Day 10 - Verdun - 112 kms Almost a hill too far !

`If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war`- Tolstoy

It was a fairly easy escape from Charleville Mezierres courtesy of our tablet gps and we were soon cycling in beautiful French countryside with the River Meuse our accompanying companion.

The green and yellow Argonne fields soon gave signs to things past with WW2 pillboxes becoming more prominent - most appeared undamaged suggesting an early departure although one restored sentinel came complete with a memorial and an extensive list of names indicating a not so fortunate fate !

With the `Fruit Bat` Henley needing sustenance we stopped off at the lovely village of Mouzon (40 km mark). The towns magnificent 13 C Gothic church was of size that could have fitted most of the town.

With weather threatening the days real cycling effort began. First up, a couple of long gradual climbs soon followed by a series of roller coaster roads as we headed deeper into the countryside towards Stenay.

From Stenay it was straight into yet another headwind for 12 kms before we arrived at Bras sur Meuse. With H just slightly more coherent than a comatose patient we decided to rest and take in some lunch from the local Balounger .... this time with some protein !

Refreshed from lunch we took on the final 30 kms to Verdun.

The scenery seemed to marry our effort with frequent memorials recognizing the sacrifice of the French and American troops in this area - we felt we might soon be joining them !

Of the many memorials the German cemetery of Consenvoye seemed most poignantb - a lonely outpost on the main road in a foreign country containing the remains of some 11,000 German Soldiers !

The final push into Verdun came with tough climbs on the main road but to the credit of the French drivers we were generally given good clearance.

With H on fumes we reached the centre of Verdun and went about finding a hotel ....(we were too tired to camp!)

One hour and 10 laps of the central area we were back again at the tourist map looking at our remaining options, one hotel could only offer 1 night, another required walking 4 storeys, a third was full

With only 5 hotels in Verdun we scored a lucky find at a pretty good price and set about finding some much needed food being very glad that tomorrow is a rest day !