Tour de Grand Est - Rain to Charleville

The bad news. We woke to rain.

The good news, AccuWeather said there was not rain. But there was rain. Most of the day. 

We said goodbye to Dun-sur-Meuse, with a brief visit to the Pershing Memorial bridge (and the bakery, to be honest).

A little history:

A bridge across the Meuse River in the center of town, named the Pershing Memorial Bridge.  General Pershing characterized the crossing of the Meuse here on 4 and 5 November 1918 as one of the most brilliant military exploits by the US forces during the war.  The Society of the Fifth Division funded the conversion of the bridge to a memorial, dedicated on 4 July 1931. 

It was a very grey morning, but it is still a cute little town. 

We then cycled through Sassey-sur-Meuse. Many towns post the speed limit sign of 30 and say something about kids at play, but this town posted images of cats as the reason to slow down 🐾😸 and indeed we did cycle by a cat in the next block ♥️

The camera didn't come out much today. It was protected by a Ziploc bag in my raincoat. But I took a few shots to share the view.  A vague view of a castle on the hill.

The view from my pee break, new corn. 

Checking the route. 

Some serious rolling hills in the first half of the day. 

Low lying clouds followed us all day, or maybe we followed them? 

This photo (favourite of the day) really shows our day. 

After the first 40 km of hills, we found ourselves following the river / canal for the balance of the ride. 

The photo, above.

The photographer below. 

The canal was peaceful, very few boats or birds out today. 

We passed by the intersection of two major canals in this area, Canal de la Meuse and Canal des Ardennes. 

I tried to capture both canals in this selfie, basically there is one over each shoulder. 

The Voie Verte (cycling route) here is very impressive. You can see the smooth pavement and even a middle line for traffic control. Not that we saw many people today. 

We were into the wind for the last 35 km, flat but tough since we were in full rain gear and quite wet. 

But, we made it!

We are staying in a cute apartment in Charleville Mezieres. Showered and fed.

Tomorrow we will explore this interesting town, on foot.  Looking forward to the change. 

Good night.