Saturday, 25 May 2013

Across the water day 7

Heading over to Laon via a few stops, but first a ride around Paris looking for a Suzuki dealer for a spare part for one of the lads.
Al B looking pleased with himself after leading a mystery tour around Paris backstreets.
 
Al B sorts us all out and guides us to not one but a few dealers - mission accomplished and we get on our way to Chantilly.

They didn't invite us in for lunch so it was sandwiches beside the moat at Chantilly
 Next stop is the Armistice Memorial in the Compiegne Forest. Theres a small museum there inside of which you can see the carriage used for the signing of the German surrender to the French (and us) in 1918 and the French surrender (but not us) to the Germans in 1940.
Or rather you can’t… but they don’t tell you that until you’ve paid your couple of Euros to get in. This is because Hitler nicked the original coach and dragged it back to Berlin, where it got burned. The coach in the museum is ‘a very similar one’. This is told to you after you’ve listened to about ten minutes of audio commentary telling you what a wonderful place in history the coach occupies.

Anyway don’t let it put you off, you can half close your eyes and pretend it’s the real thing, and the museum, after saying all that, is worth the entrance fee.





Next stop Laon, and we're staying here for our last night of the trip. The hotel is on the outskirts, and the town centre is on a hilltop so we roll out the bikes and get up there for a look around, something to eat and then back to the hotel for a beer or two.


Parking up just outside the Laon town walls

Our view of Laon from the hotel room......

.....but it gets better when you get up there

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