What a fabulous day! The question mark in the title is merely because I have now been doing this for so many days that I am beginning to forget all of the great days I have had.
This afternoon’s cycle from Morhange to Sarrebourg continued in the same manner of the morning; beautiful, rolling (I use that word too often!) countryside and good weather to boot. What I did begin to notice were the occasional elements of southern France beginning to kick in; a lavender field, the noise of the cicadas, the white-washed houses and the increasingly mountainous landscape. Only a few moments before I had taken the picture in the previous post, I had noticed in the far distance some looming hills the like of which I had yet to see on my trip south; little did I know at the time that I would be spending the night half-way up one of them.
I arrived in Sarrebourg at around 4pm. I didn’t really know what to expect but I was hoping for a quiet, picturesque little place like you find in the Dordogne with a little campsite and a few bars in which to while away the evening. I was in for a bit of a let down. It was a boring town with a penchant for drabness. The fact that it wasn’t twinned with a suburb of Slough was the only remarkable thing about the place. I already knew that there wasn’t a campsite in the place which was a blessed relief. Last night I had picked up a brochure in the campsite in Metz which included a list of campsites for the department; none were listed for Sarrebourg.
I asked at the tourist office about campsites and the helpful girl gave me a list of five. All were east of the town which was good in that I am heading for Strasbourg and only one of them was ideal as it was on a direct route to Strasbourg; the site in Dabo. Only one problem; it was 20 kilometres away and up a big hill.
But it was only 4 pm so I thought, why not and headed for this hills. An hour or so later I found myself in a beautiful wooded landscape on a campsite high in the hills and the fact in my mind that I have successfully achieved my first major climb of the Eurovelo 5 route!
Only one problem; I have made such good progress today that I am one day ahead of myself; do I take that extra day here in the mountains and stay put for two nights or do I head for Strasbourg tomorrow have an extra day in the Alsatian capital before meeting up with Claus on Friday. I’ll ponder that one over sunset in the mountains and the bottle of Bordeaux I bought in the shop down the road….