Well we knew it was going to be hot today - at least 33°C. So we refreshed our plans. Our cycle route tries to follow the Via Francigena foot route. This meanders in a leisurely fashion across the countryside and our cycle route matches it quite closely village by village. But this adds about 33% to the journey distance compared to a Google maps routing. We planned to break the cycling into before midday and late afternoon to avoid the worst of the blistering heat. And we didn’t want to linger unduly long under the burning sun. So we set off using a straight direct minor road. This was quiet from a traffic point of view, but the vehicles were travelling fast and one can hear them approaching fast and passing us with a wheel-wobbling whoosh. Especially the large lorries. You have to maintain discipline and cycle carefully near the edge. A bit tense 😬 but it was fast cycling. However, we left this road and opted for quiet country lanes which were fairly direct and one can hear the birds sing, we can cycle two abreast and meander in a relaxed manner across the roadway. It’s much more fun. 👍🏻

We made Pèronne 25km by about 10:15 and planned to stay until late afternoon. We visited the large (“largest in Europe”) First World War museum covering the Somme battles in some detail, but broadly the impact of the war on all belligerents and the civilian population. This was a very refreshing perspective - non partisan and non judgmental. The fruitlessness of the fighting and ultimate “peace” settlement was all too clear. Sadly there were so many parallels with Ukraine today. Including complaints of “fake news”.

Somewhat drained by this (3 hours!) we sought lunch in the main square, recovered ourselves and lingered until 4pm. However it was still hot 🥵. The pharmacy sign read 39°C 🥵.

We then set off to cycle across the battlefield and the cemeteries stopping at villages to cool off under limited shade until we reached St Quentin, had a beer 🍺 and crossed the road to our Ibis Budget air conditioned room 😍😮‍💨.

We are eating outside tonight. It’s still hot and tomorrow it’s July 14th - French national holiday. What does this mean for travel 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Pssst 🤫 No World Heritage sites today 😳! (Ed: I told you we couldn’t keep it up!)