Day 2 Cambrai to St Die des Vosges

Sam gained a stalker this morning, a little French tot called Gabriel whose family were pitched next door to us. Sam sparked up a game of peepo with her then disappeared for a long leisurely pamper in the shower, leaving me to carry on were she left off. Half an hour later the annoying little bugger was still at it. Cheers Sam.

We rode east to Sedan, just past Charleville-Mezieres. Hirson looked quite interesting. Our intel back home (cheers Jon!) reckons it took a real pasting during both world wars. One of our boys from Drif crashed there while bombing it in WW2. Looks like they've kept many of the damaged buildings, but we were flying by so it could just be old carriage works or something.

There's constant reminders of war around here. Memorials, graves, museums. Some medieval stuff too I believe. Obviously this entire area was heavily involved in both world wars. On the way from Calais yesterday we passed what appeared to be an old rocket site but we didn't have time to investigate. Another time maybe.

We stopped at a Routiers truck stop just before Charlesville for food. They usually offer a good honest set menu for very little money. This one looked promising but their Routiers menu isn't available on Sundays. We were offered inside for the á la carte menu but it all looked a bit Sunday best for our liking so we moved on.
From Sedan we picked up the green twisty roads south through the Ardennes region to Vouziers. All very pretty and really quiet. Stopped for fuel and scran in Vouziers. It's Sunday so being France both were damn hard to find. Fuel came from a tempramental automated self service station. Food came from a lovely little bakery and pattiserie. Just some quiche and pastries then some fruit from a grocery store over the road.
We left Vouziers and headed towards Verdun. The first stretch to Grandpre was superb. I mean defo don't go out of your way or anything, but if you're in the area then give it a shot.

Picked up the péage near Verdun and headed over Metz, down past Nancy then east towards the Rhine. The toll stretch only cost about 3 quid.

Tonight we're in a shockingly expensive campsite in St Die. Sure, it's got a satellite tv lounge and bouncy castle and table tennis tables etc but i'm really not interested. The pool however did look mint, especially given todays insane heat, but that was closed by the time we got sorted. So bollocks to that.

Tomorrow, after we've had our moneys worth in the swimming pool, we're thinking of crossing the Rhine into Germany and the Black Forest then down through Switzerland into Italy. We're defo into the good stuff now though so bring it on!

304 miles