Our mate Manu bought a place in his home country about an hour or so south west of Calais. It needed a little TLC and updating and just as the work started the plague struck. Poor fella has hardly been able to get over there to enjoy the place but as things improved, he planned a soiree for the end of May.

Never ones to miss a potential trail ride opportunity, time was booked off work and tickets for ferry crossings organised. There are Trans European Trails that go down eastern France that we had not explored, so that was the game plan.

Whilst rushing to book we hadn’t realised, until it was too late, that we were due to travel over the Channel at half term, and also when the Champions League final was happening!

How we laughed as we sat in the queue for Border Control, “Taking back our borders” seemed like an empty phrase. The only good thing was that it wasn’t raining, but that was the only good thing. To make matters worse, Milky had left his Kriega back pack on his seat, it had fallen off between Passport Control and Check In. When he realised, he ran back to search for it, only to be told that someone in a car had picked it up. No joy at any of the places he asked so he had to carry on without it.

THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

The weekend at Manu’s was lovely, great company, great food and plenty of relaxing juice. His place is but a hop, skip and a jump from Azincourt, (Agincourt to most of us in the UK), so on Sunday a bunch of us went to the local museum to get a bit more educated on the history. One fact we took away from the visit was that siege warfare was pretty much the way to go back then. When I say back then, unfortunately it seems to be an effective tactic now. Lessons of history and all that.

We said our farewells on Monday morning and as most of the group headed back to the UK and long queues, we headed for the town of Toul, about 6 hours on non-autoroute roads, which was where the trails would start.

We were not anticipating dramatic terrain but wanted to see this part of the country. The route was pretty much directly south, mainly off-road and the tarmac bits were nearly all single track. We found ourselves travelling predominantly through agricultural land comprising fairly wide, hard, dusty tracks, interspersed with some woodland and forest. As there hadn’t been much rain it quickly became apparent that dust was going to play a significant part on the ride and I was very pleased that I had put a new air filter in the airbox. There are two tactics to deploy when following a dusty trail - you can sit right up snug behind the leading bike, an element of trust is required for this, or drop back far enough for the dust to settle a little. There were three of us so we took it in turns.

It was wonderful to be back travelling the trails and lanes in France. The weather was kind and the joy of the baguettes and croissants delivered to the campsite by the local baker first up is as good as the first cold beer at the end of a long day's ride.

A FEW OF THE HIGHLIGHTS ALONG THE WAY INCLUDED...

The ruins of a small church on the trail between Vittel (of water fame) and Darney and the memorial to General Charles de Gaulle. We spotted the large Cross of Lorraine on top of a hill and we went to have a look but there was a charge to go in so we sat and ate our lunch in the car park. Milky commented that de Gaulle must be laughing in his grave at the way the whole BREXIT debacle is turning out. Meanwhile, from a van parked next to us, a couple were releasing homing/racing pigeons every few minutes.

Our ride through the vineyards of Champagne left us only slightly tinged with the regret for not stopping in the many places offering tasting sessions.

TET A TET

Have you ever gone down a motorway or any major road or even been on a train and seen tracks running alongside or close by and thought how much you would like to be on those tracks? If so Route 31 on the TET from Troyes and Reims is the one for you. We rode alongside the A26 and D677, great fun.

Doing the TET (Trans European Trail) is a great way to see whichever country you are in. The routes lead through the smallest of villages and along trails that would otherwise take a huge amount of planning. We camped for several nights and stayed in a couple of hotels. It turns out that a good number of campsites have not opened which may be because the summer season has not taken off yet, but I think that many have not reopened following the lockdowns. It would be worth calling ahead to check before following the suggestions on your sat-nav or phone.

Using GPS has transformed the way we travel, allowing for much greater ability to cover distance without the constant need to stop and check paper maps that have been stuffed inside your jacket. On a tiny road we met a couple of guys on their bikes having a break, they were on road bikes and were curious about our travels as we were covered in dust. When we enquired about their destination they surprisingly told us they were heading for Gdansk in Poland. With time on their hands they had set their Tom Tom to twiddly route and were just following the arrow, wherever it took them, fantastic.

As a footnote, Milky is reunited with his backpack again. The driver who picked it up is Dutch and found Milky via Linked In when he got home, happy endings.  

Anyone else done these trails or fancy riding them? Let us know via email at [email protected] or drop us a message on Facebook