We left Stenay and the Ardennes this morning and took the relatively short ride (~35mls) down to Verdun. This place is probably the furthest east we will come and is the reason why we have done so.

It was sunny, not too hot and the route was very pleasant. We followed the meandering course of the river Meuse. Sometimes the road, which was deathly quiet, was sandwiched between the river on one side and the Canal de l'Est on the other. There were only two serious climbs.
Arriving around lunchtime on the outskirts of Verdun, we immediately took the circular, 25km, route which takes in all of the main monuments relating to what happened here in WW1. This loop is through the wooded hills north and east of the city.

Verdun was the site of a major battle of the First World War. One of the costliest battles of the war, Verdun exemplified the policy of a "war of attrition" pursued by both sides, which led to an enormous loss of life.
It's not (to me) entirely clear why the Germans put so much effort into trying to take Verdun. I think it was just chosen as somewhere to hit/break through the French line. After which both sides piled in. The onslaught continued for some 300 days. However, by July of 1916 the Germans could no longer afford to continue their offensive at Verdun because they were needed so desperately on the Somme. At a cost of some 400,000 German casualties and a similar number of French, the attack was finally called off.
We were surprised to see very large memorials to both Islamic and Jewish fallen.
Today's photo is of the main cemetery.

Around AD 800 Verdun was the centre of a Europe-wide thriving trade selling young boys to be enslaved eunuchs to the Islamic emirates of Iberia.
Less controversially, the city has been famous for Dragées or sugared almonds from 1200 onwards; they were distributed at the baptism of French princes.

We've not decided where to go tomorrow. We know that we will go through Besancon in a few days. But via where we do not know. (As I type JC is pouring over the maps.)

Physically we are doing ok. Legs maybe a touch tired after the 100 miler, but nothing to worry us unduly.