Season 5. Episode 3. Finishing the Seine.

Season 5. Episode 3. Finishing the Seine. 

August 14, 2025. Giverny to Villequier 67 miles. 

Giverny - the center of Impressionism, which emphasizes light and color - served up a masterpiece sunset over rue Claude Monet as we walked after dinner. In Monet’s time it was dabs of the brush. Now it’s digital pixels that make up the image.

Our fluency in French has definitely made traveling here much easier than it would be otherwise. For instance, the staff at the bike store spoke no English. It also helps make local friends as we rode together for about a half hour chatting in French only.

Love seeing the many old homes and barns covered with vines and plant growth.

Another very common building style.

Supermarket lunch on a day when time pressed (sit down lunches are at least an hour) and trying to be healthy: banana, Greek yogurt, cheese, watermelon.

Beautiful stretch along the Seine.

Charming bed and breakfast on the Seine in Villequier.

After a beautiful day of excellent cycling, the highlight remained dinner with Mallika, one of Heather’s colleagues from France. We last met her for a wonderful dinner in Paris in 2022 with her husband and charming children. 

Drinks and dinner with Mallika, who drove 2 hours round trip just to meet us for dinner. That’s a great friend! Thanks for the huge effort!

The first page of the restaurant menu listed out the various providers the restaurant used. Their food vendors. It seemed odd to us but Mallika explained to us how the concept of food traceability is very important in France. 

To promote food quality and safety, they track ingredients from farm and processing through distribution. 

I just wish it was easier to get a green vegetable side dish along with my protein, but so far that has been difficult as Mallika explained to us it is not customary. 

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August 15, 2025. Villequier to Trouville-Sur-Mer. 48 miles. 

We woke up to a cool 59 degrees and a fog covering the Seine. 

By 9:10am it was clear enough to set out. But because of the reduced visibility we stayed on the Seine path (without cars) longer than planned as it was safer.

Typical home along the river.

Typical approach into a town where even the smallest of towns still has a substantial church in the center.

We’ve been beyond impressed with the French reverence for cyclists on the road. No matter how many cars are backed up behind you at a narrow point where they cannot pass you, there is zero honking. And nobody yelling profanity at us. Given how widespread cycling is, I guess most drivers also bike or they have family members and/or good friends who cycle. 

(That’s not to mention the prevalence of bike paths to avoid being on roads with cars in the first place.) 

The road signs are frequent and smartly varied so drivers hopefully don’t tune them out. In a short 45-minute period, we had the following sequence:

Motorists moderate your speed.

Share the road.

Cyclists present. (Note the safe, wide distance that car passes Heather with.)

Bicycle crossing. 

So just when I was feeling completely safe and secure, we came to the next sign…

Wild animal crossing. That had me wondering and thinking just how wild are these animals going to be? Should I worry?

Which also made me realized we haven’t seen any road kill yet. Zero. Which is odd compared to riding just about anywhere in the USA. I’m hoping one of my readers can shed light on why this discrepancy. (And just 7 minutes later we saw our first road kill.)

I didn’t have time to worry long about wild animals as our immediate challenge was crossing the Normandy Bridge, our last passage over the river Seine. We’d been warned that the bridge was steep and there can be strong cross winds. (Readers may recall in 4 trips traversing the USA, I walked only once. And that was on a steep bridge over Mobile Bay, AL with wind gusts up to 40 mph.)

From afar, doesn’t look too bad.

There goes Heather.

I was happy it was over and admittedly biking over the bridge was not nearly as bad as feared. The dedicated bike and pedestrian lane helped. As does the respect to cyclists shown by the French drivers. 

After a quick ride through the charming seaside town of Honfleur, we arrived at our destination of Trouville-sur-Mer which was also a popular Monet destination and thus a subject of his work. The town is right across a canal from Deauville and you can easily walk between the two coastal resorts to discover their separate character. Here are a few images from Trouville-sur-Mer - the town we preferred. 

For lunch we did discover a new food (for us) - galettes. Related to crepes in a way but with a healthy buckwheat base. The Norwegian with smoked salmon is my go to galette.

Trouville seen from Deauville

© Copyright Mark Segal 2025.