It was raining again when I woke up, but not too hard. I packed up in the damp, but left my poncho off as it was really more of a heavy mist than rain, and it was quite warm. Leaving Soissons involved a three-and-a-half kilometer climb followed by a two kilometer descent then another one kilometer climb before finally attaining the plateau. I was going to Coucy-le-Chateau for a stamp and it started to clear as I got nearer.

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The bakery in Coucy was closed. Damn. In France, eveyone gets five weeks vacation, even bakers, and you have to make do with inferior bread sometimes when your local baker is en vacances. I went to a local grocery and got some cookies to tide me over until the next town where I could get lunch. This was about 20 km down the road in Noyons where I got a tuna sandwich (pain bagnat, my favorite)which I ate in front of the rather ornate city hall.

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Card stamped at the tourist office, I decided to take a fast forward to St. Quentin on the train. I arrived in that city about 3 PM, and quickly made my way to the campground, which I had visited in 2009 on my way to St. Omer. I set up the tent, did some laundry and took a shower. The day had turned very warm and sunny, and my clothes dried quickly. As I was hanging out the wash, a couple of cyclotourists rode in. They had scallop shells and Belgian flags on their bikes so it wasn't hard to deduce that they were Belgians on their way to Compostella. They asked if they could set up next to me, and of course I said yes. One of them spoke French, but the other could only manage Dutch and neither spoke English, so our communications were limited. I watched with some amusement as they unrolled brand-new tents and sleeping bags. Its only a day's ride from Brussels to St. Quentin, and they were on their very first day out. They talked loudly together getting things sorted out. I didn't know it then but they would be loud until well after dark. I rode into the city to eat supper at a restaurant that had wifi where I could e-mail Sue. It was then that I noticed that the screw holding my rear fender in place had loosened and another screw was cutting a groove in my rear tire as a result. Not having the proper tool to tighten the offending screw (a Torx head job that came with the bike) I knew that I'd have to get it fixed somewhere in town in the morning. I could tighten it enough to keep it from falling off, but not enough for a permanent fix. At least the tire hadn't blown. Dinner was beef kabobs and salad with a light red wine. When I got back to the campground, the Belgians were into their second bottle of wine, and being very loud about it. I asked them to hold down the noise and went to sleep.