A dash through 5 countries: To Verdun

Wednesday 16th

Wonderful riding day - lots of hills.

We had pastries for breakfast that I had bought in Metz and cup of tea using our immersion heater (very handy!). Then rode down the couple of kms to Lac de Madine - quiet and almost misty; ducks and other birds make this a popular ornithological area.

A very pleasant ride on quiet roads to Vigneulles-lès-Hattonchâtel where we got supplies of water, fruit, etc. and bought yummy filled baguettes for lunch from the pâtisserie (I suggested to David that he try the Croque Monsieur).

I had thought it might be interesting to visit the chateau at Hattonchâtel but the climb up looked daunting. However, a study of the map soon showed we had to go that way anyway - to take the route to Verdun recommended by Knud - so we had about a 3 km very steep ascent that made the boys very unhappy.

Very pretty village at the top.

From here we had a very lumpy ride through the Forêt de la Montagne area which was the site of fighting in WWI. We passed several graveyards, one in particular of more than 500 German soldiers is the largest in the Calonne Trench which was pretty much the line of road we followed today.

The Tranchée de Calonne, despite it’s name, was not actually a trench. Instead it was a long road running for more than 25km through the wooded area south-east of Verdun. The area saw heavy fighting from September 1914 and some of the earliest trenches used by the French Army were dug among the trees here. French writer Alain Fournier was killed in this sector during this period and close to where his body was found in 1991 is an area of early war trenches.

We had a rapid descent down to Mesnil-sous-les-Côtes which we selected from the map for lunch thinking there might be the chance of a coffee here. Wrong. But we enjoyed our baguettes and David thought his Croque Monsieur was excellent!

This route however was probably NOT a great idea because nearer to Verdun, we had an enormous climb back out of the valley - the boys NOT happy yet again. Still, overall, it was a pretty good run/descent(!) into Verdun and we only got one busy road - the D603 which we weren't on for long.

Despite some terse exchanges at times, we did manage ultimately to navigate through Verdun - over the Meuse River guarded by the 14th century Porte Chaussée; at one point, Dave and I left MF1 on a street corner with the 3 bikes whilst we walked to the tourist office to get a paper map (the maps he'd downloaded onto his i-phone being useless because his phone had run out of charge ...).

But a good day overall.

We walked to the river to enjoy a drink at one of the many cafés. On the way we passed the Monument de la Victoire, where a helmeted warrior leans on his sword in commemoration of the 1916 battle; and a striking monument depicting a line of five soldiers representing the different arms of the armed forces.