Travel stories have a high dream value. They are the most beautiful rides in the most beautiful areas. But my grandmother, once more blessed, once said, "You can dance, though not with the bride."
And how gloomy about the fact that you cannot make time for three weeks in the French Alps? With all the possibilities of today, you would almost forget that there is more than the Alps, the Himalayas or an overland trip to China. Think of three days in Northern France. On a weekend trip to Sedan. That's fun for two.
Northern France is especially famous for the bad weather, the desolate abandoned industrial sites, its pharmacies, drug use in general and the machine guns. A mitraillette is an open sliced half baguette that is filled with unspecified or specified loads of lukewarm warm meat, onions, ketchup, mayo, curry sauce and hot fries. Vegetables are optional. Cholestrol values increase five points immediately after consumption.
For the rest, Northern France is often familiar rainy and nice and quiet. You almost go there by definition via the highway. And as long as you constantly have little boys in caps on the way there, you are heading straight to northern France. The mildly colored pet men are always on their way to our country to score drugs. You can also join such a petman if your classic can be faster in the long run than 120 +.
Then you will certainly come to Philipeville or Charleroi and you are well on your way. The people of the narcotics brigade and gendarmerie who remove the petmen from the traffic can always check whether the chosen driving direction can be maintained from that point.
If you decide to take the tourist route via the Meuse valley, then you need a little more brave 250cc machine from the 1956 build year or an A Ford. Then you stroll from coffee stop to nicotine break inside and you understand why your parents used to tell so excitedly about their holiday trip to Belgium. It is as if time has stood still. Well; almost. And you can just do 350 hours over the 8 kilometer to Givet.
Givet lies a bit further on the Maas, close to Belgium and runs on gloom, drink and Prozac. The Maas flows right around it with an arc. To get to Sedan it is a bit more driving and yet much more fun. Sedan has something. For example, pharmacies and stores as they were in the Netherlands around the sixties in Assen and Doetinchem. And intact history from just after the war when the flat-bombed city district was filled in with new construction.
They have a huge old castle - the largest in Europe - that did its job until a few years ago and they have an annual medieval festival in that original setting. Impressive. It feels like a time travel. Beer. Knights, ladies and stalls. Craftsmen and minstrels. Monsters, Monsters and Giants. Wizards and witches. And all trade. Stables with medieval weaponry. Armor and other armor with fresh MOT, because completely new and original. It is a feast that the little Princess that is hidden in every woman kisses awake. As a classic lover of the simpler kind, you brave but obediently lug along in the wake of your patches and clothing, inspecting and kissing Lief. And you look your eyes out for craftsmen in appropriate clothing, free knights, extras, various medieval scantily clad dancers, and devils. Those devils are loosely modeled on the gargoyles on castle and church trances. They are demonically frolicking and jumping artistically very successfully creepy and because - just like that athlete with his amputated legs from the last Olympiad - they walk on springy stilts. Think of a two meter high buck on its hind legs. Including fiery eyes and horns and the tendency to make diving kisses at ladies and scare children. The ladies are also shocked by the way.
You can stroll through the day with a bite and a sip. In the evening at the table it is once again proven that every Belgian cook is a murderer. Appetizer, main meal and dessert mainly consist of calories and cholesterol. Then you take another round and dizzy your hand in hand in dream land. The classic is ready for the journey home the next day. 500 Year in three days, it couldn't be more beautiful.
Nineteenth Medieval Festival, www.chateau-fort-sedan.fr