A Hike With Martha Above the Meuse

Our friend Martha drove from Germany to visit Haulmé. We hiked together up on the cliffs above the Meuse at Bogny sur Meuse to 'Le 4 Fils Aymon'. In the legends, these four cliffs represent four brothers turned to stone by a magicien.

Paris Jardin de Luxembourg

It's all about straight lines, but they do know how to do potted plants, below.

Statuary and clipped allées, above, accentuate the panoramic view.

Large French gardens often belonged to the royalty, below.

All Ages Mix in a Paris Garden

Paris Pour Le Weekend

Imposing public spaces, above, and the café scene, below.

Striking modern architecture, above, with lively street life, below.

Alan Goes to the Cinematheque in Paris

Alan with a poster of a favorite French comic, Jacques Tati (above) and at the tremendous Cinematheque Francaise (below), designed by Frank Gehry.

Haulmé

We rented a small house in the village of Haulmé for two weeks. It is on the Semoy River very near the Meuse junction. Here are pictures of Haulmé.

People in Haulmè

Johan (above), our host, introduces us to the next door neighbor, below.

Johan, Wilma, and Alan (above) at the local cemtary.

One local woman still uses the local grotto to wash her clothes.

Haulme to Charleville-Mezieres Along the Semoy & Meuse

We met nice French people on the bike path and they invited us down for a short visit.
To get to Charleville-Mezieres, we biked a few miles west on the Semoy and then south on the Meuse. Below is Madame Roy.


The Ducal Square in Charleville-Mezieres , below, is Italianate and beautiful.


Lichen on a rock along the Semoy, above, and ironwork gate along the Meuse, below.

Voie Verte (Greenway) Along the Meuse River

The Voie Verte is basically a greenway along the Meuse River.
In France, it has a paved bike path from Givet in the north to Charleville-Mezieres in the south.
It sounds as if the whole path just opened in 2008.
The hills surrounding are the Ardennes and the region is Champagne-Ardennes.
It is great biking.
There is a path north into Belgium, but it is not always paved (see below photos).



This is what the path can look like in Begium.

Givet, over the Border from Belgium and into France

Above is the central market square in Givet, where you can see thunderhead clouds building, the chimney swifts tumbling in the wind, and the clipped plane trees in the setting sun. We camped the second night in Givet, a medium size French town on the river Meuse. Below, a little girl Sara, who came to talk to us as we waited for dinner.



There are often packs of men who travel around on motorcycles. On that Sunday evening there were not many places open, so they ended up down the street at a cafe.