EV6 day 33

Met a fabulous couple last night on the campsite. Pulled up pitched next to us at Radom on a busy site. Ton, and Rita, from Amsterdam. It turns out that Ton retired after 45 years as a police officer in Amsterdam and Rita had met him whilst she was serving. Cue for a full fledged International police reminiscence conference- and a couple of glasses of rum!

A forgotten moment in history again. It is all over Europe each a tragic personal story. I shall try to research this one. Stone is on the edge of the campsite we are on.

I head off today, a bit later than planned- largely due to the rum- across the heavy traffic of the town. I cycle from the camp, and am soon on very minor roads across country. I follow a canal up to Chagney, I am not sure what it is called but it is fairly busy with leisure cruisers and is continually uphill as demonstrated by the locks! It is quite a feat of engineering as the canal sits high in places above farmland and houses alike.

As I round Chagney and head down towards Ciry le Noble the canal continues. It drops for a bit then there is a ladder of lock as as it rises. There are ‘ports’ here like on the Canal du MIDI and some of the houses, especially facing those busy parts of the canal are quite grand. Some are magnificent- but most are sadly run down.

There is evidence that there must have been significant industry here. The canals, etangs, and a number of really huge industrial buildings that are now neglected and falling in to ruin. I don’t know what the local industry would have been. I snapped the picture below of a very small example of the neglected buildings- most are very much bigger- it turns out this one was a brickworks and has been retained as a monument.

The countryside here is grand with lovely villages but it is very quiet and seems in decline.

A reminder of how life used to be!

However there has been such a lot of investment into the cycle track – and there are cyclists everywhere- maybe tourism will save the regions way of life.

A new bridge on the cycle route.

So, I am getting towards the end of the day. I am in a town called Blanzy, I think. I struggle to find the EV6 signs I am following. As I approach the port to take a photo, I am suddenly aware of lots of police both uniform and plain clothed. I hear whistles and chanting and realise I have got myself into the middle of a big demo against whatever the French have taken a dislike to now. Traffic is chaos as cars try to avoid being caught up in it and flanking police officers detour them out of the way. 3 cheers for the bike! I am able to get ahead of the demo and clear off out of town with our incident!

it is a short day again today 88kms. An early finish at another decent campsite. This one has Wi-Fi! Beer is calling and it’s really hot. I reckon I deserve one.