Day 4: Dinant to Revin

If today’s ride had been on yesterday’s trails, we’d be pretty tired right now. Thankfully, the path today was among the smoothest we’ve ever ridden, because due to a miscalculation on my part, we did 67 kilometres today—a bit more than we normally like to do.

We set off from Dinant about 10 am. Some singing drunkards outside our window at 5:30 this morning woke us up much earlier than we had hoped, but once they moved on, we managed to sleep in to 8:30. The weather this morning was cool and overcast with a slight headwind, but nothing we couldn’t deal with.

Just south of Dinant, the Meuse route took us onto the “highway” for the first time, but it was so well paved and had so few cars (and those that passed us gave us a wide berth), it was actually quite pleasant to be riding on smooth pavement for a change. In any case, it was only a short stint, and the route soon turned back to a bike path.

After 15 kilometres, we came across a small bakery that, judging by all bicycles in the courtyard, was clearly a favourite spot for cyclists, so we stopped and refuelled. After that, the route went gently up into the hills above the Meuse via a rail trail before coming back down into Givet—we were now in France! As is so often the case, even though there was no tangible border, it’s striking how different one country in Europe feels to another. Architecture, road construction, garden style... all of these contribute to a je ne sais quoi that gives each country its own feel.

One such thing was the state of the Meuse route. Once we got past Givet, the bike path turned into this wide, perfectly smooth path that was a joy to ride on. The signage was quite a bit smaller and less clear, but we soon figured out what we needed to be looking for.

We had lunch at a picnic table alongside the river and then another rest in Haybes before pushing on to Revin. We did get sprinkled on a few times, but nothing serious, and the weather cleared up throughout the afternoon. As I write this at 9 pm, the sky is blue and the forecast looks great for tomorrow. We had hoped to picnic again for supper, but all the grocery stores were either closed or closed early today, it being the feast of Ascension. So we picked up a burger at the friterie down the street and then toddled back to our hotel room. A long day, but all in all, a good one. 

The town hall of Haybes

Givet. Clearly a very old town.