Givet

A day of 2 halves although each half would have made a reasonable whole on another trip. Firstly, I discovered this was another French bank holiday.* I cycled 90+ k in the morning and saw NOTHING open . Indeed it was dreich again and I saw nothing , really. I slowly climbed up into the Ardennes that today felt more like the Himalayas due to my negative mood. My front tyre puncture was just about holding up but needed a bit of gonf every so often. I crawled into charlesville- mesiere and saw a burger shop open. Well the door was open but it was that magical French time 14:02: ferme!! However out of sympathy or bewilderment they decided they could squeeze me in ( the place was empty). My burger meal consisted of 2 burgers( really?) and a poke of chips- needless to say all disappeared in a flash.
I wandered around charlesville thinking about staying, but what is there to do on a bank holiday??
Well the answer is cycle a bit more. ( there are no other correct answers) I was aware there was a cycle way down the Meuse , but youre never too sure until you get on a "cycle way" how much is shared road, how much is dirt track. This cycle way was 99% traffic free, 100% perfect smooth tarmac. And with a tail wind. And the sun came out. And it was down hill: what's not to like? So now I'm in Givet, on the Belgian border, needing to give my legs a rest after a 175k day, give my poor bike some TLC and await the forecasted change in the weather....

* in fairness , I think this was another Memorial Day for one of the great wars. Pretty real history round these parts. Perhaps I should toughen up.Read more