Normally when we ride out into Kent at the weekend on the bike, it feels like we are on holiday again. Today the weather was pretty miserable and it certainly didn't feel like a holiday. Teeth were nonetheless gritted because it was a HOLIDAY and we would make the most of it and as it doesn't rain when one is on holiday, we were not going to put our waterproofs on. Even if we did get quite 'damp'.
There was no stack on the M20 and we remarked how thoughtful the authorities had become in introducing toilet facilities every 500m along the motorway. And the coffee?
Things brightened up the other side of the channel with very few, ie no migrants to be seen.
And if it is possible to say things were bright in a now defunct coal mining town like Bethune they were bright indeed. Cobbled town hall square which Paul managed to navigate reasonably well and lots of cafes and brasseries en terrasse.
It was now warming up and we could do without our warm jumpers - a last minute addition to the packing as we were not going to need such things on a holiday in August . Nice lunch and on the road to Reims.
We were now in a different world with the temperature in the 30's and morning's blues had evaporated.
Afternoon in Reims; cathedral magnificent especially the stained glass. Chagall as is often the case with French cathedrals and an abstract German artist unbeknown to us, who must have used a laser technique to cut the glass.
Reims was deserted. There is something to be said for the month of August in certain parts of France.
Next laid the road onwards to Basle but we profited from the Route de Vignes-60km no less of all the major champagne houses and also the champagne we had drunk the night before. All very neat and tidy and once could certainly feel the money.
Basle was a long ride, 525km in the end but going through farmland all the way, ' la France profonde'. And empty of all traffic
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