Stage 2 - Le Havre to Brionne. 30 May 2013

First Real Day

So much for "getting settled" on the boat. I sat in the terminal until 10 o'clock when I was told I had to embark and then proceeded to stand in the car park for an hour with all the motorcyclists. They were good fun but the high-viz guys were painfully slow getting the boat loaded and it didn't leave till nearly 12 o'clock midnight.

I had a seat booked in a little quiet room with about twenty places. I was really tired so I didn't even walk around the boat. The seat reclined but not enough so I unrolled my sleeping bag and mat and kipped on the floor. I couldn't get comfortable and didn't sleep particularly well. I was awoken an hour earlier than I had expected by an announcement to "get to your vehicle" so I must have dropped off OK. I grabbed my clothes bag and toiletries bag and took a chance that the toilet would be free. The assembly area outside of the room was full of people who had been ready for ages just dying to queue up. I wandered through them in my vest and (long) pants and found the bog was empty. I did what I had to do and then got ready and was soon on the deck loading the bike for the day.

I got out of Le Havre reasonably well. It is quite a big place and it was really busy being morning rush hour and with the ferry traffic as well. I rolled along the footpath slowly early on in the same direction as all of the ferry traffic. The signs in the town were good although the skies weren't. Later on there were choices to be made and I had to keep stopping to look at the map. There were no road names just occasional numbers which scuppered me a bit. My planning was generally the names of the roads so you live and learn. The heavens opened and I was in the middle of nowhere so I couldn't shelter and got soaked. I waited in the first available bus shelter and had a bit to eat. The rain eased and I set off. I was wet anyway and felt I needed to make progress. There was a decision to make at nearly every junction and I got a couple wrong but there were a lot of options and I wasn't particularly worried. I knew where I was going - just not going the quickest way. I bought some water - flavoured mmmm- and bananas at a Carrefour and got on a decent stretch of road where I knew where I was going so I made decent progress for a while, although it was raining steadily and not pleasant at all.

I was feeling a bit tired and there were early signs of saddlesoreness. The day's destination, Evreux, was still a long way off so I had a decision to make. Get stuck in and get there or stop somewhere else like Brionne. There was also an option to stop at Brionne for some food and rest for an hour and then finish the job. There would be enough light. There were further complications because two of the three phone batteries were flat and the laptop was on its last legs. As I slogged up a hill the decision was to stop at Brionne but then on the downward slope it was carry on to Evreux.

Brionne won. I'm in a hotel which is just about acceptable but my host can't or won't speak English and it is too expensive. After settling in I had trouble getting the wifi (French call it weefee) going. There was nobody about when I looked around. Later I rang "reception" and it must have transferred to yon mon's mobile. He said he would sort it tomorrow. I said it was very important, me being an eminent author with thousands, OK hundreds, let's say 5 or 6, hanging on my every word. He paused and said "5 minutes" in excellent English. Ten minutes later there was a knock on the door and a there stood a tiny, about 4ft tall, and extremely thin young lady with a similarly thin but 6ft plus young man. They tried all the usual things I had tried and the girl tried to attach to the wifi on her own phone without success. I then suggested the obvious, i.e., "reset" or "recharge". The young man disappeared and before he came back "voila!" I always wanted to say that in real life. So, old Tom out-geeked the French geeks. I've done some washing and sorted the electronics out. I need to organise tomorrow's route (without using road names) and will probably then have an early night. I may be camping for the next couple of nights so may not have internet access. I will keep notes and will update the blog when I can.