Day 17. Villequiers-Aumont to Laon. 45 km. A mountain, a Mairie and a Man Named Herve.
Sometimes Googlemaplady is hard to understand and she sent us on some goosechases today. The first landed us on Rue de Perdu…road of the lost! 😁
Our motel with palm tree.Canna lilies.Ken never reads the instructions first.Over the canal but we don’t get to ride beside it.A determined little morning glory growing by a light pole.Forest service house. A tad larger than Alberta’s old ranger station houses.Riding down the hills I could feel raindrops, then realized the sun was shining…not rain, but bugs hitting the windshield…except I was the windshield.Riding through St Gobain 9000 ha managed hardwood forest.Sing along! If you go out in the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise!….today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic!
Difficult 3 km climb up a mountain…difficult mostly from heat…but it seemed endless. Even the big road map has a warning for it. But there was a cold beer waiting for Ken near the top in your friendly superette.
Surely this must be the summit?!?Let the downhill glide begin! Oops, spoke too soon…Ken got a flat tire 3/4 down the mountain on a really windy stretch.This is Susan from North Carolina. She has rented an apartment in Paris for a month, and is on a week long cathedral tour. She stopped to see if she could help.Ken pushed the bike about 1 km into town…we stopped at the first bench, which happened to be at the town office. So I kinda barged my way in and asked the lady to call us a taxi…she phoned 3 places but no one would take a bike (plan was for me to ride the last 10 km on my own). So she called a friend, the village came out and this gentleman went to get tools, then took the offending tire home, put in a brand new tube, and put it back on the bike. So grateful as it meant we could continue riding.Strabbie: Ce qui se passe? Cheery: Je ne sais pas. Bunger: Je sais. Cette bicyclette es merde!!!Our Camino angel – Herve. He would only accept a handshake.Odd black church steeple with a chicken on top.You can just make out the Cathedral towers way in the distance, about 8 km away and sitting on a very high Ridge. We still have a lot of downhill to go.At first I thought these were blinders on the horses but they are fly netting. Horse was wondering what the strange noise was as my shoes are very squeaky and I was pushing up a hill.Proof of life plus one day we can only hope that Ken will take a picture without his thumb in it.The road was fairly flat into Laon but by the end of this hot day any little slope felt like a big one. Rest day tomorrow!
2 responses to “Day 17. Villequiers-Aumont to Laon. 45 km. A mountain, a Mairie and a Man Named Herve.”
Cindy Kleinegger
I am really enjoying your blog and am amazed that at the end of the day you still have the energy to write up such interesting and entertaining narrative to go along with your great pics! You guys are doing great. Ultreia!
TerryandKenViaFrancigena2022 
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