Across the Channel
Ferry – Portsmouth (UK) to Cherbourg (France)
Tuesday 21 July 2015.
With Brittany Ferries taking your bike across the Channel could not be easier. Simply walk it on-board through the car entrance, lock it to the points provided, and then relax in aeroplane style seats whilst enjoying the two and a half hour crossing. Unlike planes, there is no need to dismantle the bike to box it up, or to wonder whether it will arrive from the luggage hold in one piece, if at all. Cyclists are usually embarked before cars, unless they arrive at the quayside after loading has started.
Having secured my bike in the hold I moved upstairs and bought a coffee before settling into a window seat. My seat had a power point and there was free wi-fi on board so I was able to use my laptop to help pass the time.
Cherbourg is situated at the top of the Cotentin Peninsular and, according to Lonely Planet, is “the largest but hardly the most appealing town in this part of Normandy. Modern day Cherbourg – now united with adjacent Octeville – is a far cry from the romantic city portrayed in Jacques Demy’s 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”.
I think Lonely Planet is being a bit harsh. Cherbourg won me over straight away with its attractive harbour and streets, and interesting eateries and shops everywhere you look. In fact I was overwhelmed by the number of top quality restaurants, cafés, crêperies, boulangeries, and artisan patisseries. What a contrast with Portsmouth last night where the best I could find was greasy, disgusting, fish and chips out of a cardboard bucket. How different to the fantastic fish and chips and mushy peas we enjoyed at the City Barge riverside pub on Friday night!
You have to be so careful when ordering food in a French restaurant because the menus are normally only in French and very few waiters/waitresses speak any English or show any inclination to be helpful. There is one dish called “Andouille de Vire” which is supposed to be something of a delicacy, but good old Google saved me from ordering it … “Andouille de Vire is made from pig’s stomach and intestines, the bundles of gut are tied, encased in more intestine and smoked over an open fire for up to 6 weeks, before being simmered with herbs for up to 8 hours”. I ended up choosing Escalopes de Normandie because I guessed it meant scallops, which I had read was a specialty of the region. I was not disappointed, it was simply delicious.
So tomorrow I have a relatively easy 60Km ride to La Haye-du-Puits, the first of eleven stages on route to Roscoff in Brittany (Bretagne) where I catch the ferry to Plymouth (UK) and train back to London. Fine but cool weather is predicted, so bring it on!
