Cycle Touring in France: Saint-Valery-en-Caux to Dieppe

We anticipated another hilly day like yesterday, bur at least we had not as far to travel and had been told that Veules-Les-Roses was beautiful place to visit. This seaside town was only 10pm down the road and certainly lived up to our expectations. The sea front is like most on this coast, huge cliffs on either side of a pebble beach, but the town itself could be deep in the country. There used to be a stretch of seven or so watermills down the river to the sea and a couple are still turning today. There are wide, shallow watercress beds next to some of the old mills and the town itself has mainly original houses from a couple of centuries ago, several with thatched rooves and others with flint and brick walls or timber frames. We cycled around the historic town trail, rather than walking, as we still had some distance to cover that day. This town also has the maximum 'four flowers' and it must be well worth a visit earlier in the year when all the roses are in bloom.

The rest of the day was very similar to the previous one and the hills were there waiting for us at every inlet. We dwelled a little while at Pourville to look at another site where impressionist paintings were inspired and took the back route into Dieppe to get a good view of the city from the chateau. We visited Dieppe on a day cruise in 1986 and our memories must have faded as the quaint fishing port has morphed into a huge monster of a place! Like many ports it is also a bit shabby in places but we had some great seafood, especially on the second night when a storm hit the city and we were treated to a lightening show. As the tables outside were unusable we had to wait to one became vacant inside, so we sat in a dry spot and had some wine to while away the time watching the rain crashing down.

Veules-les-Roses