No one who enjoys cycling and has a limited time would be foolish enough to waste it on English roads. For cyclists they are congested or dangerous or both. So I left Loughborough station for the Zeebrugge ferry from Hull, together with bike, gear, and Mayoral send off.
| Saturday | by rail and ship | to Zeebrugge (Flanders) |
| Sunday | 180km (110m) | to Gembloux (Namur) |
| Monday | 137km | to Charleville Mezières (Ardennes) |
| Tuesday | 115km | to Verdun (Meuse) |
| Wednesday | 125km | to Nancy (Meurthe et Moselle) |
| Thursday | 63km | to Epinal (Vosges) |
To others doing the route, by bike, or other means I'd only say that it was a superb route but you should stay an extra day in Belgium. Apart from being far too far to go in one day, Belgium is under appreciated by many English people.
Many people are put off twinning because they think you have to speak Franglais, or enjoy endless conversations about the English weather with complete strangers. Although this is actually true on occasion, it is usually relieved by quantities of the local alcohol which begins to make it all peculiarly enjoyable at the time.
Some people get beyond this and make friends, or like me discover the political dimension. This is all about post-war rapprochement - and European grants. In Britain twinning began in the 1950's. Loughborough/Epinal was one of the first. French towns along the battle fields of the Meuse and Moselle are often twinned with German towns. Many German towns are twinned with Polish or eastern European Towns. Schwäbisch Hall, our German twin town is twinned with Zamosc, whose population was liquidated by the Nazis who intended re-naming it Himmlerstadt.
The Belgians seem to take twinning rather more literally and it was noticeable that most French speaking areas seemed to be twinned with a French town. Dinant, near Namur, has twins in non francophone countries, but just to be safe they've two twins in France. Francophony, as they call it is to be defended, and why not. More broad minded was Sedan, famous for its battle with the Prussians, was twinned with Sevastapol and Eisenach in eastern Germany.
So don't rush Belgium. I did and I regret it. Most of the Belgian population live between Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. It's a rich Flemish culture. Feels like Holland on a Sunday. Come to think of it, it was Sunday. People who like Bruges, go to Ghent, preferably on a Sunday because it's a bigger city. It's cobbled, castled, cathredraled, carilloned and canaled. The last two, like Loughborough, of course.
If you think Belgium is two countries, you're right, but Belgian beer transcends this beautifully. Go for the bottle conditioned varieties like Leffe or Duvel. Drink from a wide glass and inhale - preferably before drinking it.
Gembloux, our Belgian twin, is just in the French speaking province of Namur. Gembloux is a sophisticated little town which is dominated by an Abbey which is now an important agricultural college.
It's called a Faculty to emphasise its position in the top rank of higher education.
You'll pass Waterloo if you come south to avoid the Brussels traffic. It's a busy commuter town with signs to Waterloo Gare, and, I'm told, a memorial to the battle.
South of Namur you can get into the Ardennes area of Belgium. This is not advisable for cyclists who are not training for the poker dot jersey.
Northern Belgium is laced with canals, the southern French speaking
part is woven by the great river Meuse. The Meuse takes you into
France in about the most pleasant way you could image, whether
on a bike, a car, or I guess on a boat. In fact a barge could
take you all the way to Epinal but that's another story.
Continuing up the Meuse into France, you'll pass a sewerage works and then a nuclear power station. Yes, I did say just upstream from Belgium. Later towards Charleville-Mezières the river winds snake-like through tight gorges. A lovely ride, I suspect, but late in the afternoon and miles to go, I was forced to take the shorter route up my most testing hill - 30 minutes slow pedalling in a torrent but knowing the summit would see me down hill for the rest of that day.
One of the consequences of following the Meuse is that you come across village after village with war graves, mainly First World War. On one side of the river, the Battle of Argonne raged. On the other Verdun witnessed a six month battle to defend France.
The villages are all agricultural and picturesque. There's nearly always a café, seemingly run for the benefit of the owner's friends - or often just the owner. Usually such proprietors sit in the window seat reading the local paper leaving the rest of the place in gloom, probably hoping you'll go away.
Here's an example of one of the many German cemeteries. Black
crosses, or occasional stone memorials for Jewish soldiers. 11,762
were buried at Consenvoye. Lost or dead, the body count seemed
rather too precise for such a large number. In another village
was a statue of an old person with a suitcase - a memorial to
the thousands of refugees.
Along the Meuse you pass Lerouxville with remarkable sculptures, Lacroix with a monument 'Au Paix et aux Arts'. Stenay, with a European Beer Museum. There's a local brew to try. There is a small Henri Poincaré Museum in Sampigny, near St Mihiel. It's dedicated to the celebrated Physicist after whom the local university in Nancy is named. Then, as you close in on Verdun, there's Douaumont. Douaumont was a village, on a hill overlooking Verdun. The hill itself warns cyclists to be prepared for a hard climb with a number of Tour de France riders names are still painted on the road: Museuw, Indurain etc. It was a hill on a stage in 1995. Douaumont today is the centre of a huge memorial theme park, the centre of which is a building of cathedral proportions surrounded by crosses and rose bushes. There are statues and monuments, visitors centres and trenches.
The ride down to Epinal is easy and mostly picturesque. You leave the Meuse as a narrow river at Pagny-sur-Meuse and follow the Canal de l'Est to Toul, a cathedral city on the Moselle. The Moselle cuts a stunningly beautiful gorge on its way from Neuve Maison, just south of Nancy. There are good campsites, though I was destined for another motorway hotel. These hotels are excellent, Formule 1 or Bonsai, or a number of others offer you a room for up to three with a TV and washing facilities for around £15 per night. For a romantic cyclist they are ideal, you can even share the room with your bike.
The journey from Nancy follows the Canal de l'Est, and further over to the east there's the Moselle. The canal is at its most attractive as you cycle beside it passing villages. The best seemed Neuviller-sur-Moselle, though that's only as seen from a rather tired saddle. Nearer Epinal the Moselle has sadly succumbed to the gravel extraction industry, with Redland 'granuats' doing what they've done to the Soar valley in Leicestershire.
There's far too much to say about Epinal and the Vosges than can
adequately be said here. Every child's book in France once carried
'Images d'Epinal'. The famous Imagerie began to produce colour
prints before the Revolution. It's place in history was confirmed
by the 'colporteurs' who travelled from village to village across
France carrying poltical comment in pictures to those who could
not read. The tradition for printing both children's and political
images is still maintained.
Imagerie apart, Epinal used to have a reputation as a sort of backwater. Little passing trade and little to keep anyone who did. Tourists would carry on to the Alps, to Alsace or stay in the big cities like Nancy or Mulhouse. Today its different and its a great example of local political achievement. There's now a big new paper factory and a range of inward investors like Trane from Wisconsin, there's a high tech industrial park and good educational opportunities. This change has been encouraged, even provoked, by imaginative public initiatives to make the town more exiting. When the main town stone bridge was covered with a modern art-deco inspired canopy the town couldn't believe what had been perpetrated on their much loved bridge. Now there's more, there a fountain arising from the centre of the river, there's flags along both banks, a street theatre festival; there's modern public art, including César's famous V sign 'Liberté' sculpture. And there's a wonderful new Museum of Historical and Contemporary Art - from pre-roman times to modern work by such artists as Andy Warhol and Carl André.
So finishing the ride in Epinal was great. I've a lot of people
to thank, in particular Jenny and Laurant Bocq and family for
their Gembloux welcome, Daniel Autogelle for his welcome at Epinal
- and the great trip we did to the spa town of Vittel. The Mayor
of Charnwood and my civic hosts in our twin towns, Dominique Nott
and Rolande Richard. And Hazel, Richard and Jim for organising
the bus to Epinal which took me and bike home. Thank you, everyone
concerned.
So… Come to Epinal!
