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In the Ardennes
Feb. 27th, 2010 09:06 pmDrawing courage from having set out the unfinished threads of holiday posts, and starting from the front page of my little paper notebook: I left off in the little town of Monthermé in the Ardennes, on Sunday evening when everything was closed. Our B & B was on the edge of the village, looking across the main road to the Meuse; our room was small and a little cramped, not because it was mean but because our hosts had tried to fit in everything we might conceivably need (with frills on it, if possible). We spent two nights there so we could go for a walk - this, after all, was the stretch of the river we had glimpsed en route to somewhere else on a previous holiday, and which had given us the idea of returning to follow the river along its length.
Monthermé lies within a loop of the Meuse, and the walk we chose climbed up the steep valley sides and over the ridge. I'd be happy to stick to the high ground, but this was one of those exhausting French routes in which the GR - the waymarhed route - no sooner sees a decent track than it plunges off the edge of it. The strenuousness of the walk may have been partly our own fault: at the top of the first ascent, there was in theory a route around the foot of the rocky outcrops, but we didn't find it, and ended up clambering up and down the Quatre Fils Aymon - both the rocks on the skyline and, later, the statue of the epic heroes which overlooks the town of Bogny. I'd have been happy, having come back down to the river, to take it easy on the return journey and follow the green cycleway home along the river, but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
durham_rambler was stern, and so there was more climbing up rocks, and precipitous descents through the forest, and weeping and cursing and magnificent views, not to mention the post-industrial site of L'Echelle, and while parts of it were very interesting, I could have done without it.
The following morning we cheated, and drove up to a couple more viewpoints which we had failed to reach on foot. Then, on the recommendation of our host, we went to Aldi in search of the Macon Villages he had served at dinner the previous night.
North from Monthermé, a narrow strip of France on either side of the river projects into Belgium: this was the most scenic drive yet. For much of the way, the road was close to the river, with great slabs of rock breaking dramatically through a brocade of autumn foliage.
We lunched at Givet, close below the border.durham_rambler refused to wait until we reached Belgium for the much anticipated moules frites; I had an andouillette, and while I noted that this was "v. nice", I seem to have been more impressed with the accompanying assortment of vegetables: 1 leek, 1 chicon, 1 turnip, 1 inch of carrot and 1 runner bean.
And how could we say goodbye to France without hitting a hypermarket (Intermarché, on this occasion) for what we refer to as "the trolley dash"?
Monthermé lies within a loop of the Meuse, and the walk we chose climbed up the steep valley sides and over the ridge. I'd be happy to stick to the high ground, but this was one of those exhausting French routes in which the GR - the waymarhed route - no sooner sees a decent track than it plunges off the edge of it. The strenuousness of the walk may have been partly our own fault: at the top of the first ascent, there was in theory a route around the foot of the rocky outcrops, but we didn't find it, and ended up clambering up and down the Quatre Fils Aymon - both the rocks on the skyline and, later, the statue of the epic heroes which overlooks the town of Bogny. I'd have been happy, having come back down to the river, to take it easy on the return journey and follow the green cycleway home along the river, but
durham_rambler was stern, and so there was more climbing up rocks, and precipitous descents through the forest, and weeping and cursing and magnificent views, not to mention the post-industrial site of L'Echelle, and while parts of it were very interesting, I could have done without it.The following morning we cheated, and drove up to a couple more viewpoints which we had failed to reach on foot. Then, on the recommendation of our host, we went to Aldi in search of the Macon Villages he had served at dinner the previous night.
North from Monthermé, a narrow strip of France on either side of the river projects into Belgium: this was the most scenic drive yet. For much of the way, the road was close to the river, with great slabs of rock breaking dramatically through a brocade of autumn foliage.
We lunched at Givet, close below the border.
durham_rambler refused to wait until we reached Belgium for the much anticipated moules frites; I had an andouillette, and while I noted that this was "v. nice", I seem to have been more impressed with the accompanying assortment of vegetables: 1 leek, 1 chicon, 1 turnip, 1 inch of carrot and 1 runner bean.And how could we say goodbye to France without hitting a hypermarket (Intermarché, on this occasion) for what we refer to as "the trolley dash"?
