Day 247: Rozoy-sur-Serre to Charleroi

We’ve made it to Belgium!

We’re in country number 17 and we’re running out of fingers and toes to count them on.

A very quiet ride to start with through deepest rural France. Not even any villages to be empty most of the time.

Then, through a woods and, hey presto, we’re in Belgium. Nothing much changed to start with, but we soon made it onto a bike path on an old railway that was the perfect route. Smooth surface, no steep hills, rail trails are the best.

The Belgian border doesn’t even warrant a “Belgique” sign

We stopped in Chimay for lunch and had a cup of the local brew. A bit of a contrast to champagne and not my favourite lunchtime aperitif, but “when in Rome.”

As we were leaving Chimay we met a couple from Berlin on a tandem, the first touring tandem we’ve seen all trip. They were heading over to Paris for a short, two week trip, but they’d packed more bags than we had for nine months.

Fellow tandem tourers in Chimay

Then the rain started. It was cold, raining and the middle of summer- not quite what we’d planned for.

Then the rain…

We ended up pulling into Beaumont and stopping for a hot chocolate — and somehow that made the rain stop too. Perfect.

Then we headed into Charleroi. It used to be the centre of the Belgian coal industry, and as you might expect, it has fallen on hard times. We entered the city along the banks of the Sambre river, once a major transport route for coal on barges. Now, the area is eerily post-apocalyptic. Rusted buildings, rusted cranes and a cloud of rust over the whole place. It was quite an introduction to the city.

“Rust” — a sculptural installation piece by Industrial Degeneration

Luckily, our guesthouse was an oasis in this somewhat austere desert. It does however have many quirks, and we are in the “airplanes of the 1900s” themed room. Which is nice.