Day 7: Verdun to Metz

May 6, 2014

To get the day going, I popped across the street to the second bakery - not the one from last night, It would take a lot more research to decide which is best, but both were great. I found a whole grain baguette, with sesame seeds outside - quite a rare style. Also some baguette based sandwiches that would be good at lunchtime. These follow a now familiar formula: chicken, ham, or pate with lettuce, tomatoe and cheese. The thing about it is the chicken, for instance, is real chicken. Like, it is sliced with a knife from a chicken. Wow, what a novel idea. Naturally I added some Danish to round out my purchase, which totalled 11 euros. Not bad for basically two meals for two people.

Carryiing my treasures back to our room and stashing them, I then made my way to the room where the proprietors were serving breakfast. It's a mystery as to why hotels charge up to 10 euros for croissants and coffee, and we always decline that offer. However now I was at their door asking for coffee and hot chocolate.No problem. Again, give a thought to the hot chocolate. You make it by heating milk in a pan over a stove. Then into the mug and the client gets a cup of ground chocolate to put in. What's the big deal? Real milk and real chocolate. What about Swiss Miss powder and water? They would never dream of it. Our two cups got put on saucers on a tray, and two Madelaine cakes were added. The arrangement of everything on the tray was readjusted, and then it was ready for me to take to our room. Cost on our bill: 1.50 each.

At 8 the garage door was opened and we wheeled our bikes up to the street. Now we had a chance to see a little of Verdun as we made our way to the bike shop. Most notable was the 1914-18 memorial statue that depicts five French soldiers in the form of a defensive wall. Another interesting one was the city gate, that has been destroyed and rebuilt about ten times, the first in the fifth century.

The bike shop was just slightly out of the town centre in a non commercial area. However, we were impressed. There was a fine selection of bikes on display, mostly Specialized racing models. The owner was our mechanic and there were one or two employees, plus the owner's wife. In a back room they had their quite new baby. Clearly there was a lot of investment and a lot of hard work going on. We like that.

Earlier in the morning I had noticed that the bit of the broken off bushing that was still fixed in the frame was threaded. That is, the whole bushing that the brake arm pivots on is threaded. So that opened the possibility of holding everything together with a longer screw than the original one holding down the brake arm. It worked!

The longer screw would have greatly reinforced the whole thing had it been there in the first place. I will be contacting Bike Friday about that. And when we get back, they will be getting the frame in the mail for a proper repair. Meanwhile, Nicholas of Atelier Cycle in Verdun is the hero!

Though we had a good map of Verdun, some roundabouts connected in series really spun us around, and it took a while to get lined upmto leave town. We took the Route de Metz. This starts with a bakery, of course. The sign shows the status of baking here. The bakers at this one seem to be superstars.

Coming out of Verdun, Dodie ran in to a series of physical problems that really tested her resolve. It had begun to rain, and inside the waterproof stuff there was a lot of chafing. Then there was the toe, and also a knee acting up. Finally, a chest infection. So we had Dodie on antibiotics, Ibuprofen, and Bag Balm - a real drug addict.

The valley of the Meuse has some very steep hills. So the sick, chafed Dodie was slowly, slowly pushing up these. Metz began to look like an impossible goal. We stopped to eat our sandwiches by the road. While we were there a car passed, turned round, and came back. It was David, Melanie, and baby Elian, from Quebec -here to visit family. Naturally we Canadians had a nice chat.

Restored, cheered up, and a little rested, we found that most of the hills were behind us, and the rain had stopped. Now we made good time, and in due course came to a sign welcoming us to the Moselle region.

... sorry folks, there is lots more to tell, but my keyboard has died! I will upload some photos, but there is just not time for pecking out text and captions now. Stand by, we'll get this figured out soon.

... The keyboard problem is not resolved yet, but I have a couple of minutes tonslowlynadd more of the story... The next sign advertised the fact that we are in the region (Alsace Lorraine) annexed by Germany in 1870 (and then grabbed back after WW I). We had learned about Bismarck and the Franco Prussian war in high school, but now here we were.

We decided to stop and pull out a snack, and chose a small pullout near a large stone in a field. To our surprise the stone had a long inscription, all in German, being a list of battles all over the place, and the regiments involved. As we continued, we found the fields littered with various monuments like this. Some were French, most were German.

Finally we reached a site with some explanation. The towns we were passing through surrounded the battle area where the whole thing happened. The Germans were victorious, capturing 170,000 French troops. Repercussions were huge back in the home countries. For us it was spooky being right in places so prominently named in history.

Now we turned and took a road, the D11, that descended to the Moselle itself, following a stream down for about 10 km. The road was narrow and as usual had no shoulder. What was unusual was unsafe drivers. So many passed us on the other side and then swerved wildly to avoid head on collisions. When we reached the Moselle we had had it with cars, and breathed a giant sigh of relief when we turned onto what will be the Mosel Radweg, and our second "Book" of this trip.

McDonalds trying to sell the French 'Cajun food! Note the health warning on the bottom of the poster.

A good view of the famous rivers of much of France

Good luck Dodie - first hill with the patched up brakes

I spotted this elusive purple Coke can. Across the Southern Tier we amused ourselves by counting the many beer cans thrown by the road. Later we also analysed them by brand, and finally launched a search for the elusive Yellow Budweiser can. In France very few things are thrown by the road. But earlier I did spot a purple Coke can. Got to wondering about it, and then launched a search for another. With so little thrown, it's hard to find a Coke can, let alone a purple one. On downhills \i was glad, because I was covering territory faster to maybe find one. Today after seeing the elusive fox I felt our luck was good, and it was! The purple Coke popped up just a few minutes later.

The first indication that the battles of 1870 are still alive here

The fields are filled with spooky 1870 memorials

We are near the centre of where the action was. 200,000 Franch troops were involved

The road we are on goes through the middle of it

We found a hotel right in front of the cathedral

Best pizza ever - slightly charred, rwally chewy cheese, not at all greasy. Ate this all! (Dodie got penne.)

View from our window. (It's not the cathedral, but another tower).

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 385 km (239 miles)

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