The Fridays Tour de Normandie 2015

[frank9755]

Sorry Sam
What goes on tour stays on tour!

 

[velovoice]

My write up and photos for the first day (Brix to Bayeux) are up on my blog: http://velovoice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-fridays-tour-de-normandie-2015-day.html
Foodwise - we went from the ridiculous to the sublime!

 

[srw]

@velovoice

Apparently it's a stylised tree - perhaps an apple tree? - that is derived from a recurring motif on the tapestry.*

Oddly, it looks a bit like a hop, which would be appropriate for an invasion of Kent, but I thought I remembered - and google confirms - that hops are a relatively recent introduction to the UK. The British Hop Association reports that they came over from the low countries in the 15th century. Quite rightly, the Brits were very suspicious of this newly fashionable excessively bitter and floral aromatic and took a long time to be persuaded that hopped beer was better than unhopped ale.


*Embroidery. But everyone calls it a tapestry.

 

[velovoice]

Apparently it's a stylised tree - perhaps an apple tree? - that is derived from a recurring motif on the tapestry.*

Thank you!

*Embroidery. But everyone calls it a tapestry.

YES! This has always bugged me.

 

[StuAff]

That lunch stop looks like L'Escapade...was it?

 

[theclaud]

the Brits were very suspicious of this newly fashionable excessively bitter and floral aromatic and took a long time to be persuaded that hopped beer was better than unhopped ale.

Thankfully, the silly buggers eventually came to their senses.

 

[theclaud]

That lunch stop looks like L'Escapade...was it?

That's the one.

 

[StuAff]

That's the one.

I am surprised- food was great a couple of years back but it took a long time to come, Simon was somewhat agitated...

 

[srw]

I am surprised- food was great a couple of years back but it took a long time to come, Simon was somewhat agitated...

He and Susie buggered off somewhere fancier. Louise and friends were spotted coming out of a side street where they'd completely failed to spot the excellent creperie where Olaf and Katarina, Titus and Rachel and me ended up - deliberately avoiding the first place we saw so that everyone else wouldn't follow us....

A thought for @mmmmartin and @Gordon P for September based on that experience and the equivalent experience on day 2 - if you're dumping people in a town to find food, ride them past all the restaurants first. There's a huge subconscious fear that if you don't take the first opportunity for food you'll discover it's the last.

 

[StuAff]

He and Susie buggered off somewhere fancier. Louise and friends were spotted coming out of a side street where they'd completely failed to spot the excellent creperie where Olaf and Katarina, Titus and Rachel and me ended up - deliberately avoiding the first place we saw so that everyone else wouldn't follow us....

A thought for @mmmmartin and @Gordon P for September based on that experience and the equivalent experience on day 2 - if you're dumping people in a town to find food, ride them past all the restaurants first. There's a huge subconscious fear that if you don't take the first opportunity for food you'll discover it's the last.

Except on a Monday in anywhere vaguely smallish.......(I speak from recent, hungry experience...).

 

[StuAff]

He hadn't forgotten, and referred to the service as 'risible' as we rode past the place this year.

I knew he wouldn't.....

 

[Flying Dodo]

He hadn't forgotten, and referred to the service as 'risible' as we rode past the place this year.

After finishing my starter quickly, I then headed back into town to wait for the bike shop to open, buy a new chain for Claud and get back, and still be back in my seat before my main course arrived. After eating that, I was then able to fit the chain and go back to the table to discover that the others were waiting for their dessert to arrive. Nice food though.

 

[StuAff]

After finishing my starter quickly, I then headed back into town to wait for the bike shop to open, buy a new chain for Claud and get back, and still be back in my seat before my main course arrived. After eating that, I was then able to fit the chain and go back to the table to discover that the others were waiting for their dessert to arrive. Nice food though.

Excellent time management there!!

 

[Flying Dodo]

Excellent time management there!!

Yeah - who says men can't multi-task!

 

[srw]

Bird watchers - there was some discussion of the identity of a large brid of prey seen - after consulting some of my books at home with reference to the description, it may have been a marsh harrier. Although extremely endangered in the UK, they remain relatively stable in N. Europe.

Having looked at my big Collins bird book - yes, I think you're right. Possibly one of the other Harriers - I was tootling along at the time and didn't really know what to look out for.

I didn't spot the fingers, so I'd like to think it was an extremely rare Levant Sparrowhawk or Dark Chanting Goshawk, which are the same colour scheme but without fingers. But if so it would be several thousand miles lost, so I suspect not!