COUDEVILLE PLAGE TO LE PONT BLEU - 11 MILES
Summary:- Today did not go as planned, we lopped three miles off the day and added it to the next day. The weather was the cause. We intended to make Jullouville - Edenville for our overnight stop but we could not locate accommodation there. So the we planned to walk to Granville, get the bus to Jullouville - Edenville and then walk back to Granville where there were plenty of hotels. In the end we took the bus to Le Pont Bleu and left the section to Jullouville - Edenville for the next day. Strong winds and occasionally heavy rain made it hard going to Granville, a mixture of sand dunes and promenades. After lunch in Granville we took a bus to Le Pont Bleu and walked inland to Kairon and walked over some hills to Beausoleil and then followed the coast to Granville.Route description:- Peering out the bedroom window did not encourage us to get on with the day. Rain was coming across the sea in belts, the car park outside was wet and the wind was creating big waves on the beach. The excellent views from the restaurant over breakfast confirmed our expectations of a hard day. We walked across the car park and picked up the promenade but it did not last long and we were directed by the waymarks to tracks through the area between a holiday park and the beach that was in the public domain. (picture below)
At 0.20 miles it was into the wilds of the sand dunes, up and down and hard going against the wind. At 0.60 miles the route goes passed the end of the Granville-Breville airport runway and then inland along an access to the beach (see picture below) until a large car park at the end of an access road. Go through the car park to the far left corner and it is on again across the dunes next to the coast.
At 1.43 miles another car park and access road to the beach is reached with a yachts club and boat park between the car park and the beach. The route goes left of the boat park but then leaves the car park at the right hand or western end to continue its route across the dunes. There is now a golf course inland and the track generally follows the boundary fence. At 1.84 miles there is a race course on the left and the dune plodding ends as a road is joined running along the west side of the racecourse with a car park on the right. Continue along the road and by 1.94 miles there is a caravan park on the right. At 2.04 miles the road bends left but the route is straight on along a well defined but sandy path. It bends left, then right and goes straight with a heliport on the left and sand dunes on the right and then joins another roadway at 2.23 miles. It was here that we had a burst of hail stones. Ignore the road to the left and keep straight on along the road. Ignore another two roads off to the left at 2.32 miles and 2.46 miles and then there is a caravan park on the left. Next comes a large car park on the right next to the beach and beyond it on the other side of the access road to the car park there is a large block of flats (2.66 miles). Pass to the right of it to find the path next to the beach shown in the photo below.
The path continues along the beach side and once beyond the building becomes a wide promenade which is followed towards a headland ahead. It was here that we saw three people with wet suits plunging into perilous looking waves, the only other people around. At 2.96 miles a road comes down from the left to join the promenade and then it rises towards the headland ahead. The route follows the road leaving the promenade and at a left hand bend in the road (3.07 miles) the route is up a set of steps and a path climbing to the road above. where the picture below was taken looking back.
The photo below was taken looking the other way along the coast
Once up on to the Rue de la Douane it is right along the cliff top until arriving at the Pointe du Lune at 3.35 miles where there is a grassy area with seats and a good view.
Follow the road around to the left away from the coast, the large wall blocking the way along the coast is part of a cemetery. Follow the road as it goes left and then right in a pleasant residential area and then turn right at 3.47 miles up the Rue du Cimitiere Notre Dame. On arriving at the cemetery entrance and a car park follow the road around to the left and follow it until at 3.58 miles you meet the D971es (Avenue de la Liberation) and enter Granville. Turn right and at 3.69 miles turn right up a road signed as the way to the Christian Dior museum and gardens the entrance to which is reached at 3.76 miles. We were in no fit state to go in the museum but we sneaked a view around the gardens (photo below).
Turn left at the entrance down the Rue Docteur Ollivier, the residential properties on the right are on the cliff top. Take the next road on the right the Chemin du Noroit (3.86 miles) and then take a path on the left which goes down the cliff face steeply with plenty of steps until eventually you emerge on the seafront promenade at the bottom and near some toilets and turn left. As you descend there is a good view towards the Pointe du Roc (see picture below). We had intended to go around it but the weather forced us to leave it out.
The Promenade du Plat Gousse leads to car park next to a Casino (4.15 miles). From here we struck left to a main road (Tranchee aux Anglais) and turned right and then went left through No-Entry signs down a shopping street (Rue de Paul Poirier) which leads to a triangular area with a war memorial in the middle (4.35 miles). Here we went into the Brasserie au Pirate for a lunch stop.
On exiting the bar we turned left to a bus stop and from here we were to take Maneo Bus No 4 along the coast to Pont Bleu a bus stop on the main road just beyond Kairon Plage. There is a bridge over a stream with blue railings and a restaurant nearby of the same name. The bus stop is 200 metres before you get to it at a bend in the road. Alighting from the bus we crossed the zebra crossing and turned right and then forked left down the Avenue de la Faisanderie. At the other end at 0.17 miles it was left into the Rue de la Folliotte which was to take us after a steady climb to the village of Kairon and its church at 0.73 miles. We were now on the Chemin du Mont St Michel but were to walk back to Granville to our hotel in the opposite direction and return here in the morning to continue on the route towards our destination. Passing to the left of the church we followed the Rue Saint Laurent steadily uphill and at 0.80 miles took a footway on the left up some steps and up to another road almost immediately. Here the route is straight on up a residential road called Chemin du Verchu. It leads out into the countryside and climbs passing to the left of a hilltop with seats and a picnic site on the top and a track leading up to it (1.07 miles). Storms were passing either side of us but we were very fortunate to miss them. As we descended we could see Granville in the distance. Ignore a track to the left (1.15 miles) and keep straight on now slowly downhill (photo below).
At 1.43 miles a track joins from the right, at 1.57 miles a newly constructed road is reached which was not on our maps. Here it was straight across onto an old road (Kairon Plage was down the road to the left) and at 1.63 miles it was left off the road and immediately left at a fork of unsurfaced vehicular tracks. The track goes through countryside along the base of a hill on the right. At 2.10 miles the residential area of Beausoleil is reached and the track becomes a road. At 2.18 miles a T-junction is reached and here the route is left to another T-junction with the D911 the main coast road and then right. To the left of the road is the beach and between a coast path. At 2.39 miles this path veers away from the road to the left where you get the view below down the coast to the south.
As it goes around the Rocher St-Gaud headland the path becomes a road (Allee de la Corniche) with residential properties blocking out any views. The road exits back onto the D911 again at 2.64 miles, turn left along it but soon turn left down an alleyway to the road below (Rue de la Fontaine St Gaud) and turn right. At 2.84 miles this road too exits onto the D911 and turn left here along it until you get to the lovely Chapelle Sainte-Anne in Saint-Pair-sur-Mer on the right featured in the picture below (3.03 miles). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Pair-sur-Mer
Go back down the road slightly and then right down the Rue de Scissy which leads at 3.18 miles to the coast and another promenade, turn right. Where the promenade comes to an end at 3.36 miles turn right up the Rue Saint-Pierre. This exits onto a road just down the hill from the Tourist Office (3.42 miles). Turn left and at the next junction with the D911 again go left and then immediately left down a minor road that leads to the beach of St-Nicolas Plage (pictured below).
The route is along the beach to the other end where the route is up a ramp to the D911 again (3.86 miles). Turn left and follow the D911 and at 4.11 there is an Orientation Table at a viewpoint overlooking the cliff. Continue to follow the road until at 4.20 miles pick up a cliff top path that veers away from the road. The cliff area (La Crete) extends towards a headland on which a chateau is located.
The path follows the clifftop around the headland at 4.44 miles descends some steps and climbs again and then goes in front of houses keeping to the cliff. At 4.70 it comes out onto a road at a bend, keep straight on keeping to the level section of road. At a T-junction (4.75 miles) go right and climb uphill and after the last house on the left another path starts up some steps on the left and initially runs behind the houses until the cliff top is reached again (4.90 miles). At 5.03 miles the path leaves the cliff and goes through a gap in a wall and continues away from the coast uphill (Chemin de la Roche Gautier). At 5.14 miles it exits on to a minor road called Rue de la Roche Gautier. Turn left and at 5.16 miles leave the road on the right to locate a path which descends steeply down some steps to the D911 and turn left downhill. At 5.26 miles turn left down a path with a rooftop car park to the left. It descends to a promenade overlooking a bay at the entrance to Port de Herel in Granville where you get the view below through the gaps in the port walls into an outer harbour.
Follow the promenade until a Nautical Centre is reached at 5.42 miles and then go clockwise around it and back to the D911 again (5.63 miles). On route the harbour comes into full view - see the picture below.
Turn left along the road with boat parking on the left. At a cross roads (5.75 miles) turn right down Rue Clement Desmaisons and at a T-junction at the end turn left and then almost immediately right and ahead lies the war memorial and the bus stop from which we had departed earlier. We hydrated in the Brasserie au Pirate again.
Hotel accommodation:- We had booked a room through Booking.com in the Hotel Inn Design Resto Novo, 57 Avenue des Matignon, 50400 Granville. +33233500505. This necessitated a further walk. We retraced our steps back the way we had just come turning left this time passing the end of Rue Clement Desmaisons and continuing along the shopping street Rue Paul Poirier with its cobbled paving. At a gradual left hand bend it becomes the Rue Couraye. It steadily climbs, the cobbles end, and at 0.45 miles it is straight on at a roundabout where the railway station is off to the left and the Brasserie de la Gare is on the corner. Continue straight on uphill along another Avenue Marechal Leclerc. At 0.64 miles at another roundabout it is straight on again along the Avenue des Matignon until No 57 and below is the view that awaits (0.76 miles). The first disappointment was to find that advertised evening meal (Mondays to Fridays) was not available due to exceptional circumstances undefined. We were given Room No 1 close to reception. It was twin bedded with en-suite facilities but it was as small as you could possibly design. There was no ventilation save for a door that opened onto the front garden. It was clean and we could not fault its contents apart from size. The only place I could find to unload the rucksack was the bed and had to repack it before I could use the bed. Rotund persons would have a job getting into the shower. We walked back down to the Brasserie de la Gare and they provided a good meal. Breakfast was OK. We gave it 4.5 out of 10. Fine if you are looking for budget accommodation.
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