2025 Tour Day 25 - Good bye Normandy

We crossed the regional line from Normandy to Hauts-de-France, completing Stage 3 of our Tour, the Normandy Stage. 

What a fabulous day of cycling! One of our best days - top 5 ever, for sure. 

Long climbs, smooth descents, cool tail wind, forests and fields. 

We left Neuf Chateau under the threat of rain. Rolled up the wet tent and decided against making breakfast on the wet grass of our campsite. We headed to town and considered a McDonalds breakfast, but alas they don't open until 9 🥺. 

We cruised up to the E Leclerc (big grocery + mass superstore) and tried out their lawn furniture that was on display.  Yes, we were those people. Shoppers passing by gave us that kind but pitiful look. But we were dry and able to make hot coffee / tea and oatmeal. Aww the life! 

BTW the chocolate chip cookies sold at the pastry shop in E Leclerc are fantastic. We didn't have cookies for breakfast. But we did have cookies for breakfast dessert 😉

The town was quite pretty, with a decorated, cobblestoned main street, and a good hill to climb to get out. 

The view after the first climb. Green rolling fields. 

We are always curious about the crops. We need a crop identifier app.

It is hard to capture the rolling hills and many shades of green that we get to enjoy. And poppies too. I love how they line the fields, just wild flowers blowing in the wind. 

We got a good dose of forest showers today too, long beautiful stretches of road surrounded by dense forest and ferns reaching 5 feet tall. So lush. 

We did have a deer pop out on the road ahead of us at one point.  She stopped and took a good look at us, and then turned back into the trees. No cars were near us, thank goodness. 

 

We stopped for our morning snack and these lambs had a LOT to say. They were hilarious, running to this gate and just chatting up a storm. I wish Google translate could help with what they were saying. 

 

Morning snack. Even squished, always delicious. 

We entered another forest, and then another. Some were climbs, some flats, and every one of them was rejuvenating, cool and lush. 

 

A random house, in the forest. 

Our lunch stop is when we realized we had crossed out of Normandy and into Hauts-de-France, the north east region of France. 

More beautiful hills and fields and cows after lunch. (I love how cows just stare at us as we ride by, locked on eyes.)

The roads are always well kept - the sides are cut and trimmed. Love this road where they cut into the trees / hedge to as high as any large truck might be, and then they let the rest just grow. 

This forest was being radically changed. Not sure if there was some sort of issue, all the trees had heavy vines growing up them. 

We were definitely getting chased by some serious looking clouds, and there was a warning about potential thunderstorms on our phones.

Our final 2.5 km was a smooth and sensational descent into the town of Picquigny. This is not my photo (below), it is from Google, but it is the view we saw coming down the hills towards the town - the ruins of a chateau dating back to the 13th century. 

We pulled into the campground with our groceries (baguette in the backpack) and found a cheerful owner, and we asked for a pitch with no rain 😉

Well, he really came through! 

He gave us a pitch with a porch we can use. A covered porch, with a picnic table!  Woot woot. 

Perfect timing. We got the tent up and panniers on the porch before any rain fell, and now we can watch the rain from the porch. 

We even made a wee cup of tea tonight to help warm us up before the sun sets. 

Such a great ride, lovely tough hills, one after another. 

Stage 1 - Spain

Stage 2 - Narbonne

Stage 3 - Normandy 

Stage 4 - Hauts-de-France 

Here we go.