A thunder and lightning storm lit up the sky for a few hours early this morning. It seemed very close to us for awhile. As a result, it broke the heat and we woke to a much cooler morning. We pack up and left the campsite by 10 am. We started our ride today on a fairly busy road for about 20 km going through a few valleys and hills. At one point, we rode along a 4.2 km descend which was quite nice. It started to drizzle about 11 and soon became a steady rain.

We made our way over to the Meuse and from then on, it was a gravel path. We, inadvertently, went a little too far down a very muddy farmer's lane, turned around and got back on track along the bicycle route. All part of the adventure!!

Once we got closer to Verdun, the path became asphalt and it was an easy ride into this city. We arrived in Verdun about 2 pm, going past the 14th century Road Gate into the city, the large underground citadel first built from 1567 to 1634 to protect and control the city and just outside the citadel walls, there are rows of statues representing marshals and generals of the 1st and 2nd Empires and the First World War. It was interesting to see these historic monuments as we passed through the city but we did not take the time to explore as we wanted to get to our campsite and start the process of drying out.

We had a nice dinner at the campsite restaurant and looked forward to a couple of dryer days.