Charleville-Mézières

After leaving Luxembourg we drove west into France and stopped at this town where there’s a very good motorhome park next to the river (49.7789, 4.7200). The old town has a beautiful square and restaurants where we found delicious monkfish with vegetables and risotto with scallops, with chocolate mousse and creme brûlée to finish off.

This area has lots of cycle tracks and the Trans-Ardenne Voie Verte. We planned to go on a cycle ride along the river but after getting the bikes off the back discovered that one tyre had a puncture, we didn’t have a spare tube or a repair kit and it was Sunday so no shops open. So we walked instead along the river to the next village (loads of cyclists, walkers, roller blade skaters, runners ) and got the train back.

Cycle ride to Porto Koufo

One day we had cycled from the campsite to Kalamitsi and although it was very up and down found it quite manageable. So then another day we decided to cycle to Porto Koufo on the other side of the ‘finger’, said to be the most beautiful cove on Sithonia. After passing Kalamitsi it wasn’t so much up and down as up up up! After 4 miles of continual ascent to about 900ft we came to a taverna and stopped for refreshments. I concluded that my leg power wasn’t enough to get up the hill coming back and decided to stay at the taverna with a beautiful view and have some lunch.

Valerie, being more intrepid and with stronger legs, continued. It took her 10 minutes to get down the hill and 1 hr to get back up. But Porto Koufo looked beautiful.