I have to stop and tell you how our plans have changed.  As Bruges was our last town in Belgium and we would be going on into France, we decided to get out our map of French Velo routes map (established cycling routes) and figure out our plan for the rest of the trip.  

At this point we had about one month left before we had to be back in Paris.  Our original plan was to ride south on the coast of France along the North Sea and English Channel through Normandy and then turn east to the Loire River and ride the Velo along the river back to Paris.  As we looked at our map and our calendar we realized that we didn’t have enough days to leisurely complete that route.  

We could have done it if we rode almost everyday but that’s not how we roll so we looked at the map again and decided to ride to the Normandy region and the turn east back to Paris.  But you know what they say about best laid plans… by the time we got to Dunkirk we found out that we needed to go home ten days early (grandchild being born early, maybe).  So we got out the maps again and worked out a route directly from Dunkirk to Paris.  This route involved riding almost everyday to get back to Paris with time to do some sightseeing.  So much for “how we roll”.