June 15th Lillers to Noeux-les-Mines
We spent a very comfortable night in
the car park of the ski station in Noeux -les- Mines. The artificial
ski slope has been created down the side of one of the largest ex pit
bings which dominate the skyline in this area. Five minutes took us
to just outside Susan and Bert's rather swish boutique hotel “Maison
Rouge” where we met them in reception.
A quick blast up the A26 and we were
ready to set of by 9.00am once I had found a boulangerie for my
lunchtime sandwich. The outskirts of Lillers were uninspiring as were
most of the towns and villages we passed today. Most of the walking
was on reasonably busy roads (as opposed to yesterday's meander
through the country lanes) but we made good progress for our 27.5 kms
completed at an average speed of 4.5kms/h including all stops.
The only encounter of note was with an
English lady who was visiting the British cemetery in Houchin. It was
alongside the road so we decided to go in even though it had no
particular significance to either of us. On the way in we speculated
as to what her story might be. It transpired that her mother had
married in haste a soldier who had died and was buried in Houchin.
She then remarried and had children including the lady we
encountered. Her mother often spoke of her first husband so our lady
had made a difficult and expensive (courtesy of the football) trip to
visit his grave. We left her waiting for a bus to Bethune on the
wrong side of the road. I do hope she got back to Lille safely.
As we entered the hotel a little tired
and weary the owner/manager explained to another client that we were
the mad Scotsmen who were walking nearly 30kms every day ….. FOR
FUN!
The gals were waiting for us in the
comfort of the hotel lounge but they sprang to life and got us
organised with a reviviing cold drink. Tomorrow should be
interesting for we are booked to visit a primary school and attend a
small reception at the Mairie.
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