French Connection

We blasted out of Holland after sad farewells from our fine hosts who probably breathed a sigh of relief as we left. The sun shone as Nigel predicted and we had a dry but blowy ride through the countryside into Belgium. We cruised through pretty villages on roads heavily used by freight trucks sitting on our tail pipes as usual hoping to crush us so as to get to the depot six seconds earlier than expected. I didn’t take pictures as I only have my scratchy phone now. The nav took us through Brussels which we mistook for Morocco. Maybe we only saw the tatty bit. Into France and classic villages playing hide and seek with drivers. Rolling countryside and war memorials wall to wall. Its easy to forget France was devastated by two wars that they also didn’t start. Lots of Brit cars outside the memorials visiting lost ones from a century ago. We stopped for a sandwich by the road before pushing on to Neuf Chatel – en Bray to campsite Saint Claire which is lovely. The town has some great architecture and large shopping malls populated by “Les Chavs “. There is a path following an old rail track right out to Dieppe which would make a fine cycle ride with a tent during a hot dry summer unlike the monsoon season we are currently experiencing again. Two guys arrived on BMW s last night and we had a long chat about pros and cons of long term bike travel. They left this morning(Saturday) . France seems very quiet rurally but this may because your average Jean Claude reputedly attends work 37 hours a week excluding brandy stops and five hours for lunch, so he works a total of 12 hours. Annual holiday 5 weeks and some national holidays mean that after taking 78 days sick leave as a given he will attend work on occasional Wednesdays as long as the country is not riding tractors down the Champs Elysees on strike. Somehow it works and this northern part is clean green and well worth seeing. The local folk like “Les Rostbifs” as we helped during the tricky years and they are very friendly.