von Léglise in Belgium / Wallonia to France Département de la Meuse (r), Day 4

Today July 21, 2023, Day 4, from Léglise in Belgium / Wallonia to the south

We leave our accommodation as always early and drive south. The weather: less than modest. Rain clouds and soon rain, not much, but enough to get wet. Just before the French border, we stop at an old monastery and park our bikes and ourselves under a yew tree. Under the yew tree in the rain we say: too bad there's no coffee. After we continued driving, less than 300m on the right side there was a café. Unfortunate timing. Shortly after, we cross the Belgian-French border and after 45 km we cross the river that gave us our name 😂 (or was it the other way around ❓ In any case: La Meuse=The Meuse). The afternoon is a mix of sun and clouds and reconciles us. We cross a war zone where in the first World War ( 1ère guerre mundial, or as the people here say: La guerre quatorze) between 1914 and 1918 imperial soldiers from Germany fought against French soldiers for the border. My grandfather, Hubert Meuser, had to be a gunner on the imperial side, I don't know exactly where, but exactly in this region. Maybe even on the former border line, which ran directly behind our holiday home, as Marcel says.

In the middle of the afternoon we reach our destination: Halles-sous-les-Côtes, nice little holiday cottage in a small village. I immediately had a beer and talked to Marcel, our landlord, 64 years old, born here, never left the village. Apart from the church tower bells, which are loud, there are no noises here.

After only 4 days we have completed more than 10% of our journey, we are very satisfied with ourselves.