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Published: October 8th 2017
8m deep locks
Canal du NordBack in the saddle again!!
After a delightful but moving day yesterday, it was back in the saddle again today for the ride from Peronne to Marquion. The day started with the transit of a couple of locks and then we offloaded the bikes and headed upstream along the Canal du Nord, pausing briefly on a bridge to take photos of Elodie as she passed beneath us.
The riding today was at a very pleasant pace and the weather was kind, with light winds and scattered cloud. Temperature of around 15C. We rode through picturesque village after picturesque village. Very quiet as it was Sunday. Henry found a café open for morning tea and we stopped in a lovely picnic location in Moeuvres for lunch.
We made such good time that we arrived at Marquion at 1.30pm. Poor old Chiel and Elodie were stuck 10km back along the Canal du Nord waiting for boat traffic to get through the locks. We decided unanimously, to ride the 10km back along the canal tow paths to meet Elodie. We arrived around 2.30pm and spent the afternoon catching up on writing postcards, reading, doing emails, playing card and practicing the bagpipes
(silently, to the delight of all!!).
Stats for the day: 48.4km in 4 hours at a new best average speed on 12km/h. Hardly Tour de France speed but we are on holidays, after all!!!!
After a relaxing afternoon we enjoyed a scrummy dinner together and then watched a very funny French movie called Shtki (I may have the spelling wrong) about the people of northern France (where we will be tomorrow).
Elodie has an early start as we still have to negotiate three locks before we reach Marquion, where we will disembark and head for Valenciennes via Cambrai. Weather forecast looks pretty good, if a little cold. Chiel has a great record to date, so let's hope he keeps it up.
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