Another excellent breakfast, but our chat with M Aunay was interrupted by the need to talk to the other (english) guests. Pity - we would have liked to hear more of his anecdotes.
With the help of the tourist office and final touches from M. Aunay we found a good route out of town - up Rue Jeanne d'Arc, past the railway station, a church and into Rue Champs d'Oiseaux then onto the route de Neuchatel. This was an extremely steep hill requiring some pushing but we were soon clear of the town into the countryside.
We turned off onto D151 through Bosc le Hard and shopped for our lunch. This was yet another very small town with a lively vegetable market and useful local shops. We went up the drive of Chateau Bosmelet near Aufay and picnicked outside the grounds which were closed.
This was an easy ride on a sunny day with a light west wind. We followed the river Scie and then the Arques right into Dieppe which we entered down a steep hill. Both of those river valleys were very attractive with spring colours and sunlight. We failed to use the 'Avenue Verte' - a long off road cycle route starting from Martigny and running south east (not really going between Rouen and Dieppe, but possibly useful for future trips).
In Dieppe we checked whether we could get straight on a boat, but the 6 o'clock boat wasn't leaving until 9 pm, so we dropped the idea and went to tourist office for advice on hotels. We would have done better without their advice - Hotel Duchesne, although conveniently central, thought that letting you put a bike on their terrace after the customers had left the tables (and without anything to attach it to) constituted being able to house a bike.
Anyway, we found Hotel Tourist with a garage and a cheap room and close to the sea front and pedestrian areas. We visted the church and walked down the harbour wall (not quite a pier). Good meal in "New Haven' by the quay (fish soup, fish gratin and pears in red wine).
Before catching the ferry, we visited the Sea Museum, Displays on fish, ships of all ages, erosion of the chalk cliffs by shingle moving up the beach and many other local topics - we ran out of time. But of course the boat left late. This time it was an olde, smaller boat with an English crew and took four and a half hours to cross.
We were more successful in our use of Sustrans route 2 to get back from Newhaven to Brighton. The back street section through Peacehaven is useful. Unfortunately we did have to ride a little of the way on the awful main road with speeding cars passing us all the time. The last stretch goes right along the front in Brighton. We're hoping that with its generous funding promised by Cycling England Brighton will be able to complete its cycle routes through the town and to link up properly with the Sustrans route.
The 7 pm train got us home by 9.30. We'd forgotten that the Blackfriars ramps don't access the northbound platforms, but managed to lug the tandem and bags (separately) down the strairs.