08 July 2010 Thursday

I had a great nights sleep waking at 8am. Breakfast is help yourself,with a good selection of cheese,ham, croissants & bread.

After a couple of strong cups of coffee & orange juice I'm ready to go.

First stop is to get some petrol. The 95 petrol is marked E10, which I have read somewhere isn't good for your bike,so I go for 98-just hope it works ok!


I chose my route today to take in as many green roads as possible. The first part of my route takes me along a tourist trail-Forests ,Lakes & Abbeys.

This route also takes me past a good few war memorials

This war memorial was huge. I saw it from a distance and thought it was a ruined building,but as you got closer you could see it was modern.

I might have guessed as it was for American soldiers-they always do everything big!

This route was biking heaven, through windy woods and over open golden & green field- from Sedan  I rode south on the D977 & D466 to Bar-Le -Duc

Then the D 966, D960 & D90 to Joinville were just awesome-equalling some of the roads I went on last year in the states :O)-I'd highly recommend them to anyone biking in the area.

The only downside was that a lot of the roads were newly gritted,some the whole road and some in patchwork.

I stopped for lunch in Abbeville. Unfortunately the only table available was in the scorching sun. Some people left & I asked if I could move to the table in the shade but I wasn't allowed as I was on my own and it was a table for four :(

Whilst waiting to be served 4 english bikers 2 up stopped & lucky them were allowed to sit in the shade. I had an old favourite for lunch-Galette with ham egg & cheese.

After lunch it was another petrol stop & then the GPS tried to take me up a very steep,tiny,track...no way! So I wound my way through the cobbled streets until I got back to the main road..

Some more good riding & then I arrived in Troyes about 4.30pm, only to find the road to the hotel was Route Baree ( do you see a theme?), so again another small detour.

I had a quick shower and then went for a wander round the town-so many beautiful old buildings.

I sat and had a beer by this carousel. OMG over 7 euros for a half litre of Carlsberg-thats more expensive than The Old Mill!!

This gate was built in 1760

Gargoyles on the Cathedral

The museum of Modern Art

Different ways of mending a building over the years!

After 2 hours wandering round the town it was back to the hotel for another shower and a catch up on Facebook. This hotel had an adaptor I could borrow so i could fully charge everything up.

I left a message for 'the Bennets' who are staying in my hotel and are part of the Burgundy Fest crowd,but unfortunately we didn't manage to meet up.

Time for dinner & there's plenty of choice of restaurents. I spot a couple having moules & frites and decide that's what I'm going to have. I have to admit it was a little disappointing as the moules were very small,but then again I think i'm spoilt with eating them in Brittany.

Then its back to the hotel for another early night about 10pm.