Day 4 – Wednesday 18 June 2014

Coucy-le-Chateau to Vertus

Hotel

Hôtel le Thibault IV

Notes

The weather was cool with a thin covering of cloud as we set out. It wasn't long before the sun burnt through and by the time we had struggled up to the top the ridge at Nanteuille-la-Fosse it was hot enough for us to stop to slap on suntan lotion. It was the first we'd needed since we started.

Shortly after Braine we joined the N31/E46 and for a mile or two experienced the sheer horror of a major road. We came off at the next junction and map read our way along quieter roads to Fismes where we picked up our route again. At eleven o'clock we found a café with a patisserie on the other side of the road and stocked up on baguettes and pain-au-chocolat.

I think it was on this day that we overtook a young woman on an impossibly loaded bicycle making her way to southern Italy to meet up with members of her family. All her extensive paraphernalia was loaded over her rear wheel and extended well above her saddle, tied on with bits of string. I recall that we passed her but then she came up with us again as we stopped for a bite to eat under some trees in a lay-by. Perhaps I sound a bit smug about her packing, but I recall people breaking spokes by overloading their bicycle.

I have a rule that if I can't fit anything into one of my panniers then I don't take it, with the exception of my tent which lies along the length of the pannier rack between the two rear panniers. Actually, I broke my own rule on this trip as I had forwarded to Sète a spare tyre twisted into a figure of eight, secured with cable ties. When I set out on my own it was held under the straps of a rear pannier and caused me no trouble at all. I fact in hindsight I needn't have taken it. My Schwalbe Marathon tyres held up very well indeed and after 2,300 miles I had still had usable tread on the rear one.

We followed the valley of the River L'Ardre upstream for quite a while but then at Nanteuil-le-Forêt finally climbed out of the valley and over the watershed before dropping steeply down to Epernay in the valley of La Marne. We had to climb out of that and over a last ridge before swinging down to Vertus in the valley of La Berle, which eventually joins La Somme further north.

All these hills spread us out quite a bit and by the time I arrived the others had already got the hotel sorted out. There was no difficulty in finding it this time. Our bikes were locked into a garage down a side street and we heaved our bags up to our second floor rooms. I think I remember being serenaded with loud drumming and other street music until well into the night. The drumming was particularly good, but couldn't they have done it earlier in the evening?