Advertisement
Published: July 16th 2023
Today we head off to Roubaix, famous for being the ending of the One Day Classic, "The Paris-Roubaix". It is a city with a very strong cycling heritage.
With only 56kms to do we figure we'll take things easy today. We head out via McDonald's to get a coffee and find it's not open until 9am. Infact France seems to sleep in most days. We ride around and the streets are mostly deserted until the afternoon.
The riding is easy with the wind at our backs again. We turn onto a canal for about 20kms. It's a great ride. Very flat (if a bit bumpy in some parts), no cars and sheltered from the wind. There are huge barges that pass us by. Jeff tells me this is a taste of things to come on the Rhine and Danube.
We have been searching for a coffee all morning and our only option is another McDonalds. Unfortunately, here in France, there are no McCafe's, so this is coffee out of a machine - barely passable, but better than nothing.
The rest of the ride is mostly on cycle paths. We're not far from major roads but we are
separated by a green bush barrier so we could be anywhere.
Lille is a major city that is basically joined to Roubaix. It is rich in history being a major trading post drawing people from all directions. There is also history here from the French Revolution. One of the buildings in the main square has two cannon balls from the revolution still lodged in the wall. Jeff and I have visited Lille previously and it brings back lots of memories.
We ride on to Roubaix and find our room. It's an enormous two bedroom apartment on the 15th floor of and apartment building. We have great views over the city as well as all the facilities we could possibly need, including for the first time, a washing machine - no washing the days cycling clothes in the shower tonight.
We'll be spending our rest day here before heading off to Ghent on Tuesday. We both have a list of things we need to get done so there won't be much resting. The main point of order will be to go over the bikes after 12 days of hard riding to make sure all the bolts are tightened,
The old Trading Place
There is a door on each side to accommodate traders coming from any direction.clean and oil the chain, rotate the tyres, etc, etc.
I've decided to have a rest day from the blog tomorrow as well, so I'll pick up again on Tuesday when we head to Ghent.
Thanks for all the likes and comments, it's good to know people are enjoying our (mis)advebtures.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.301s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 35; dbt: 0.2718s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mike1234
Michael Carra
Enjoy Ghent
Hi Mark, happy to read you had great accommodation and a chace to properly wash your gear. Ghent is a beautiful city and plenty of photo opportunities.safe travels Mike.