“This is the opposite of cycling, the bicycle. A silhouette shaped purple neon descends to seventy per hour : this is the bike. Two schoolgirls side by side across a bridge in Bruges : is the bicycle.” Philippe Delerm

New week, new start. We pass to Paris to meet Picardy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais : a first for me because I rarely exceeded capital. Direction Côte d'Opale, where we find the sea for the first time since leaving the Côte d'Azur : a short stop to see Berck Channel, but it is a little higher (fewer tourists) we will dip our feet in the Franco-British sea. Neufchatel Hardelot, houses always different architecture and friendly, despite a very bourgeois together where one walks on horseback in the streets and when one leaves home with his golf equipment ! A bit Wisteria Lane for those who know (TV series : Desperate Housewives).

Neufchatel-Hardelot

TNT and Ronald in the English Channel

The sun shone so far leaves room for some gray clouds on Tuesday to the end of our journey on the Côte d'Opale : Boulogne-sur-Mer, Wimereux and caps Gris-Nez and Gris-Nez passed under our noses (!), absorbed by the landscape we miss the signs indicating the : again ! We see Calais and Dunkirk far, as always the big cities do not interest us only half.

Wood houses

The Cap Blanc-Nez (?)

We spend in Belgium (Belgium) late afternoon we stop in Bruges (Bruges) to visit the city a World Heritage Site UNESCO. Belgian city is really beautiful with its cobbled streets, its brick houses at the top of front sharp and canals. After a good walk, we cast our sights on Don Quixote where we taste different Belgian beers and where Ronald can smoke inside : the anti-smoking law is only for July 2011 here. On the square, we try the “frikandels special” (Ronald had already made me enjoy Amsterdam) : a fried sausage with raw onions and cocktail sauces : yum !

Bruges Architecture

Place de Bruges

Drawn carriage in Bruges

Promenade à Bruges

Wednesday we go through Belgium : Gander (Ghent), Antwerp (Antwerp) ; but linger for frontier areas before the end of the afternoon : Welcome to Holland ! (Welcome to Netherlands). We stop at the first major town on our way : Roosendaal, to buy a map of the Netherlands and find a WIFI area. We will not go further, finding a small parking lot near McDonalds.