The morning after the Brabantse Pijl race we drove to a nearby campground where they allowed you to dump and fill for a small fee – it should have been a two minute drive but took closer to 20 minutes because of yet another fondo/sportif that was clogging up the roads and causing diversions.

We crossed into the Netherlands just south of Maastricht and tried to find a spot near where we were seven years ago in the town of Berg.  Alas most of the roads are closed for guess what??? – A fondo/sportif!  And there are ‘no parking’ signs everywhere.  We eventually found a decent spot on a ‘country road’ and I’d just started making roast chicken drumsticks for lunch when a police car pulled beside us and very politely told us we’d have to move.

We spent the next fourty minutes or so driving along the route and ended up choosing a small town that the race will only come through once but had a nice open car park within walking distance of cafes and restaurants.

We took a short walk and stopped at the first cafe/restaurant we came to – they had a nice outdoor seating area so we chose a table and sat down.  We were shocked by the prices of things – I could get three bottles of red wine in France for the price of one glass here but we haven’t been out much lately so decided to just enjoy it.  We also ordered some food, although the menu was puzzling – and not just because it was in Dutch.  There were several items that specified ‘no chicken’ and that really confused me – did so many people ask for chicken that they had to put it on the menu that those dishes didn’t have chicken?  I did end up asking about the croquettes – they had two on the menu and one had a vegetable I’d never heard of and the other had a weird sounding fruit in it.  I asked if they perhaps had just a plain cheese croquette and that’s when we were told – no – it’s actually a vegan cafe!   Hahaha – no wonder there was no chicken in anything – it was the vegan version of chicken that was NOT chicken!  We both ended up getting a basket of fries and they were pretty good – as usual I could only eat about ⅓ of mine and took the rest home for breakfast.

After retiring early for the night I woke up just after midnight to hear pouring rain – it just tipped down for at least a couple of hours.  I hoped that it didn’t continue for the race during the day.

Because the race was expected to arrive around 1:00 we went for a morning walk and had a drink at a different restaurant.  The prices were no lower than at the one the day before, although the wine was once again good.  I could never afford to live in a place like this – the cost of wine alone would bankrupt me!

Not long after 12:30 we put our lawn chairs out at the edge of the road and the locals started to gather also.

Right on the projected schedule the first riders appeared just before 1:00, with the rest of them arriving all in one bunch about four minutes later.

Right near the front of the peloton was Remco, surrounded by several of his team mates.

The entire group came and went in less than a minute.  We weren’t able to watch the whole rest of the race on tv as the coverage didn’t start until almost 3:00, although we did get to see the last 80 km or so.  Remco won in a thrilling sprint against last year’s winner Danish rider Mattias Skjelmose.

We had a second fairly quiet night in the car park, then left after breakfast around 8:30 the next morning.

We didn’t have that far to go on Monday, crossing back into Belgium and passing by Liège then a little further south to a camping-car place that was very basic but did have dumping and filling.  It was in a beautiful area and was very peaceful and quiet.

It was next to a small river and also had a nice paved cycling/walking path – we walked Max for a bit but didn’t really go very far before we turned back for the night.

After a surprisingly quiet night we headed out on Monday morning for the campground in Zwalm, where we did some more laundry and had (somewhat) hot showers.

We decided that we’d stop and watch De Brabantse Pijl on our way to the Netherlands for Amstel Gold.  Because we were going right past it anyway we stopped again to visit one of the main sights of the Battle of Waterloo – the farmhouse at Hougoumont.  

While Colin and Max took a walk to explore more I stayed and made a lovely poached salmon and rice lunch.  Since our last visit seven years ago one of the three main old trees had come down, and the other two are still being held up by wires.

Colin said you can still see some of the actual musket balls embedded in the trunks.

We spent Wednesday night at the shores of the lovely lake ‘Meer van Gembal’ – it’s a very beautiful and prosperous looking area.

There’s a large hotel on the other side of the lake that looked like it might have been pretty fancy at one time.

And if we hadn’t already had the delicious salmon lunch we might have been tempted to get a Chinese take-away from another restaurant close by – the aroma wafting over to us was enticing.

There were a couple of geese – Canada Geese, if I’m not mistaken! – one of which was keeping a close watch on all passers by.

We made our way the next morning to the course of Branbantse Pijl and found a nice wide paved area just past one of the climbs.  The road we were on was a bit busy but we did manage to get a good night’s sleep.

The women’s race came by first – a total of four times…

…followed over an hour later by the first of three passes by the men.

As usual now we went back into the campervan to watch the end on tv.

The next day was fairly quiet as more and more campervans arrived.  The farmer that we’re parked across from has made a bit of a business letting campervans into his courtyard and along the side road on his property – there are at least 19 of them and I do hope he’s making a bit of cash.

The day before the race I decided to take a hike a few km down to Ronse along some very small side roads to get some essentials from Lidls, and partway along I realized that it was going to be a challenge to walk back all uphill with a full backpack.  I did get my purchases in Lidls, then asked the cashier where I might get a taxi from.  She asked if I had a smart-phone and when I said no – I had no phone at all – everyone in line looked very surprised and a bit bug-eyed.  Realizing that I was going to be out of luck I turned around and said quite loudly ‘I will pay anyone to take me 4 km to the N425’.  The couple right behind me in the line said they would be happy to take me and we all went out to their small two-door car and climbed in.  They had to make an extra stop at Aldi’s then we were on our way.

It turned out that where I needed to go was on their way home so it was perfect.  Along the N63 we started to see many amateur riders coming down the road, and were not able to turn right where I needed to go but it was okay as I could see our campervan not far along.  I profusely thanked  Sandra and Austin for their kindness – they declined any payment – and walked the short distance to the campervan.

The amateur riders continued passing us for about six hours!  I remember in 2019 there were thousands of them heading towards the Paterberg, and it doesn’t seem to have diminished in numbers over the years.  We read later that there were over 14,000 of them!  Very sadly one rider died, although it seems it was a heart attack (or something) rather than a collision or accident.

We had a nice night, although the wind did pick up a bit and it rained lightly in the morning.

The Tour of Flanders – or La Ronde (Ronde van Vlaanderen) – is this year 278 km long and is the second ‘Monument’ of the year, and the first time it passed us was just after 1:30…

…then everyone went back to their campervans for lunch, or to watch the race on tv.

An enterprising little girl setup a pastry table in our midst and did a roaring business – her dad had done the baking and they were very reasonably priced – also delicious!

The second time around they came down the road rather than up, and four of the five favourites were all together – van der Poel, Pogacar, Pederson and Evenepoel.

Before the third time past us a bunch of official photographers parked just up the road and congregated in the fields to get their shots…

…

The last time past us were – guess who in the lead??  Pogacar and van der Poel, with Evenepoel not too far behind.

We watched the end of the race on tv and Pogacar won (for the third time)!  Van der Poel came second and Evenepoel was a respectable third, with Van Aert and Pederson making up the top five – a very very good race!  The predictions by most of the pundits before the race all had those five in the mix – it’s hard to deny who the very best riders are.

A few hours later there was a convoy of trucks coming down the road – the VIP party planner folks were already on their way – literally dozens of them.

Then there was rush hour at the chicken coop – some wanting to get in for the night and others just taking their time.

Evening came…

…and we settled in for the night.

Early the next morning – before even having a cup of tea! – we started searching for a good place for Sunday’s Gent Wevelgem – which is now renamed ‘In Flanders Fields’.  We circled a bit before ending up about 50 metres from where we watched from last year.  The nice paved pullout should have held three campervans but the two that were already there had spaced themselves out so a third couldn’t get in.  We figured they were waiting for a friend and would reposition themselves later.  We did park on a smaller (not paved) area just down the road so it wasn’t too bad.

Saturday was pretty quiet, although the road is a bit busier that might be expected.  One of the highlights was a family taking their alpacas (or they might have been llamas) out for a walk.

Many campervans passed by us during the day, fruitlessly searching for a place to park.

We had a delicious lunch of roast duck with roast potatoes and fresh green beans.  It was a big hit and I think I’ll have to make it again.

I tried to explain the significance of the area in WWI to a friend but just started choking up and crying.  So much suffering for what?  Then again just over 20 years later…insanity.  And now – thanks to the absolute idiot in the White House – another one started?  How stupid – what a fucking moron!

On race day Sunday as usual there was a constant parade of cyclists and fans walking past us towards the Kemmelberg climb.

The race passed right by our spot twice, and the third time came down a side road from the left, climbing the Kemmelberg three times in all.

The first time we both walked down the road a bit, and some ‘VIPs’ arrived via helicopter.

….

When we returned to the campervan before the second pass we discovered a bit of a mess – we know that Max doesn’t like being left alone, and he made it very clear.  He’d managed to pull the garbage bag out of the door-bin and had shredded it to bits, with all of the contents spread over the floor, including mushy raspberries that had gotten ground into the mat.  However – it was pretty hard to reprimand him when I was laughing so hard.

For the second pass of the race we stayed right around where we were parked…

For the last time around Colin stayed in the campervan while I went back down to the side road the riders were coming from.

The crowd was totally psyched by the knowledge that Wout van Aert and Matthieu van der Poel were in a two man lead, and when they came into sight the fans went crazy.

I waited until most of the riders had passed before heading back to the campervan to watch the end of the race on tv with Colin.  Neither van Aert nor van der Poel won but they hung on until almost the end, and another Belgian rider did win – Jesper Phillipsen – and it was very exciting.

As it was going to get dark soon we chose to stay where we were and spent another night in our little spot – there were some quite strong winds at times but we were snug and warm.

We spent another quiet night in the parking lot on the Poggio before heading west to France then north towards Belgium.

The first night we stayed at a very nice place in Digne-Les-Bains on the lovely river Bleone.

We passed through some beautiful countryside – it was quite cold and included snow.

We stopped for a quick break for a coffee and a small bite to eat at one of the many parking areas along the motorway.  It had a very nice monument to WWII – we tried to look it up and it seems there was some sort of ambush of Nazis there, and then retribution fell on the locals.

That night we found another beautiful aire/sosta that was on the bank of the Moselle river just past the city of Nancy.

The night was chilly but quiet and we had a very good sleep.

The next morning didn’t go as planned – we managed to drop the grey water, but the toilet canister wouldn’t come out.  You can’t manage very long in a campervan without a toilet!  We got some direction from an old local fellow who advised us to go back towards Nancy and we would find a service place.

He was correct – we found a great campervan sales/service place right off the motorway and they took us in and we were out again in about two hours with a new toilet canister!  Off again towards Belgium with only a couple of hours lost.

We had one night at an aire that was the parking area of an abandoned quarry, and another at an aire next to a sports centre near Tellin/Resteigne.

We ended up at the campground in Zwalm (where we’ve been a few times before) by noon on Thursday, and were able to eat lunch, shower and do laundry.

Luckily the campground also has two clothes dryers so we weren’t left with a bunch of wet laundry in the campervan.  After a nice night – with lots of intermittent rain – we left early Friday morning to find where we wanted to watch E3-Saxo from.

We found the route fairly quickly and ended up choosing a place on the large paved parking area of a local football (soccer) club.  It was just past the top of the Kapelberg climb and just before a sharp corner towards the Paterberg.

I went for what ended up being a very long walk looking for a store, or even a cafe/bar to no avail even though I went through more than one village and was never far from houses.  What do folks do around here if they want a coffee or a litre of milk? 

Anyway right after I returned to the campervan the bar at the football club opened so we headed right in there.  Asking for red wine in a country that has over 150 kinds of beer was a bit puzzling to them, but they did manage to dig a bottle out from their storage shelves.  It was quite good – from South Africa – but not cheap!

As the race wasn’t passing us until after four we returned to the campervan for lunch – on the way out we asked if we could buy the remainder of the bottle of wine to take with us – deal made (again – not cheap).

After lunch we went back to the bar to watch on their big tv as the race started and approached.  Quite a few other folks arrived as well and the bar was doing a fairly good business.  As soon as the riders were getting near we all trooped outside to line the small road to cheer as they passed.

My photos are kind of crappy but Colin got some good ones.  Once again we all trooped back into the bar to watch the end on tv – there was quite a ways to go so we were in there for a while.

Shortly after the race ended we got going west, stopping at one of the many Lidl’s on the way.  We made it to the town of Kemmel and decided to stay in a car park there rather than attempting to find a spot on Sunday’s route in the dark and rain.