Day 45: Givet to Monthermé

September 23, 2024

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We had come in to Givet the back way, by the cemetery, and it had seemed very dull as we just dove into our hotel and holed up. This assessment of dull had been tempered a little, as we noticed that hard by the cemetery was the florist, and the seller of granite markers. Both seemed to have some pretty nice stuff on offer, so that was something. We also got to look at their wares a bit more, as we got lost and circled by their doors more than once.

By next morning, Givet was looking brighter (though I had to boost the brightness in these shots a bit). And as we cycled toward the water, the place became a lot more interesting and attractive. Interest and attraction peaked, of course, when we found the bakery by the water!

We could see why the bakery was called Delices de la Tour, because it was adjacent to a watch tower by the river. This was called the Victory Tower:

A sort of matching tower, Gregory's Tower, stood across the river:

All this was part of the major fact, that we soon saw, that Givet was overseen from high on a hill by a huge fort:

We crossed the bridge, necessary to follow our track, but this also gave the best view of the town and the fortress. The bridge, as it happens, also had a name and a history, of course!

The American bridge. Can't even blame this design on the Americans, as the French made it themselves, in 1969.

A gaggle of kids cross the bridge. Maybe they are headed for school, but one thing is clear - they don't use bikes.

One last shot, from the vicinity of the bridge, shows a "friterie". All through yesterday, as we pedaled steadily out of Belgium, we were searching for a friterie, for one last shot at Belgian Fries. We found a number, but all were closed - Sunday, I guess. And now, just over the border into France here was another one, but closed because it was too early. Drat!

Once across the river and ready to resume our track, we found that it actually was a Voie Verte, called the trans-Ardennes. The Ardennes refers to a rugged area of forest and mountain, that we actually thought we were in, with all the cliffs by the river yesterday. But it seems we were just now entering it, and thank goodness there is the river and the path beside it, because other routes in the Ardennes are very much up and down.

The Voie Verte, as shown on the sign, runs 130 km to Mouzon, following the Meuse. That's swell, and we had even found a map book for it in the hotel, but we will be sticking with the river for a further 250 km beyond Mouzon, to Langres. We have no idea what conditions will be like on that bit, but for now, Voie Verte it is!

A short distance down the trail, we came to somebody's good idea - a wish tree, in which one could hang ribbons from a tree, representing a wish.

It looked like this:

None of the ribbons explained what their wish was. But we added a twist to the arrangement:

On a completely different theme, unless you wish for low carbon energy, at huge risk, was the Chooz nuclear electric station. France obtains two thirds of its energy from nuclear, and is the country whose share is highest. (The U.S. however, as in many things, is the largest absolute producer of nuclear power.)

The cooling towers are what you see, but I think the actual energy generation is in the buildings between.

There were lots of herons to be seen along the river. Though they are common, we often photograph them because their look is so unique.

Towns along the way would look like this - in this case Vireux-Wallerand

This was an area that once had a lot of slate quarrying. We noticed it first from the large slate retaining walls beside the path:

Quarrying was done here as early as 1600.

The slate here has a unique "wine" colour.

We arrived in Fumay. In the church there is a 19th century stained glass depicting the slate workers and their patron saint, Sainte Barbe.

All the territory between here at Givet is in a finger of French terrotory extending into Belgium. Consequently, though we had pedaled a lot, we were still adjacent to Belgium. We hoped that proximity still qualified the area for producing Belgian fries, because we found a friterie in Fumay!

What we got had the same basic (rather unique) flavour of the Belgian-Dutch fries, but as we had been told, they were thinner. No mayo seemed to be on offer, so we could not check it for sweet or sour. We went crazy, with a double order, and I did feel rather sick for a time afterwards!

At Revin we encountered a tunnel that provided for both boats and bikes. It had some lights that turned on automatically, but it was still a bit scary-dark. Drippy too. It was 224 meters long, and built in the 1870's.

We carried on now, though the increasingly wild Ardennes. But we had an eye out for something called the Dames de Meuse. We had read some references to this, and even seen a bar or hotel in Givet with that name. But what was it? Odds were it was some kind of rock formation, like the Lorelei, but we had no idea. We expected an info panel with a clear explanation. But no, we came to a lock in the river called Dames de Meuse, and a building with that name on it, but look around as we might, we really saw no Dames.

Some part of this photo is likely the Dames de Meuse. Those three vertical lumps?

The Dames are just one of more than a dozen silly legends of the river. See:

At last we arrived at Monthermé, looking like this:

Although the town looks nice enough, it annoyed us immediately on three fronts. First, it had no provision for bikes in its streets, and the drivers in the situation were impatient and aggressive. We felt we could not get around, because there was no room for us.

Dodie clings to the sidewalk, on the way to the hotel.

To reach the second level of streets, it looks like this is the way, though there has to be a road somewhere.

Next, (not exactly the fault of the town), the hotel would only open at 5. That gave us two hours to kill, somehow. We tried to visit each of the two churches in town, braving the roads to reach them. But both were closed.

Finally we camped out by the hotel. The door opened at precisely 5 p.m. We are quite happy now in our tiny room, but we're planning to leave town as early as possible tomorrow. We were that irritated by having cars always on our tail here.

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 2,195 km (1,363 miles)

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Karen PoretI tried to post a question earlier regarding the white drape hanging over the fort wall, but it would not load. Any idea what the significance of it could be?
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1 month ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Karen PoretSometimes they drape white mesh like this over buildings under repair, but no real kñowledge of why it might be over the fortress wall.
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1 month ago