Day 14

Paul's blog tonight.  Probably quite short as we are absolutely shattered! It has been a long pedalling day today. Alarm was set for 8, plan was to get going for 9 and stop for breakfast en route. It was about quarter past as we left the quirky hotel. We were outside getting the bikes ready when Ann took this photo of the restaurant building. 

For the next hour and a half, it was just one of those rides where you seemed to cover the miles slowly. There was a slight head-wind, a slight incline, quite a bland landscape, and very straight roads:

About 10:30 was the highlight of the morning with a stop in a village that had a shop full of delicious pastries including something that I can only describe as sugar bread!

For some reason, today's route seemed to be mainly on roads. I take great pride in my route planning and feel particularly pleased when we are taken through interesting back ways and paths. I can't remember why, but there must have been little option on this part of the journey other than to follow the main road. However, at one point, there seemed to be an alternative, almost parallel track. We studied the sat nav and thought it would be alright.....but 3 miles later we were cycling literally across a field as the track had ended. The road we should have been on could be heard to our left. At one point, there was a gap in the hedgerow and I scrambled up the bank to take a look - a canal was between us and the road! We got both bikes through the gap and up onto the narrow canal path, which half a mile later came to a bridge and access back to the road. Quite an adventure, but probably only 4 miles in 1 hour!

After many more straight-road miles, and some disappointment at villages with no eating facilities, we did eventually stop for a late lunch in a small cafe. Just before our stop, we had seen one of the many WWII cemeteries. There are no words.......

Finally, at 5ish, we reached Commercy, our planned end-point. However, we were not booked in as the b and b was showing as full on the booking.com website so we took a chance that they would have rooms once we asked at reception. It wasn't full, it was completely closed! Rather than retrace our route, we wanted to go forwards, so we ended up doing another hour's cycling and arrived at our cheap truck drivers' motel at 6:30. We passed this unusual double-steepled church in a tiny village on the way.

Oh, and the last thing, when we got to our motel, I parked my bike using the double-footed motorbike type stand, and the stand said enough's enough, and twisted out of shape. There was no option other than throwing it away!

So, it's 10pm and we are ready to sleep.....

The good news is we have over 480 miles clocked up and we are now almost 2/3rds of the way to Wengen. The texts and emails we have been receiving are really nice and encouraging, so thank you very much!