In which Sid and Doris cower from the Wetting Down rain, go to the nearest railway station – and then ride anyway to Argentan.
At 9 o’clock the view from the breakfast bar looks like this. Sock Max in about a minute.
There is a train from nearby Vivoin-Beaumont at 12.45 to Alencon, Argentan and Caen if you must. Sid and Doris sit in the bar with local papers and the blog.
At about 11.30 it is Not Actually Raining, so a good time to leave and make for the station though the forecast is for heavy showers most hours of Tuesday.
At about mid day Silk delights to see the engineering train come through.
It is not actually raining and the daft duo cycle off, aiming for lunch at the Zinc de l’Aviateur at Alencon airfield. The plan is for it not to rain until we are in having lunch, let rain fall for an hour and set off again into Only Raining or NAR.
The airfield is also known as Valframbert, or IATA code XAN, though not sure Net Jets would put you down there. It barely rains before lunch in the airfield working-mans’ brasserie though you can see the cloud.
The first spot is this.
You probably recognised the Dassault MD Flamant from the angles in the tail. Sid found out by having a chat with the owner at the next table.
Designed in 1946 as a light freighter or twelve passenger plane it was used in variety of roles, including ground attack with rockets in the Algerian war of independence. Mmm. Recall that Algeria was fully part of France with normal Departmental structure. Rocketing the citizens is no way to win hearts and minds.
After lunch there are very long climbs on cruddy surfaces through the woods to the Sherman tank memorials to L’Encerclement and the role of the Free French 2nd Armoured Brigade. They came in through Utah beach and played their part with US, Canadian, Polish and British troops in the August ‘44 battle to encircle German forces in the Falaise Pocket.
Though it was ‘jackets on’ all day we never really got wet. In Argentan Doris has booked us into a fantastic Michelin starred restaurant with rooms. See also the entry for Clermont. It is not clear how happy Madame is to see cyclists Sid and Doris arriving. Appalled might cover it.
Not being in the mood for the caviare, lobster, foie gras and the like it is off into town to the Comptoir de Maria where they are disappointed at our modest appetites. (A word from Sid: just price the stuff with margins so it doesn’t matter what the customers order.)
And later in the football Euros France are playing Spain, so we sit in the Bar des Commerces with cheering and then groaning Frenchmen as the Spanish go through two goals to one (to play the English in the final, as it turns out).
So, in the matter of the Wetting Down and the railway, who dares wins.