France (VI): A Pretty Burg

From Aire-sur-la-Lys, there is a long, straight road that runs all the way up to Cassel. I made excellent time and my bike completed the Cassel Run in under 12 parsecs. As I got further north and closer to Belgium, the town names began looking distinctly Flemish. I didn't expect that in France.

I continued until I reached the old fortified town of Bergues, which is just to the south of Dunkerque, from where the Allies were evacuated in WWII.

I did the 5km walk around the old walls.



















And that's about it for my trip. The next day I did a long, unpleasant ride into a gale along a canal towpath to get me back to Calais, where I spent the night before catching the bus back to England.



Overall, it was another great cycle tour. I took my cooker on this trip, but couldn't get the stupid French meths to light, so I didn't get to cook my own food.

I conveniently missed the tedious jubilee celebrations in the UK, but did spend a lot of the week in the rain. Provence certainly would've been warmer. It was election season while I was there, so in every town campaign posters were plastered everywhere.



When I got back to England, my odometer was on 497kms and I had to bike another 10kms to get home. There was a huge downpour and my bike computer stopped working, so I never made it to 500kms. Well, I did, but I didn't.