so we enjoyed our quiet time and ignored the
blog. Maybe that’s a good thing? Who knows? In any case, here's some thoughts about yesterday.
We bid adieu to Boulogne-sur-Mer yesterday morning with a bit of regret, but we rode into a beautiful day of sunshine and tailwinds. Even though we spent only a few hours exploring the city, Boulogne s/ Mer kind of captured our imagination. It is a little rough around the edges but it has a lot going for it. Visit sometime if you are in the area.
Like yesterday, today’s route also involved some climbing, but all of it was in the first 40 km. It wasn’t too bad and both of us feel like we’re getting used to the daily rides. The tailwind wasn’t as strong as yesterday, but no complaints about that hand of somebody pushing us along. We rode on a lot of just plain roads today; some had bike lanes but some didn’t. But we didn’t have any problems at all. We also keep in mind our cardinal philosophy: tonnage rules. Right or wrong, cars are always given leeway.
Along the way we passed another Commonwealth cemetery called the Etaples. This one laid to rest many thousands of soldiers from WWI and many thousands more from the next world war. The row upon row of headstones can’t help but make one ponder.
By the time we reached our coffee stop at a small village on an estuary, called Etaples, we were ready for some sustenance. Etaples is a fishing village and the fish monger stands were open and doing a brisk business mid-morning. Not only did we find a café with good coffee (so many people say the coffee in France sucks, but I disagree. It is pretty good. OK, it isn’t Italy, but in my opinion it is just fine), but the angel at the café saw Lorie’s and came out with a big bag of ice. That was so very thoughtful. We couldn’t thank her enough.
Lost again... 
Some random church 
Esturary in Etaples
It was getting downright warm after a chilly start to the day and by the time we stopped for a quick lunch we were ready to shed our warm clothes. The rest of the ride was great – it was even getting hot. That isn’t a complaint; it felt awesome. I can complain about the heat later and cannot get away with it now!
Our destination was just south of the tiny, touristy village named Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. The roads leading to the village had a great bike path and we made it to town in no time at all. We had several hours ahead of our rather late check-in time for the night so we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner of moules et frites (mussels and fries). This is a classic meal in France and it was delicious. Neither of us could finish all of the moules – our count was about 10 dozen of the shellfish. Our waiter, a rather surly France-Russian guy named Maxim, was a bit put off by the fact that we couldn’t finish all we were served. We smiled and told him not to worry, they were awesome (and that was the truth). We had a nice glass of wine with lunch/dinner but paid too much for that bit of it. I should have told Maxim to grab us another glass of wine but give us the good stuff that costs so little. But that would have far exceeded my rudimentary French so I thought better of it.
The estuary at Saint-Valery /s Somme
Moules et frites
Saint-Valery-sur-Somme 
encore...
After that we had about 5 miles left to our rented guest house. It was a bit of a climb and along the way a kid on a mountain bike rode a wheelie all the way up the hill next to us. I told him that I can do that and he said show me. I declined...didn't want to show him up because it might damage his young ego. We got to our destination just in time to check in, but the owner was surprised, said that they had no record of a reservation for the evening. Oh, Oh. I fished out my phone and found all the relevant records and gave them to our host. They said that they problem must have been on their end, and we got tucked into a great little house that is about as spotless as Jane’s place! It’ll be very comfortable for the evening and after a shower we opened a bottle of the good wine that we’d bought in Saint-Valery /s and enjoyed a lovely evening.
Tomorrow we are off for Saint-Valey-en-Caux, about 60 miles south of here. We were scheduled to camp, but Lorie’s arm isn’t ready for that. So we will find a hotel somewhere and that’ll do.
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