500km across the European countryside on a bicycle - Part 2 - The French Countryside

August 2014 was a time of uncertainties. I had run out of my housing contract and had not managed to find a place in time. Having slept on a friend's couch for a few days had gotten me going around looking for a place to stay in full zest. But it was not to be, and to my bad luck, I didn't manage to find a suitable place to stay.

Sleeping on a couch for another couple of weeks was not on my priority and I knew I couldn't handle it anymore. The only thing to do was to get away for a few days and come back for a fresh start and search.

With that, a friend and I decided to cycle to Normandy, in France, from Delft in the Netherlands.

Read Part 1 here

And so, after a day and a half of cycling, we found ourselves in Belgium and the city of Brugges.

Leaving Brugges, we headed out on the road to the south of Belgium and towards France.

A fresh chocolate factory stopped us in our tracks. We took a well deserved break and got ourselves some chocolates for the road.

The southern part of Belgium had a much bleaker outlook to it than the northern regions. It looked rougher and much less richer in comparison. It was nearing dusk when we reached the final town before the Belgian border with France.

And finally, we crossed over the border into France. We had cycled nearly 200km since leaving Delft behind. The stop for the night was at Dunkirk.

Dunkirk, made famous by Christopher Nolan's movie of the same name, and one of the defining moments of World War 2. We checked ourselves into a bed and breakfast for the night. It was a luxury after a long day on the road. Hot water and comfortable beds did much to assuage the tired and aching bones in the legs. Nearly 200km done now, we can afford to start a little late on day 3.

Day 3 started off with exercise in dodging cars and traffic between the streets of Dunkirk as we left the city center and the town behind. We were entering the French countryside and were looking forward to some open roads away from the bustle of the highways and the cities.

The countryside of France consisted of open roads and rolling farms. Hardly did we see a soul on the road for many kilometres except for the odd car from the nearby village passing by. Day 3 was probably the easiest day of the journey.

We would occassionally be threatened by a highway and had to find smaller, inside roads. But then, they gave us the best views of the scenary.

Time for a breather next to this huge bale of hay. And let's click a picture.

Did I mention that we had no phone network ever since we crossed into Belgium? Our Lyca mobile networks were unavailable across the Dutch border and we never considered buying a sim to sort the problem. We reasoned that we did not need cellular network as much, and we had offline maps to help in navigation when needed.

The offline maps came in handy, but drained a lot of battery. We would often end up charging phones at many of the little bakeries and eateries we stopped by on the way.

The legs had become accustomed to all that cycling. It was becoming easier to maintain a consistent pace on the road now.

Now that's a lovely house...

We came upon a house on the countryside that advertised tomatoes for sale. On a whim, we doubled back to buy them for lunch and maybe get some water to refill our now empty hydration packs.

What we didn't expect was the warmth and interest we got at the house. The mother-daughter duo were excited to see us and after listening to our story, made us stay for lunch. Vivian Bailey, the girl, was very curious and interested in our tale. The dog wanted to play fetch. We had a really good time there and had some good meal in the form of pancakes and fresh tomatoes. Meeting people like these make you really happy when you're travelling.

Looks like it is time to get back on the saddle. More in my next post!

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Read the first part of my cycling adventure via the link below!

500km across the European countryside on a bicycle - Part 1 Netherlands to Belgium

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If you liked this post, please upvote, comment and resteem. Check out some of my other posts via the links below:

Read some of my travel stories and photologs via the links below:

Motorcycling India

Up above the Arctic Circle - Tromso and the Northern Lights

A solo backpacking trip across the UK

Cycling 500km across Europe: Dtube

Another solo roadtrip - Pictures of the Western Ghats, meeting fellow Steemians and a blast of a ride!

Another solo roadtrip - Pictures of the Western Ghats, meeting fellow Steemians and a blast of a ride!

Exploring God’s Own Country on a Motorcycle – Dtube

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Read some of the letters my bike writes on a regular basis:

Hope writes a letter - Crazy fridays and I find out I am not a car person

Hope writes a letter - Hello world! I am Hope!

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That's it for now, cheers!

Disclaimer: I originally wrote this post on my blog: The Footloose Nomad