The decision was made over a leisurely breakfast in the late morning sun to leave the coast and head inland. Rolling hills tested our stamina going up and our courage whizzing down, and our cold but helpful tail wind stuck with us throughout. We’d started out late, after 11, so when we rolled into a pretty looking town hoping to buy a baguette and some cheese, everything was shut for their three hour lunch break. With a shrug we continued on, it was unlikely we’d starve. Sure enough, after a rest stop to munch our last (and slightly mouldy) clementine, we soared downhill into the larger town of Doudeville, a name that made us chuckle, and found that although everything was still shut, the church bell was about to strike 3, and there was a number of old dears waiting eagerly outside the ‘Champion’ supermarché with trolleys at the ready.
Sitting in the town square we hungrily tucked into…. you guessed it…. a baguette, with cheese, paté and some lovely sweet baby plum tomatoes. As has become the norm, leaving the town meant a fierce climb, and Kez had suddenly developed the urgent need for a loo stop, so we ducked into a strange little café for a beer, managed to offload about a tonne of change I’d accumulated in my wallet, counted helpfully by the bar lady, and made use of their facilities.
The rest of the journey was very very pleasant, although we were both quite tired again, and hoped the camp site would be a good one. One second we were in the middle of rural nowhere, then down a deserted hill and round a quiet bend suddenly Hericourt-en-Caux was all around us. A pretty river with an old water wheel, a large ominous church on a hill, hundreds of primary school children spilling out of class, and various interesting looking little shops. Our campsite sat right on the river and we pitched at a point where a stream joined it, gurgling soothingly over a little waterfall. We found a bottle of local ‘cidre’ for Kez and some more €1.50 wine for me. Kez cooked us up a fantastic meal of creamy blue cheese, mushroom and cider pork, with carrots, peas and the last of the tagliatelle, then bananas and cream for afters. We sat eating in the porch of our tent, watching ducks and coots busying themselves in the river, some kind of inept looking hawk repreatedly failing to catch anything in the flowery meadow the other side of the water, and the orangey evening sun dancing on the wind animated forest climbing the side of the valley beyond. An absolutely perfect shower, and coffee with cocoa dusted chocolate almonds rounded off a wonderful evening. Oh, and the campsite is the cheapest yet at €8.02!