French Bicycle Odyssey – Day one

Wednesday 17th August 2016 – In car from London to Rouen, via Calais

Our first day on the road and the boat to France was what Husband describes as “un piece di Oui- Oui” – of course, that is helped by the fact that no cycling was involved!

I think I have found the right “baguette and bike” T-shirt for our month long trip taking John’s bicycle to Florence!

Putting the bike in the hold of an aeroplane would be far too simple and it is about time we saw a bit more of Europe anyway.

A toast to our trip with Felicitas Witte before I leave Florence for the last minute preparations

This morning we left our lovely Irish friends Ann and Michael in charge of our home and, more of a challenge, entrusted team with our miserable cat, Crumble, who will hopefully not go off her food in protest! Mind you she has fussy tastes – prawns have to be included! 

We rose at 05.30 and managed to load the car ready to set off for Dover by about 07.15. Once on the road we delighted to find that contrary to the Internet – and thus our expectation – there wasn’t a trace of a queue , indeed we arrived in time to be transferred to the 10.15 ferry instead of the 12. 55 P&O trip  to the no longer quite so lovely port of Calais that we had originally booked!

The ancient City might have been overlooked in these days of thwarted immigrants trying to break out of the Calais Jungle but the history of the Burghers of Calais is still impressive as in 1346, they walk out of their Plague wracked City with nooses around their necks to face the wrath of English King, Edward III. Condemned to die after the victory in a battle led by his sixteen-year-old son, Edward of Woodstock, better known as the Black Prince, at the Battle of Crécy.

Although a copy of this is easily visible near the Palace of Westminster in London, I will always love to visit Rodin‘s moving sculptural reminder of their bravery and sacrifice in its rightful place in Calais.

From Calais we set off by car to the city of Rouen, where we stay at the IBIS Rouen Centre Rive Gauche , a chain which we had been advised to avoid but apart from a bit of a niff in the reception area we are really rather happy with for only €54. They have provided a secure lock-up for the car with bike overnight for an extra 6 Euros – not a bad price in an European City Centre!

The room is clean and has free Wi-Fi , and bliss – a bath as well as shower and a hairdryer – and not just a hairdryer – a strong hairdryer that doesn’t cut out after 7 minutes of use!

Sadly a small problem with the bath in morning – the metal plug won’t budge – can’t get rid of the dirty water!

First stop from the hotel was to visit the language school that John attended in 2009 whilst studying for his French A -level. Sadly we found it deceased but it was a good chance for a walk!

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  Joan of Arc burning at the stake

In the afternoon we made a tour of the City to visit the place where in 1431 we Brits burnt poor Jean D’Arc to a cinder – and as the Florentine rulers did in 1498 with Savonarola, threw her ashes into the river Seine to prevent any looters from selling relics of the girl (they were pretty sure she would be sainted for her efforts to get the English out of France!)

We also visited the Cathedral – almost completely destroyed in the War WW2 – it has recently restored some of the statues from the front of the building – not seen in public for more than 50 years.

The cathedral once contained the black marble tomb of John Plantagenet or John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, one of the English commanders who oversaw Joan of Arc’s trial but it was destroyed by Calvinists during the French Wars of Religion: . He became a canon priest of the cathedral after her death.

Although he is not even given a mention in GB Shaw’s play St Joan in Tony Milne’s play “bloody Bedford“, he is the protagonist, facing Joan of Arc. The play focuses on his role as the last English Regent of France. He became a canon priest of the cathedral after her death.

The new stained glass windows illustrating Bible stories with a modern twist without seeming out of place are particularly impressive.

Photo montage above by Bluree – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7837762

A good nights sleep started immediately after supper in John’s case  – by 9pm he was sleeping like a baby – perhaps snoring like an older man!