Tuesday, 18th August, 2015.
At midday on Sunday, we crossed the Belgian/French border making France our fourth country in one day.
Only a few kms inside the border is the Citadelle de Montmedy, the guardian of the gates to Lorraine which is situated on a more than 100 metre high rocky promontory. This privileged location has determined its illustrious past, and the town has seen its fortunes closely tied to those of the nations of Europe and to their shifting borders. We stopped for a while, roamed around the small village within the fortress walls and then did a circuit of the walls.
It was just a short drive from Montmedy to Stenay on the River Meuse where we stayed overnight.
Monday morning was sunny with blue skies, although chilly and we looked forward to a rain free day but by the time we'd done our washing at the laundrette, walked around the town and had lunch, the skies were no longer blue and there were grey rain clouds hanging about. Happily, we were able to skype our granddaughter Harriet on her birthday which brightened our day.
Monday morning was sunny with blue skies, although chilly and we looked forward to a rain free day but by the time we'd done our washing at the laundrette, walked around the town and had lunch, the skies were no longer blue and there were grey rain clouds hanging about. Happily, we were able to skype our granddaughter Harriet on her birthday which brightened our day.
We then drove about 100kms from Stenay to Montherme, also on the River Meuse, with a stop on the way at a huge Carrefour supermarket on the outskirts of Charleville-Mezieres.
The view from the aire on the riverbank was lovely even through the drizzling rain. As we'd noticed a New Zealand flag and a silver fern flag hanging on the mast of one of the boats moored in front of us, we went over to investigate and met Anna and Paul who had bought the boat in Holland and are now enjoying cruising the rivers and canals of Europe.
This morning when the rain had stopped, we rode 5kms along the river path to Bogny-sur-Meuse and back...a lovely, gentle ride requiring no effort at all and on our return to Montherme, we packed and left for the drive to le Nouvion-en-Thierache. We encountered some heavy rain on the way but shortly after we arrived here at 4pm, the sun came out! It's hard to believe that just a few days ago we were wishing for cooler weather...well, we got our wish though we were thinking maybe 10 or so degrees cooler not 20!
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