Wednesday 27 Verdun to Paris 187 km

Due to the change in the weather yesterday it was much cooler today, this made it easier on the vehicles for our 190 miles (6.5 hours including stops) drive to Paris and our camp site. It took longer than first thought because of the French Open tennis being held at Roland Garros near the camp site with lots of extra traffic and road blocks. Generally it was a good drive doing 45 mph on freeway and secondary roads, until Paris.

But to the farming side of things, from the time we left Verdun until the outskirts of Paris all we saw was what can only be said to be more fertile land with larger scale cropping every where, as far as the eye can see. Not one animal or fence to be seen, just thousand upon thousands of acres of the best crops you can imagine, from broad beans, potatoes, cereals crops of all types. The landscape is fairly flat with the only land not farmed are tree belts, roads etc.

In the evening we took a bus into the centre of Paris and walked down Avenue Charles de Gaulle towards the Arc de Triomphe. When we got there, we went into the tunnel to go underneath for photos, only to be turned away by the Police and Gendarmes because it was closed for a ceremony. Back outside and got onto the footpath at the top of the Champs Elysees. There was the cause of the closure. A group of veterans and people from Dunkirk were preparing a parade to honour the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc and Dunkirk’s participation in WWII. The Army and Band and dignitaries were all taking part. The Police closed off part of the roadway around the Arc and away they went. Then it was on to the Trocadero and a look at the Eiffel Tower, then dinner in St Germaine des Pres. As the sun does not set until about 2130 hours it left us plenty time for a walk around town before heading back to camp.