September 26, 2018 Louppy-sur-Loison to Metz

This morning started off with a Garmin mix up.  I had to change accommodations after I had done the routes so I got the ride into Louppy-sur-Loison fixed and mailed out however the ride out of Louppy-sur-Loison I got fixed but not mailed out.  So we are all set to ride off when Juerg says that his Garmin cannot find the route.  I then realized that I had not gotten the route sent out so I had to quickly pull the laptop out of my bag and down load the route into Juerg’s, Ken’s and my Garmin.  I had already down loaded Earnies route as I had fixed all his routes earlier in the tour when it was realized that the Microsoft routes didn’t transfer well to Earnie’s Mac.

Ten minutes later we are off into a bright but chilly morning.  The ride out of Louppy-surLoison was so pretty down quiet country roads.  The fields looked so peaceful and serene, it was hard to imagine that 100 years ago this was a battle field pockmarked with bomb craters and destroyed forests. 

The van passed us about 15 minutes after we left and we caught Earnie who had a 10 minute head start about 15 kms out.  The three of us took turns pulling and we made great time.  I don’t know why we were working so hard as we had only 89 kms to go and a 3:00 pm check in time.

We stopped and took a few pictures and at one little town was a huge cannon which was a navel gun the French had used as a counter barrage to a huge German gun which was shelling Nancy.   The gun was manufactured in France in 1870 and had been used in several battles.  The cannon had a range of something like 10 kms.   As we were looking at the cannon one of the town folk came up and said that for 3 euros you could get shot out of the cannon.  I thought what the heck why not.  I cannot remember the last time I was shot out of a cannon.  Juerg stood at the ready and snapped my picture just as I came flying out.  I didn’t go the 10 kms but my bike shorts did get a little singed.

At the 41 km mark we came to this little town which had a boulangerie right on the corner.  They had a 14inch diameter cheese cake which was easily 3 inched deep cut into 6 pieces.  For 1.8 euros I probably ate a pound of some of the best cheese cake I have ever had.  We were just finishing up when Earnie rolled in. 

We stopped at the 63 kms mark for lunch and each had a huge baguette sandwich.  I could not finish mine although I did get 90% down.  It was so good and the bread was so nice and fresh.

After lunch was the big climb of the day which turned out to be kind of a non event as the total climb was only 145 meters over 22 kms and the steepest part was only 2 kms of 2.7%.    Most of it was along this country lane with the valley below.  It was so beautiful in the sun.  We stopped and took some rider photos.  It was a bunch of fun.  About ¾ of the way up the climb Ken spotted a large monument off in a little grove of trees with no signs.  When we got up to it, the monument turned out to be a German monument to soldiers from 1870.  

The downhill into Metz was really fun as it was down this winding tree lined lane.  Earnie complained that you couldn’t let it rip but then that wasn’t the point. The point was what a neat ride down a beautiful lane into Metz.  We followed the river into Metz along a bike path and across a couple of bridges. It was very pretty along the river. 

After we got in and cleaned up Juerg and I walked into the city center and visited the huge cathedral and the city market.  I bought some green and dark blue grapes which we ate while sitting on a bench in the sun in front of the cathedral.  The grapes were so sweet and refreshing. Nothing could have been more perfect.

Terry hot biker