Cycle Tour Bike holiday along the Meuse

Today was our last day in France, but the Belgian border we crossed only late in the afternoon. Before that we rode an especially beautiful trip up through the French Ardenne hills, into which the Meuse has dug a deep and narrow trench. And the fine tarmac covered and wide trail followed it quite closely, which meant a lot of long detours, as the river winds wildly in many bends. But that's no problem, when you've got time and love biking.

Our breakfast had been quite simple and without coffee, so we found a cafe on the riverbank and had coffee and ice cream. These things really go well together. Our lunch break was easily the most beautiful one, deep into the woods on the trail- and riverside and with a fine view up north into the Belgian wood covered Ardennes. At Révin we left the Meuse and challenged ourselves with the climb up to the fortress town of Rocroi. It wasn't any goal in itself, as we were heading for the trappist abbey, where the Chimay beer is brewed and its fine exhibition centre and inn. It was a picturesque but tiresome slug out of the river valley. A part of it went through something called the Vallée de Misère. The Valley of Misery. That must be a name of the past, as it was a nice valley with nice looking houses. Rocroi is a perfect fortification from the 17th century, eercted by the great master of building fortresses Vauban. Here we cooked coffee on the town square. Afterwards we speeded up our bikes, as we did not want to miss Chimay. In the end we easily made it. We had now entered Belgium, but the language was still French. At the exhibition centre we slowed totally down and plunged into both the museum and the inn. Here we had trappist beer and my sons also cheese in improbable amounts. The cheese was also produced by Chimay. In the very end we peeked into the abbey itself in order to receive the blessings of the Lord. We really needed them after our arrival to the municipal campsite of Chimay about a quarter of an hour after its closing time at 7 pm. That's because we were heavily scolded for trying to list in after an unsuccessful attempt to get into contact with the proprietor on the available phone number. Luckily, Alexander's diplomatic skills and not the least his passport we sufficient to let us in. 

We enjoyed our dinner at an outdoor restaurant on a large square in the middle of the town. After that I still had not had enough beer, so I took a trip into the town centre on my own.