Blogs from Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe - page 5

After a bit of Lunch I set back off to Aldi’s to pick up a few more supplies, followed by a bit of a walk around the woods. By the time I returned, the site was full, and a couple of Brits had arrived. The first were Francis and Kim, who were first timers to the Paris Roubaix but had followed the TDF for years in their motorhome. The others were Miles and his wife, he was trying his hardest not to turn his week here into a cycling holiday, as his wife was not as passionate about cycling, but was warming to the idea of motor homing. The next day I woke fairly early with the intention of riding to Roubaix to check out the velodrome, the finale of the race. But with no way ... read more

VimyC'était une expérience inoubliable, non seulement d'être à la cérémonie à la Crête de Vimy avec 23,000 personnes, mais aussi de visiter des sites de la 1ère Guerre mondiale. Partout, on s'est rappelé la souffrance et les sacrifices des Canadiens et des Canadiennes (surtout les jeunes ). Beaucoup de soldats et de personnel (tunneleurs, constructeurs, médecins, infirmières) d 'autres pays ont aussi contribué, mais on remarque que la proportion à notre population était immense. J'étais fière d'être canadienne. Si jamais vous avez la chance de visiter cette région, je recommande un tour guidé de la Carrière Wellington à Arras. Dans ces tunnels, 24,000 soldats se sont cachés pendant 7 jours, en avril 1917, avant d'attaquer les soldats allemands . Aussi vaut-il marcher dans les tranchées près de Passchendale pour avoir la sensation. On s'imagine des mois ... read more

We were on the road by 8am with everything ready packed into Tandy the night before. What a gorgeous morning to set out. Positively autumnal with a mist rolled in low across the fields behind the house. Something rather lovely about setting off under a blue sky for even more sunshine (hopefully), A good thing we left ourselves extra time to get down to the Chunnel terminal at Folkstone as the motorways were very busy and we encountered several traffic jams caused by what is known on BBC traffic reports as “sheer volume of traffic”. Planned route went down the M42 /M40 but we switched to the M6 / M1 as the M42 was totally clogged up. The M1 wasn’t too bad but the M25 anticlockwise was like a car park in several sections. By the ... read more

And so to home - for the second time in a month. We observed as we drove to Le Crotoy that last time we had been here, on the 2nd of June, it was also raining though it was colder then and I didn't take much notice of anything that time around as I was rather poorly with my nasty virus. A long driving day today up from the Loire Valley to the Normandy coast on the Somme Estuary. Through the fields full of grain crops waiting for sunshine to be harvested. a little later than normal this year I'm sure and a lot of fields looked as if they have been badly damaged by heavy rain. The roads are straight, sometimes stretching in a long line as far as the eye can see with not ... read more

Day 1- So for a first day it was eventful. The weather wasn't too bad at home, with just heavy rain. But by the time we cycled over the hill and down onto the marsh, the winds had really picked up. This made it a slow grind, until my rear tyre blew out! Just outside of Lydd, and only 10 miles in. I had all the kit for most repairs, but I'd never experienced an exploding tyre so had nothing to fix it. So a quick call for help to Richard, and a new tyre and tube were delivered. While Rich was sorting the tyre from Activ, I replaced the tube and gingerly pumped it unto 30 psi, which was just enough for we to walk the bike to Lydd, but I wasn't going to chance ... read more