Vive la France!

Yesterday we drove through the Vosges Mountain range in France. We left the campsite at around 10.45am for our journey. I felt rather deflated! Our holiday seemed to be at a close. Travelling to France was the least eagerly anticipated part of our trip, in my mind. However I was hoping for a reasonable stay at our next destination; the Biker b&b in Dun-sur-Meuse in Mid-Eastern France. I saw the advert for this place, run by a British couple, in 'Ride' Magazine (Two Wheel Moorings) and thought that perhaps we could use it for our return journey, without any real expectations other than the hope for a reasonable bed for a couple of nights. This was a considerable understatement!!

Our hosts Carol and Ian are fantastic! Carol heard our bike pull up in the typical rural French village and instantly ran across the road, cup of tea in hand to greet us! She directed Jon to the garage to store the bike and virtually dragged me inside to be confronted by 8 other British bikers having a beer on the terrace outside overlooking the banks of the Meuse canal. I did feel slightly overwhelmed by the hospitality! A cold beer was literally thrust into my hand and questioning began by the others as to where we'd been and what we'd seen so far! Over a couple more beers (and a hilarious evening at the lcoal Pizzeria!) several biking stories were exchanged.
We got information on the local area from Carol and Ian and decided to spend the next day exploring the surrounding countryside and the numerous local war memorials and cemeteries in the vicinity...



Ian's customised Vmax - an awesome machine he rebuilt after a car driver decided to play chicken with him - the result is astounding and has won awards!



The view from the terrace at the B&B - on an evening a bag of bread is left outside to use for feeding the ducks while watching the bats fly by.




The American Cemetery, 10km from the B&B, at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.




One of the many thousands of headstones at the cemetery.




A view from the observation platform at the top of the American Memorial in Montfaucon-d'Argonne.




While touring around the WWI sites in the region we were held up by a huge bike race. So we hung around for around an hour until the head of the vehicle convoy arrived - tens of Gendarme on RT1150 motorcycles leading the way, followed by cars with wheels mounted on roofs, and finally the cyclists. Toni made use of a free hat to spur on the riders.




The number two at this stage of the race - up hill - and still fast.


More cyclists.



The final few cyclists power up the hill.


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We've decided to head back a day early, since we can't find anything interesting to do for a night aroung the Calais area. So we're going to blast back all the way tomorrow - around 800km - Toni will earn her half-Iron Butt certificate for this!

A final post tomorrow with a route map and other technical nitbits.

That's all for now folks, stay cool ;-)

J & T