We awoke in the spa town this morning hoping the weather had improved. Our legs felt very tired from all the climbs of the previous day. Incredibly, we'd only made 25 miles in getting to the spa town from Epinal. However, If you'd seen the conditions you may have felt that this distance was actually impressive. My iPhone (lifeline!) got damp yesterday. Even though it was in a pocket of my (expensive) Gortex. It wouldn't charge. Kept turning itself on and off. I ...

Today went badly. We left Epinal at 8:30 in pouring rain. Our destination was Besancon, some 80-90 miles away. We never got there. The route was incredibly hilly. The rain never let up and the wind swirled every which way; but mostly blowing us backwards. As we got higher into the hills/mountains the temperature plummeted. It was so cold. And the area was very remote. At times we were in the clouds with very little visibility. I don't know that the temperatur...

Last night's son illuminare in the main square was amazing. The old buildings comprising the square we're brought to life, in sync with some Jean Michel Jarre-type music, by a laser light show. It's difficult to describe but the whole experience was well worthwhile. Have a look at this YouTube link. It shows the type of thing (I think I got this sent to me by Phil Knowles. Mel, his daughter, had seen it somewhere. Portugal, I think). The one we saw was on three s...

For some reason we pushed on east until we hit the Mosselle river at a place called Pont-a-Mousson. From there, we followed the river south to Nancy. I think it's about time we turned south or we'll be in Germany. We've come a long way but, looking on the 'big map', we are still north of Cherbourg. We need to buy another map because we've come off the edge of the ones I brought. The stage was very up and down. With some great descents and some long climbs. It w...

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...