18.06.2026 Day 9 - Viervilles-sur-Mer - Villerville-sur-Mer. Memories from D-Day

Today I passed the beaches of Normandy where the invation took place 82 years ago. We have all read the stories, but it is impressive actually being there. War is horrible. Why do new dictators always come up and start new wars? 

After 2 flat km, the day started with a killing climb. Only just managed to cycle, 10-11% i guess. At the top I felt I'd had enough for today. But stopping 9 o'clock was a bit early (there was a hotel actually 😄).

Crossing the Marne and a parallel channel right before Quistrehamn. Memorials to Major Howard som led a team that secured the bridges.

The Marne. When the tide goes up, water seems to flow upstream

To the memory of Major Howard

Just a few more pictures. There are so many stories about the invation already. I'd hardly add anything. Jut my own feeling of aw whne I'm actually here, wondering how it was possible, and more than ever feeling the madness of war.

On these beaches they landed

Memories everywhere

Used during the landing

From the 75-year conmemoration

German gun

After coming to Arromanche-les-Bains (with lots of D-day history), I faced the worst climb so far, and had to get off the bike, and walk, which I hate. Only done that once before, on Iceland, and then I turned around. But 18% is too much. Once you can't cycle anymore, pushing the 40 kg bike+luggage is not easy either. But you have little choice 🙂.

After this ascent I followed a nice track and partly road to Viervile-sur-Mer.

Passing close to the cliffs

Now at camping Omaha Beach, on top of the beach with the same name, where the Americans landed in 1944. Nice camping, also dominated by mobile homes and campers, but here I have my own spot instead of standing between parked cars.

Start at red spot, finish blue arrow

105 km that took me 9 hours (6:30 hours active cycling). Total distance 833 km.

17.06.2026 Day 8 - Le Havre - Villers-sur-Mer. Crossing Pont de Normandie and ending with a beer on the beach

After "missing the bus" yesterday, I was wondering how crossing the bridge would work out. No problem. I'll sum it up below, mainly for other cyclists. After the bridge a good ride in great weather, little wind, some climbing but much less than the days before. The views sometimes remind me of the Tour the France TV 🙂.

There are some scary reports of this bridge e.g.on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/comments/1ny01y9/pont_de_normandie_normandy_bridge_from_honfleur/. I also saw a YouTube calling it a "death trap". It is a good way to get noticed in the some algos (not my strong point), but it is highly exaggerated. Ok, the bike lane is narrow, but most tour cyclists are not novices. And yes, it is a 60m relatively steep ascent - you need to manage a stable pace while climbing. And the trailers pass relatively close, and that doesn't "feel nice". But basically it is safe. Two reservations: 1) try to stay away from rush hours, it is probably worse with a lot of traffic and 2) with a lot of wind, walk on the footpath instead.

They should have combined the footpath and the cycle lane in one track. There are really not many pedestrians, nor cyclists, so no conflicts. This would give you 2+ meters with a physical barrier to the traffic. The problem is that the drains are below the barrier between the footpath and the cycle lane, and they are like 10cm deep holes. Of course that could be solved, but they might need another 30 years to figure it out.

Below some pictures of the bridge passing.

The first views, approaching from the west

The toll plaza. Cycling is free 🙂👍

At least other traffic is warned about our presence

Ok, the cycling lane is narrow. But without much wind it is no problem

Took time for a few pictures on the top

The reward is great views

After the bridge, I had a nice and easy ride in great weather. Took a short day, 74km, found a camping more or less on the beach. Nice camping, but as there are few tenters these days, you get a spot between the campers. Fair enough. And now I'm writing this with a beer on the beach. Cheers!

Today's 74 km that took me 6 hours (4:20 hours active cycling). Total distance 728 km

16.06.2026 Day 7 - Quiberville-sur-Mer - Le Havre. Lunch party and struggling to book a bus.

Rather uneventful day.  More of the same, steep climbs and headwinds. Clouded much of the day, almost chilly, but clearing up towards the evening. I'm not really in Le Havre, but in Montivilliers, right outside. Regarding climbs it was the hardest day so far (and I hope it stays like that), 1050m up and down.

Nice coffee break in Saint-Valerie-en-Caux. France is not known for good service, but it strikes me how friendly everybody is and accomodates my deplorable French.

I have mentioned before that the signs are good, but still you can miss one. Suddenly I found myself close to Veulettes-sur-Mer. Cost me an additional 100m up and down, and one incredibly steep descent.

Veulettes-sur-Mer, nice views, a little reward for the extra climb

For lunch I found a table for once, a bit more comfortable. And here I talked to these good-humoured guys. When I told them I was going to Bordeaux, I was offered a glass of that wine. I politely refused with 50 more km to go!

Having a good time for lunch

Shortly before Fecamp there was a sign that the road was blocked. Nothing else. What to do? The deviations were significant, so I gave it a try. Managed to get through.

Pretty hard to get through here with my heavy luggage.

They do it to stop the large carrier cycles. Which makes sense, because also here it was very steep.

Fecamp, turns out to be pretty big city

Tomorrow I have to pass the Pont de Normandie, which is not very attractive due to the traffic. You can take a bus with the bike, but must call a number before 16:00. Extremely fast French chatting. I asked my brother Maarten to figure out what they said. He finally came in contact with a lady, gave her all required data (quite a lot, name, date of birth etc), and then she said there was no more space 🫣. So I will try to cycle and/or walk.

The negative numbers are not correct

104 km that took me 9:20 hours (7 hours active cycling). Total distance 654 km

15.06.2026 Day 6 - Le Crotoy-Quiberville-sur-Mer. White cliffs, climbs and the first warm day.

I didn't know, but also Normandie has white cliffs, like Dover. Beautiful but long ride with again quite some steep hills. Coming to the camping, it was 27 degrees. But they have a pool!

Started around 9 after good hotel breakfast. Coming to Saint-Valerie-sur-Somme, there are interesting locks. This is the real outlet of the Somme.

Locks in Saint-Valerie-sur-Somme

Art

... and flowers along the road. It doesn't get boring.

Passing Le Hourdel, right across Le Crotoy at the other side of the bay. Coffee in Cayeux-sur-Mer, easy ride so far. Reserved a camping here after yesterday's experience.

Then it gets hard, 100m right up, see altitude map. From here, partly headwind, partly side. Agriculture fields on this plateau, before steep downhill to Mers-les-Bains. Always a pitty when the downhill is on steep and narrow roads so you have to brake a lot and dissipate your potential energy.

In this area there are several stretches of white cliffs. I thought they were unique in Dover, but clearly not.

White cliffs south of Le Treport

20 minutes after taking this picture I was on top of the cliffs, 120 meter higher.

They build them here too. Impressive construction work. See similar from Lithuania last year.

In Dieppe the EV 4 GPX track leads you the ferry to England, so it is completely wrong here. Use tracking with OrganicMaps, Komoot or similar to find the cycle bridge.

Yes, now I am on the Eurovelo, the Central Europe route, running from Bretagne to Kyiv. Left EV 12 in Calais, it continues in the UK.

After Dieppe there are two more climbs. The first of these has a great viewpoint, nice spot for a last break. 

Met a guy on the camping who does 120-140km per day. He is 75 years old! No need to stop it seems. But 100 is enough for me, more than some days. 670m up and 650j down today.

Started at the red spot and finished at the blue arrow

105 km that took me 8:30 hours (6:30 active cycling). Total distance 550 km

14.06.2026 Day 5 - Audresselles-Le Crotoy. Beautiful weather, tailwind and a troubled end.

There  is not so much to say about this day, apart from that was a great cycling experience with largely tailwind. Makes (cycle) life a lot easier. Sunshine almost all the time, not very warm thoughg. Quite a bit up and down first, with beautiful views, and then mostly flat. Landscape changing between agriculture, forests and neighbourhoods (not the cheap variation).

Now staying in Le Crotoy, a small seaside village where the river Somme runs into the Atlantic.

I intended to camp, but this appeared problematic. Most campings don't take tents anymore, and when I finally found one (after several km extra cycling), it was full - couldn't even take one small tent! Quite surprising, even outside the main season. A lesson for the next days. Ended up in a hotel. More comfortable of course, but also like tenting as an alternative when the weather is nice. 

Some pictuires from the trip below.

First place I passed was Boulogne-sur-Mer, with a bombastic statue remembering the passage of the Andes in 1815-16. Should such statues ble kept or removed?

English graveyard from the First World War in Étaple. 15000 graves.

From bridge close to Quend

Better safe than sorry. Slippery bridge, cyclist should walk. Of course nobody does, with 50 or so bridges like this it would make quite some walking.
Why throw away money at this kind of "safety" nonsense?

Nice nature area right before Le Crotoy with lots of birds. Some nesting, see in front of picture.

Altitude picture, about 450m up and down

Longest trip so far, with 114 km and took me 9 hours (6:50 active cycling). Time included almost one hour searching for a place to spend the night Total distance 445 km

13.06.2026 Day 4 - Dunkerque-Audresselles. Beautiful landscapes and getting hilly.

First early start 08:35, I like it. Today's first 20km were quite nice, lot's of forest reducing the wind. Rural areas with agriculture, corn, potatoes, vegetables.

Corn getting mature. This is a sign of autumn in Central Norway, where the corn is later and the autumn earlier.

Right outside Dumkerque there was an unofficial refugee camp with tents. I met quite a few people walking towards Dunkerque, maybe for some badly paid job? Sad situation.

After a while I reached Gravelines. Saw a lot of power lines. It appears Gravelines is the site of France's largest nuclear plant, production corresponding to about 1/5 of Norway's total electricity consumption.

Nice eh? Transporting power from France's largest power plant.

Gravelines also has a nice watertower, I like those. Quite different from those I saw in Lithuania last year.

Watertower of Gravelines

A coffee in Grand-Fort Philippe on the coast. From there it became tough. The wind was not quite as strong as yesterday, but I'm biking through very open rural areas, so it never stops. But lots of flowers along the road!

Akkerwinde in Dutch, Åkerwindel in Norwegian

Memory from the Second World War

Passing through the centre of Calais, looked nice, but I didn't stop. 

The beach in Calais. I can understand that people want these, but the beach is not very nice anymore.

A new challenge: where to stop for lunch so my food doesn't blow away? Even in Norway and Iceland this was never a problem, because in mountainous areas you always find a quiet spot. Finally found a place in Sangatte.

Church lunch

After this, the landscape totally changed, suddenly it became quite hilly. 450m up and down on the last two28km! I was already rather tired and was a bit anxious. But funny, the hills actually were better. The ascents may be hard, but at least you get some rest in the descents. Some really steep climbs, wondered if I could do it - I hate walking the bike, and have only done it once, in Iceland. But I managed.

Beautiful views with the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Much better in reality!

Stopping in Audresselles, finding a camping this time. Plan was Boulogne-sur-mer, but 88km was enough with the wind.

I include the altitude today, more interesting than before.

Today's trip was 88 km and took me 8 hours (6:20 active cycling). Total distance 331km