Eight Years Later

Day 50: Varennes-en-Argonne to Charleville-Mézières (60 miles / 3,000 ft.)

After a good night’s sleep, we woke to a beautiful sunrise behind the church outside our hotel window. Breakfast in the room was our usual bread, honey, yogurt, and muesli. Unfortunately, there was no kettle, so our instant coffee was made with water from the hot tap. Not exactly café quality!

As I carried our bags downstairs, Madeleine greeted me and offered Lisa and me a proper cup of coffee. We joined her for a nice conversation before leaving. Originally from Belgium, she dreams of visiting the United States someday, especially New York and Texas, where she hopes to try line dancing.

We were a little anxious about the day. Sixty miles separated us from Feyyaz and Arielle in Charleville-Mézières, and the weather forecast did not look promising. They had been our second Warmshowers hosts ever when we stayed with them in 2018. We still remembered their warm welcome, a warm, welcoming hug, the slow-roasted chicken, and the four-minute soft-boiled egg at breakfast. It came with a special little tool for opening the shell, which I somehow used to explode the egg across their beautiful white tablecloth. Eight years later, we were finally going back!

The weather turned out better than expected. We rode through rolling green countryside filled with farms, cows, and beautiful views, with mostly just a light drizzle. The cows seemed nearly as curious about us as the people we passed. They would stop chewing and stare, apparently wondering what two brightly dressed Americans were doing pedaling through their fields.

World War I memorials continued to appear along our route, reminders that this peaceful countryside was once part of a devastating battlefield. Eventually, we joined the Voie Verte Sud-Ardennes, a 110-kilometer greenway following waterways and quiet countryside across the southern Ardennes. Near Pont-à-Bar, it connected with the canal trail and gave us miles of smooth, nearly traffic-free riding beside the Canal des Ardennes and toward the Meuse.

We stopped for a picnic in the drizzle, watching an unusually excited group of cows crowd around while a farmer delivered their lunch. Apparently, food creates the same enthusiasm in French cows as it does in touring cyclists.

Once in the city, we meandered past a few sights and through a park where enormous murals had been painted across stacked shipping containers. Charleville and Mézières were once separate towns before being joined in 1966. The older Mézières grew as a fortified medieval settlement, while Charleville was founded in the early 1600s and became known for its elegant Place Ducale.

Before heading to our hosts, we found a quiet little pub tucked down an alleyway and celebrated making it through the day with a cold drink.

Feyyaz and Arielle greeted us as warmly as they had eight years earlier. We started with tea and cookies, followed by hot showers and clean laundry. Then came an apéritif of champagne and crackers before dinner. The main dish was a wonderfully creamy combination of potatoes, cheese, and ham that we will definitely be getting the recipe for, accompanied by a fresh lettuce salad.

Dessert was a delicious crumble made with mirabelles, the small, sweet golden plums grown throughout northeastern France. They are sometimes grown in the United States, but fresh mirabelles are much harder to find.

We spent the evening sharing stories and looking at photographs of Feyyaz’s beautiful carpentry work. He is retired now, like me, but keeps busy helping people modify furniture and creating his own woodworking masterpieces. Dinner ended with a small glass of homemade alcohol dating from 1980.

Once again, the only problem was that the time together felt far too short. Fortunately, we still had breakfast and a quick visit to the cheese shop planned for the morning. Eight years had passed, but the warmth of the welcome had not changed at all.Read more