First people up in the hotel we packed and crept down as quietly as we could from the 2nd storey, on the stone steps with metal cleats (🙈) to the reception, grabbing the master keys to unlock the hotel plus the garage.

Never had that amount of trust placed with us in any accomodation anywhere so huge thanks to the owner.

We were on the road by 6.30 am, it was still dark so lights on and headed to Avenue Verte greenway.

The Avenue was quiet bar ducks and rabbits and we cruised along, slowing down for the countless crossings and barriers. It was a 39 km ride and flat.

We stopped as we passed by Chateau de Mesnieres. It is regarded as a jewel of Renaissance architecture. It is open to visit but not today for us.

Another highlight was Château d’Arques la Bataille high on the hill. It is now owned by the state. Initially built by Count William of Talou, uncle of the Duke of Normandy who became William the Conqueror.

It has a long chequered history, quite sad. It saw many battles over the years, and ultimately purchased by an infamous French group, the Black Band who systematically removed anything of value (tiles etc) for profit. Apparently a number of well to do French families today owe their wealth to their Black Band ancestors who did this to countless historical properties.

Dieppe is an English Channel port with direct ferry transfers to Newhaven in England, hence our destination as we had a four hour ferry transfer.

It started raining as we arrived in Dieppe and went for a cruise around town to check it out, plus find food as we had not eaten.

We arrived at the terminal well ahead of time and sat with a group of cyclists recounting their tales.

I chatted with two English ladies who spent a fortnight riding to Paris and back. The guy in grey on the left spent a fortnight riding around Normandy. The guy in red rode across to do Paris-Brest-Paris race (7th time he has done the race) and is heading home to England.

We had a cabin on the ferry so spent most of our time there after eating some over priced food. I heard one lady with two heavily loaded trays, complaining to staff that it had cost more than her weekly shopping bill.

You can survive for four hours without buying their food, and you can bring your own food too!

As the ferry closed in on the English coast a few views as we waited to descend to level 3 where our bikes were stored for the crossing.

Once in Newhaven we decided to head to Brighton along the coast for a look. The Paris-Brest guy told us there was a pathway.

We crossed the harbour and photographed our ferry, much smaller than the Cork to Roscoff, but these ferries do multiple crossings daily.

Parts of the recommended pathway were shite! After a number of km it did improve though and instead got smacked in the face with a westerly headwind.

We dropped down onto this boulevard underneath the white cliffs. We went for maybe 5 plus km along the boulevard. The beaches are predominantly pebbles here. There were areas where it was dense with people, then it would open up again.

From the ferry, and our ride, we could see an offshore wind farm. It is the Rampion Offshore wind farm and is the first such farm in England. It generates enough electricity used annually by around 350,000 British homes. This is around half the homes in Sussex, the county we were in.

Little curios along the way included a story telling area, homes on canals and a Vespa parade. There were hundreds of vespas on show. Took me back to Muhlbach in Italy and the Vespa party we had walked in on.

We detoured from Newhaven to Brighton, as we had not ridden through there before – been close – but not close enough, and I wanted to see the Royal Pavilion. Brighton was transformed into England’s first seaside resort in the mid-18th century.

The then Prince of Wales secretly married Mrs Fitzherbert, causing outrage. He held many lavish parties and in 1815 transformed his house into what is now the Royal Pavilion. The building was completed in 1823 by which time he was better known as King George IV. His niece, Queen Victoria, sold the Pavilion to the town of Brighton in 1850.

Got to our accomodation on the outskirts of Lewes in one piece, as getting out of Brighton was quite hairy.

We showered and walked into town looking for dinner. 1.8 km ,after we found a pub that had a spare table and were entertained by this dog Stella and her outgoing owner, who kept talking about his ‘first ex-wife’ who lives in Western Australia. We had a lot of laughs.

Two rides today totalling 68 km plus transferring from France to England so a full day.

Three more days riding left in our adventures.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️