2025 Tour Day 22 - Rouen

No rain. No wet tent. Blue skies and a gentle breeze. We knew we had a descent, heading to the Siene, but we didn't know just how high we were until we came upon the view:

Wow it was a steep descent (see elevation chart below, the blue arrow is this hill down). Exhausting in its own way. Hand stress. Brake stress. A lot of self talk. And we made it safely, no issues (so happy to have my disc brakes and dry conditions). 

Before the descent we stopped for our daily Boulangerie visit and cycled through orchards and fields.

At the bottom of the hill, we found the Rue Des Canadiens.. who knew?

And the Siene. And we had to cross it...Ferry time!

It seemed like we just missed it. 

But the ferry just simply goes back and forth, basically on demand - he just goes back and forth to each side, it takes about 7 minutes per crossing. Free to all. 

Looking back on the hill we just cycled down, yes very steep. 

And looking across the Siene to the white cliffs. 

The next several kilometers were following the Siene inland towards Rouen. Very industrial. Big ships and ship yards.  

And this boat from St. John's named Lake Ontario 🇨🇦

Not so many thatched roofs here - but a new twist on the idea - solar thatch. 

The shipyards continued and also industry. They seemed to be mining into the white cliffs. It was dusty and lots of trucks, but we had a safe dedicated bike lane, and it was flat, and it wasn't raining. 

We made it to Rouen and .... We splurged and checked into the Hyatt for two night! What? 

Yep. Our bikes are safely in the bike storage room and we are in white sheets and a king sized bed. 

(This is when we checked in, the front desk was up many steps!) 

And we now own clean clothes too. This is living! 

We stocked up on some groceries for our room and found this lovely fruit and veggie store. You have to tell the owner what you would like and he chooses and bags them for you - don't touch the merchandise! 

Beer and baguette, pate and hummus, strawberries and apricots. Yes. Life is good. 

We will explore Rouen tomorrow, on foot. It is very hilly and our hotel is at the top of a steep hill (see red arrow below on elevation chart), so the bikes will stay where they are and we will explore other means of transportation. 

Tonight we had a nice dinner, and waited for a bus to take us up the big hill. We ended up chatting with a young lady from Morocco, here studying and working in the insurance business. She explained that the bus was diverted due to construction and we needed up walk the full hill, again. (The bus did eventually go by us, but we were between stops and so had to just wave and keep climbing.) Lots of steps today, lots of elevation. 

A few little highlights of tonight's exploring... The oldest bar in France...

And one view of one of the many cathedrals. Much history to learn and explore tomorrow.

This is our view from our hotel room tonight. No birds to sing us to sleep, but sleep in comfort we will! 

Strava stats for the day. 

Good night from the hilltop Hyatt.