June 21, 2024
Sainte-Menehould to Verdun
Will we ever learn?
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The weather report had deteriorated so we expected rain on today’s short ride. Accordingly we kitted up in rain gear - the silver lining being that it is a lot easier to pack our panniers because we're wearing a lot of our clothes. It was actually pretty muggy out so after a few km I had to take a layer off.
We hit an off-road bit after only a few km and despite our previous promises to each other, we chose not stop to evaluate it. It started off as a perfectly decent two track gravel road but then after a few minutes it turned into a horrible muddy mess. We SHOULD have turned around then but we didn’t and endured a half hour of mud and a fair amount of pushing and hard work. The frustrating part was that the paved road was only 10 meters away, running parallel to the farm track, but there was a ditch between the track and the road. Dave kept checking to see if we could cross over to the main road to no avail. It was a sweaty start to the day and we have now sworn not to take Komoot’s word for these off road sections. I plan to go back and look at the rest of our routes coming up and try to reduce such off road drama. It’s a bummer, because sometimes the off-road parts are really fun and a great break from the road - but right now we are feeling pretty gun shy. (FYI, I was just reading Tricia Graham’s journal and she had a similar drama recently and learned that if you reset Komoot from “cycle touring” (which I've been using when creating my routes) to “road” it will not direct you through the muck. Go figure. You learn something new everyday day. Thank you Tricia!)
After that we were on a main road except for the last 15 km when we peeled off onto a lovely side road with good hills and vistas up on a ridge; we could see some big sky and villages in the distance. 8 km from Verdun it started to rain; at first it sprinkled and then it rained pretty hard coming into the town.
Verdun has a lot of action as a WWI tourist town and the ride in was lovely with good bike paths. It has the look of a prosperous, well-tended place, which is pretty different from the towns we have seen in the last two days. We rode down to the quai that runs through the town and found a place to have lunch. I stupidly had not put on my booties so my feet were soaked and we were pretty wet just from the last half an hour of riding. We had a relaxing lunch (pizza) and made our way to Les Jardin des Mess, our hotel that is right on the quai. Our bikes are parked in the basement which required Dave to take them down about 8 steps. The weird thing is that the hotel plans to charge us 5 euros each for the storage, which is a first.
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We cleaned up in the afternoon and had an early dinner at an Asian place and then walked around Verdun. There is a festival going on with a lot of live bands - including one right outside our window. The vibe is hopping, which is nice to see - I just hope as I write this it doesn't hop all night!
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Your photograph shown with sunlight on the top only is quite poignant.
4 months ago
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4 months ago
Tomorrow we tour the Verdun sites, so more on Verdun then.
PS: the band didn’t stop until 12:20. Not great, especially for Dave.
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,815 km (1,127 miles)
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4 months ago