Where Are We Now

In the town of Givet, the most northerly in France, following the Meurse River and canal path where this afternoon we will enter Belgium.

Another change of plan- not going to Cologne now, want to get to Holland and see as much as we can there, like art galleries, Van Gogh museums and some of the new towns in rural areas.

France has been just great, the people fantastic, fun loving and generous in sharing their beautiful countryside with us. Will try and recount some more of our experiences in later blogs.

Oh by the way, there was someone (or two) who tried to spoil our day. We were snoozing after luch a week or so back; a small rural village green, road on three sides. Both of us dropped into q deep sleep and Vals small handlebar bag was lifted. 300Euros, passport, bank cards, address book etc. We looked around the perimiter, no one in site to ask if they'd seen anything, so off we went to ride 12ks to the nearest gendarmerie. One kilometer out of town, in the tabledrain alongside the road, Val spotted her bag, everything intact except for the cash and her camera. The camera was the biggest loss because she had been taking photos of interest to her and some places we had not both been, so I had not doubled up. We recorded the loss with the police and will see how we go with insurance; but to ride out on the same road the theif had taken and actually find the bag ourselves was a miracle (that could be attributed to something we were given, and the subject of another blog)