Never sure if anyone reads the puns, so I thought I'd make this one truly awful – let me know if it made you groan.

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Anyway, France's Grand Est is vast area, a collection of departments (like British counties, only bigger) stretching from the Ardennes to the Vosges and encompassing the Champagne region. You've probably ridden across it.

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I certainly have, more times than I can count – and I've been stopping in the same hotel in Chaumont for so long that it's changed names three times… It's as good now as it was 20 years ago. That's almost true of the roads, but some of them are better.

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This area is still quiet, the roads are still a relaxed mix of corners and straights. scrolling across the hills but plenty of them have better surfaces than when I first found them. The villages and small towns are still sleepy collections of stone houses and grey-steepled churches. It's a lovely, unspoilt corner of this large country.

 

Chaumont's a good day's ride from the Eurotunnel, after an early crossing, maybe with an hour of motorway to start. This route draws together many of the great roads around it for a full but laid-back day's ride. It's a great trip, I reckon...