Day 12: Lille to Arras

September 8, 2023

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Despite the earlier difficulty about answering the front door, "La Savonnerie" turned out to be fine, especially at its price of 52 euros. Guillaume, the personable owner, took care that we were well set up, and the bikes also got a nice place in the garden. We much enjoyed meeting the house dog and cats as well. Guillaume cooked us eggs at breakfast, and we had high quality croissants. To be fair, for the 7 euros each we were lacking cheese or yogurt, fruits, or baked sweets.

We were served breakfast in this nice kitchen.

La Savonnerie is well placed, in the town of Haubourdin, because it is very near to EV 5. We soon were onto EV 5, which here follows some named local routes, and goes along the Canal de la Deule.

Canal riding can sometimes be dull, but there are things to look at. For example we were fascinated by a long barge that made a U turn in the middle of the canal. They just made it - must have got out and measured first!

There were also scenes of tranquil beauty.

Marine birds are always a source if interest. We have seen a lot of cormorants in this region, but here were trees really full of them.

We are still not sure what these guys are.

How is this for getting your swans in a row? We figure this is father and mother, big sister and brother, and the new baby.

Crossing the canal on a bridge, we admired this lady's garden. We told her we liked it, when we got down to ground level. I thought I heard her telling her husband about the compliment from the tourists, as we headed off.

We debated the pronunciation of the town of Lens. Officially, its "Lonse".

We stopped to eat our lunch in a park in Lens, and looked up the "Fifteen Things to See in Lens". It seems the main claim to fame is two giant slag heaps, that you can climb. Later, from Vimy Ridge we spied these in the distance.

Of even more interest to us in Lens was the automatic toilette in the park. It wanted 30 cents per use. But we two only had 30 cents total. We hatched the plan of sending me in first, and then by holding the door, sending Dodie in next. But we soon realized the danger. Once we had snuck Dodie in, the thing was going to go into its self sterilizing routine, and probably it would try to drench Dodie and then flush her into the Deule! We outsmarted it by having me stand with my foot in the door, so it never knew that it had entertained a second client!

As we reached Ecurie, we encountered the Canadian war memorials at the city hall. This was the precursor to the major memorial on nearby Vimy Ridge. It was moving to see the Canadian flag in a position of honour here, and on the side of the city hall, the famous words of "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian John McRae.

We climbed Vimy Ridge, which you can see in the elevation profile of the map at the beginning of this page. On top, the first thing we saw was quite extensive (now) forested areas, in which the ground had been hollowed and dug by artillery impacts. Prominent signs warned of the danger of unexploded munitions. Yikes, that's 100 years later. It set us to talking about Ukraine, and what they can expect for the next 100 years.

The photo does not quite show how deep and numerous the craters are.

The Canadian memorial, even in the distance, is very dramatic.

We are pleased to see the Canadian and French flags together.

The memorial is very bright and white in the full sun. It has various angels and mythical type figures lounging on it.

The most moving bit is a lone figure, standing on the "back" wall, looking down the Ridge. I think this is "Mother Canada" or some such, looking on in sorrow.

Beyond Vimy, the land was flat and green, on the way to Arras. Just before we launched on this bit we passed a woman with a car (Renault Scenic) in a driveway, trying to force a desk into the hatchback. We stopped to see if we could help, and found it was a used desk she was picking up, but lacked the right screwdriver to disassemble enough to get it into the car. Hah, a needed tool - that's what we are carrying these tons of gear on our bikes for! We got the Ikea type fasteners apart and lifted the thing in. It was a desk for her kids, so we felt particularly good being able to help. Why do we have Ikea tools on our bikes? Don't ask!

Arras goes all out with the Grote Markt thing, featuring not one but two squares surrounded by Flemish style buildings, plus the mandatory cathedral.

We will look around Arras a bit more tomorrow, but we were eager to get into our hotel, with the temperature now at 35 degrees. The hotel, which is a branch of the chain B&B Hotel, has the advantage of being right down town. But I realized that like the misnamed Hotel Premiere Classe, it is more like a hostel than a hotel. I guess my main beef is the 1 foot between the end of the bed and the wall, and the general lack of room to put your stuff down. All this for not exactly cheap, either. Still, we clearly remember our camping days and this is way way better than the tent. You don't have to walk up a hill to a sanitary block, or anything!

Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 502 km (312 miles)

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