Hostellerie La Pommeraie Bouillon

... arrived on time. The sky was overcast most of the way so there wasn’t much to see, and the plane was very full in any event, so I couldn’t see much from my aisle seat. Since I had officially left from France, there were no formalities on arrival.

I picked up my rental car, a Renault Clio (diesel), which is much larger than the early models used to be. I left immediately for the Sedan area about 3 ½ hours to the north-east, stopping briefly for lunch on the roadside ...

... but then we aren't Japanese down under!! It was a bit like WW3 had started for a couple of hours in the pm with several fighter jets and helicopters doing maneuvers above us, just like a free air show. Don't know if we are near an air base or a manufacturing facility, the locals didn't seem to take any notice but for me interesting!!

... Mayo based sauces. Very tasty. Cold, wet and well fed we continued to the belgian border over some severe ups and downs. Then as it began to get late we asked a nice lady where we could find a campsite. She said 15 km down the road. Perfect, we thought. At about 7 km down the road a pretty heavy storm hit and that's where you see me waiting it out under a tree.

Every time I count the number of days I say wow... SO this week: Monday and Tuesday: fairly ineventful, science interro (failed, fairly sure 5/42 is the best possible mark I can get for that) and suprise interro in history, interpreting a painting of napoleon...pft. That was more an exercise of how well I can use my dictionary but "no panic" - c'est pas grave! Tuesday lunchtime went shopping for lollies and shiz to take with us on retraitre, and boy did we stock up ...

... during and after we raked, sang and walked could indicate just how hot it was! we took it in turns to rake the coals from a blazing wood pile to a rectangle of glowing coals about 4x5 metres. i was sure that i had lost my eyebrows to the heat as I raked the coals. As it was a ceremony we didn't take any photos that evening but I did get a shot of the charred remains of our once firey coals. Left aligned photo tag:

... and general stores...) but as soon as we got on our bikes and got even 20 minutes into the hills and trees, we were all alone and it was stunning. A mix of decidious and coniferous trees, blue skies, puffy white clouds, lovely. If it were the same environment in an incredibly crowded area near san francisco we would have been riding all over other people, backing up on the bike trails, etc. As it ...

The best hotel in town, especially as we've been on the road 12 hours! Looking forward to a shower, as we are all soaking already from the heat. Sampling the local beer first though :-) Le Relais

... Since there is a god, the sun started to shine around 11AM, strong back wind and all. 120 km, with quite a few hills in 5 hours. Not bad for a fat ******* like me. Nice campground again! on top of the hill, amazing views, and french bread and croissants from the local bakery....even the French campgrounds are civilised! Sorry, but my internet time is up. I'll update this day ASAP. Cheers, Bart

... Je leur parlait comment j'etais impressione de leurs pistes cyclables. Ils m'expliquaient que les Neerlandais sont obsedes par la securite. C'est pourquoi les velos sont si bien proteges et ont la priorite. Si l'Amerique du nord pouvait avoir la meme philosophie!! Et toujours aussi modestes ces Neerlandais ! L'un d'eux connaissait bien le Canada. Son frere effectue son Doctorat a St-John, Nouveau-Brunswick pour la compagnie Irving. Il n'a pas ...

... picnic dans la forêt qui sera écourté par l'omniprésence d'essaims de taons. Et moi qui pensait que ces voraces se cachaient surtout dans les forêts canadiennes... Il en reste tout un paquet en Europe d'après ce que j'ai pu voir! Nous nour réfugions sur une terrasse et je me gâte un peu en dégustant ma bière trappiste belge préférée: l'Orval. Le serveur sert même un petit morceau du fromage artisanal d'Orval ...