9-2-2010 Lost In Luxembourg. and Belgium, and France...

We're lost in Luxembourg. Not unusual, I just wish I had remembered that we have had problems in the past navigating through it...

It started out innocently enough, when we left Maastricht this morning, heading south through Belgium through the Ardennes mountains to a coffee break in a famous little town called Spa, then plotting a route to Paris that would take us through some nice countryside. The map showed a lovely looking country road that entered the Luxembourg from the north and cut off on a road that would take us to Belgium and France. Just a quick loop through Luxembourg, what could that hurt? It's a very small country, after all.

The trouble started shortly after we got gas - fuel here is about .35 euro cents cheaper per liter, by the way. Just when we were enjoying the pretty countryside, we hit the first deviation sign which shot us off on a tangent from the direction we wanted to go. You can imagine, armed with an inadequate map and even worse road signage, we were more or less traveling blind.

Ok,Ok I'm being a little dramatic. We did manage to get out of Luxembourg after detours that seemed to take us miles out of the way, then a detour through heavy rush hour traffic through Luxembourg city. Then across the lower edge of Belgium, and into France through lush forests and rolling fields of corn, cows and sheep.

Once we were in France we were in Champagne country, riding along roads that curve through a vast area of rolling hills covered with crops, mostly corn, already turning gold.

Four countries traversed in one day, not bad for a day's work!

It's quite late when we finally reach Paris, having lost quite a bit of time in Luxembourg. One should note that at 10PM, almost the only food available is Turkish and Arab fast food, at least in our neighborhood. Needless to say, our first meal in Paris would be kabob...

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We stayed a few days in Paris, acting as tour guides to Bob and Jan: a trip to the eiffel tower, a hair-raising ride at night around the Arc de Triomphe and Paris, a stop at the Louvre so that they could see the Mona Lisa.  And of course, some of our favorite cafes and shops...

(Sue taking picture of Arc de Triompe at night from the back of the motorcycle)