Oudenaarde to Tournai (46 kms cycled)

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With the weather looking more promising today, we headed off on our bikes. Today we passed into the French speaking part of Belgium. Nina told us that if she speaks Dutch in Wallonia they will ignore her!!

Although the weather was sunnier today, we had a very strong head wind ... all day!! It was a bit tiring riding all day into a head wind, but Nina seemed to know when we were flagging and scheduled well-spaced stops for coffee, lunch and so on.

We made excellent time today arriving in Tournai by about 1.30pm with the five spires of the Notre Dame de Tournai creating a stunning silhouette on the horizon as we approached. We locked up our bikes by the Pont des Trous where the Elodie would be mooring and Nina walked us into the visitor's centre in town. For a Euro each we watched a short English-speaking presentation on the history of Tournai.

After our introduction to Tournai we enjoyed drinks in the sun - just around the corner from the Grand Place. After using the facilities - the main point of having a drink is to be able to pee for free (?) because there are virtually no public toilets here - we wandered around the Grand Place taking a few photos and then made a quick visit to the Notre Dame de Tournai before walking back to the Elodie for a shower before dinner. On the way back to the Elodie we stopped into a shop where I had spotted a dress that I liked on the way into town. It turned out it was a second hand boutique. I tried the dress on and it was good fit so I bought it anyway regardless of it being pre-loved.

Nina couldn't get any takers for an after dinner walk, but Bernie and I headed back into the centre of Tournai just on dark for, you guessed it, a bit more night photography!! Not being as touristy as Brugge and Ghent we found that there wasn't much floodlighting in Tournai. We snapped few shots anyway and returned to the Elodie where we let ourselves in because everyone else was in bed.

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