Week1

Saturday 13 May

Maastricht, The Netherlands to Profondville, Belgium.
107 kms 7 hours 30 minutes Av. 14.3

Finally the morning had come, I hardly slept, at most 2 whole hours.
The day did not start quite as planed, probably tired and nervous. On the way out the house the camera was dropped, we managed to get 3 pictures before it gave out, and that really upset me. But soon had other problems to worry about, like the weather.
We had an emotional departure and were on the way at 06:15, we left so early as to get some distance from Maasticht, bad weather was predicted for later that morning.
We went over the Maas at the Kennedy bridge, turned left at the central police station than the first right heading for Kanne, Belgium. After Kanne we followed small country roads in a some-what half loop around Liege, Belgium, we didn't save much time but saved us a few headaches from the morning traffic. That's when the first showers came, after Liege we got back on the river Maas near a cement factory where while crossing some rail tracks I did an amateur mistake and went over my front wheel and because Monique was following so close she came down next to me, the bikes were OK but our pride especially mine, had a huge dent. I was very glad to have been wearing my cycling gloves as my right one took the brunt of the fall and I would have torn open my palm.
We followed the Maas on the way to Namur where the sun came out for a bit and dried us, at the town of Andenne, we found an electrical shop were we bought a new camera.
At Namur we stopped for a break and that's when the skies opened up again and this time it came down by the bucket, we had to take shelter by an unused patio bar along with a man and his two sons. Finally after about 45min it slowed enough for us to continue and try to find the camping at Profondville. We found it alright, on top of a 200m high hill at +/-15% in the rain. That was tough in that weather.
The camp was basic and fairly cheap at 8.50 euro. We made some noodles and went right to sleep. Needless to say we slept good that night.

        
Left to Right:
1- Start of the tour, I'm glad we got at least one good picture before the camera gave out.
2- Rest stop along the Maas, right after Andenne, where we bought the new camera.
3- Beautifull scenery along the Maas just before Namur Belgium.
4- Our first camp in wet Profondville, Belgium.

Sunday 14 May

Profondville, Belgium to Fumay, France.
74 kms  5 hours 15 min. Av. 14.4 Total 181 kms.

We got up at 06:45 and were on the road by 08:30. This morning was not what we wanted to see very low dark clouds and a heavy mist almost rain.
The ride along the river Maas was very nice despite the weather, with 400/500 meter wooded hills all around with high cliffs in some areas. Also saw a lot of rock climbers.
The book which we were following from Paul Benjaminse turned away from the river right after Dinant and went through the hills, but seeing the very low clouds and with the ever present mist we could hardly make out the tops of the hills, so we decided to follow the river for a while and get back on the route later.
We didn't want to camp in weather like this on top of those hills.
We wanted to ride longer today but the weather from yesterday and today had taken their toll, and the lack of camping sites, made us stop at Fumay.
The camping was real nice, next to the river with very high hills around. Even saw some Para gliders in the late afternoon.
And at just under 6 euro it was great value for money.

        
1- Dinant, Belgium, looked nice even in this weather.
2- Entering France.
3- Some of the cliffs along the Maas, great riding along this stretch.
4- Basic but very clean and cheap camping at Fumay.

Monday 15 May

Fumay to Montmedy, France
121 kms 9 hours Av. 13.6 Total 302 kms

We got up at 06:00 and were on the road by 08:30, we are still having problems in the morning finding our way around in all those panniers, I'm sure will get around this problem eventually.
The day started out good, very nice roads through wooded hills along the river Mass.
Right after Montherme at Chateau-Regnault on the D1, there was these two huge hills we had to go over to reach Charleville-Mezieres.
Charleville-Mezieres is an awkward city to get around in but eventualy we did and headed to Mouzon. We had asked several people if there was a camping there and were assured there was, and we decided to take our time, but when we did get there we found it closed, still too early in the season.
We asked the tourist office in Mouzon about another camping and we were told that there is one at Carignan and it is open so after climbing a real nasty hill at over 10% we headed to the river Chiers 7kms east.
When we got there we found that there was no campground and the only hotel really looked like the town whore house. It was getting late now 19:00 and looking at our map we decided to push on to Montmedy, 23kms of rolling hills heading south.  After a long and tough ride we finally reached Montmedy at 21:00 (with minutes of daylight left) and very tired. The camping reception was closed so we just set up the tent and went right to sleep, too tired to even eat.
I was very pleased at Monique today she handled all the hills and the very difficult day well, I knew from then on that we would make this tour without any problems.
The only problem we have is that I didn't bother to learn the camera good and I only managed to make a few films instead of pictures (how embarrassing). You just have to take our word that it was a very beautiful ride mostly in the woods along quiet roads.

Tuesday 16 May

Montmedy to Charny, France
45 kms 3 hours Av. 14.6 Total 347 kms

We woke up at 08:00 and were on the road by 10:00. We went to the reception but there was nobody there so we left, we felt like we deserved it after that lying blond at the tourist office the day before. The campground was nice but a bit noisy with trains passing by in the valley below all night long, every ten minutes.
The plan for today was to cycle to Verdun when everything was open get a new map showing campsites, but at Charny we found a real nice campground and after what happened yesterday decided not to pass it up. We had decided to take it easy today, get up a bit later tomorrow and ride into Verdun around 09:00 when all the shops open, it's only 8 kms away. The day went real good with just one huge forested hill in the middle of the ride with a very nice and long decent afterwards. We felt good, strong, and very confident today.
The camping at Charny looked nice from the road but once there and set up, we found it very basic, there were no toilets only holes in the ground, not very clean, and ants everywhere. Oh well, we moved the tent to a less populated area of the campground and relaxed, we weren't going to stay.

        
1- Hill top fortress Montmedy
2- Easy riding today
3- Coming out of the woods before Haraumont.
4- Great views on this road.

Wednesday 17 May

Charny to St.Mihiel France
53 kms 3 hours 30 min. Av. 14.7 Total 400 kms

We got up at 05:45 and were on the road by 07:30. We took it easy today as we wanted to go to Verdun and check out the tourist office there. When we got there we met an older couple from Canada that were making their way to a grave of a relative that died WWI.
I felt that was very nice of them to do so, as I feel very strongly about all the men that came here in both wars and gave their lives so we could have a better, and free place live in.
All the way to Verdun and afterwards we kept seeing many bunkers with bullet and shell holes in them also many allied and German graves. There are also war memorials in every village and town, it must have been hell here for the locals during the two wars, it makes me feel sad seeing all this.
There are stories of farmers still digging up human bones when plowing their fields.
I don't like taking pictures of bunkers and graves, I find it disrespectful to the people who died there.
Anyway the cycling went pretty good the sun came out, for a while, but we could only make a few kms because after St. Mihiel we weren't sure of the next campsite. There are fields of flowers around every bend and the aroma is everywhere it is a nice area to cycle though.

1- This area had many huge fields like this, the aroma from all these flowers was heaven.

Thursday 18 May

St.Mihiel to Neuchateau, France
115 kms 8 hours 30 min. Av. 13.5 Total 515 kms.

Woke up at 05:30 and on the road by 07:00, we are finally making progress in cutting down the time it takes to set up in the mornings. Also this morning was the first in the tour that we packed a dry tent.
Leaving St.Mihiel we took the wrong road and ended up in Chaillon and had to go around Lac de madine, which added about 15kms to the ride. One good thing about that was that it was very scenic and we really enjoyed the detour. We wished the weather was better so we could see up close the large war memorial at La Butte de Montsec.
After getting back on the right road (D119) the clouds appeared and it was the beginning of a long storm, in which the winds never really died down for the rest of the tour.
In France they call it The Mistral, an annual event.
Following the D119 we came to this really remote woods with mostly dirt track, very nice riding but the weather was turning for the worst and by the time we came out it was beginning to drizzle. After the woods we stopped about 500m from the village of Trondes where we took shelter from the rain in a bus stop. We weren't there but a few minutes when this farmer came out from one of the nearby buildings and started talking French to us, we didn't know what he was saying and he left. A few minutes later his wife came out and spoke to us in English, and she invited us to their home for coffee.
We were very surprised to say the least, we accepted and went in their brand new home where she served us coffee and cookies, we had a very nice chat and gave Francois and Beatrix our card. We wished we could stay longer and get to know them more but we had 50kms more to go and it was already 14:00. It is very rare that one comes across such very nice people who open their home and invite total strangers in. They also gave us a nice home made sausage which was very delicious. We shall never forget them.
By the time we reached Neufchateau we were beat, the kms were many with some rolling hills and the wind had really picked up, wind force around 5 and with gusts reaching much higher. The camping at Neufchateau was not that good, clean but very noisy, next to factories and a rail yard.
Recommend looking for another in the area.

        
1&2-  On the left riding towards the hilltop war memorial, and on the right, riding away from the memorial.
3- Francois and Beatrix.
4- The 500km mark

Friday 19 May

Neufchateau to Clefmont, France
35 kms 3 hours 40 min. Av. 9.8 Total 550 kms

Woke up to a breezy morning at 06:30 and were on the road by 08:30. Not one km out of town and this storm blew in with very high winds and rain. We had no choice but to take shelter in this huge barn full of straw for about an hour.
When the rain stopped we made our move on D74, but that was not very wise on a windy day like this, as the road is through open fields, it was very exposed and the high head winds made the hills very difficult.
Anyway we pushed on for a while until we finally checked the map for campsites and found the nearest one at Clefmont. We had it, we were spent, the wind and the hills were just too much on loaded bikes. When we did get to Clefmont we found to our surprise that its on top of a plateau and to get there we had a tough +/-15% climb, talk about adding insult to injury, we can laugh about it now but we were not smiling then.
We set up the tent on this windy and very basic campground had some noodles and went to sleep. The dry noodles we brought along came in very handy as we used them a several times so far for emergency food, when there was nothing else around.
In the middle of the night the temperature dropped to around 10C this other storm came with high winds and heavy rain, I had to get out with my rain jacket and tighten down the tent with more lines. Not very nice getting out of my warm sleeping bag at 02:00 and getting soaking wet. We still had hope that this storm would pass by before morning.

     
1- We took many breaks on this very cold and windy day.
2- Some of the hills were very long, like this one here, it took allot to get over them.
3- That night we really had to dress warm it was one of the coldes so far.