We leave Brussels, not too early but not too late neither, around 10:30. Knowing Paris, we are very surprised at the exit of Brussels:
buildings, and after ten kilometers of bicycle paths, fields and the countryside that begins. We're in the Flemish region. Our Brussels hosts have told us to specify that we are French. Walloons must learn Flemish at school, and Flemish French, but Walloons are less bilingual. And in order to be well received, it's better to specify that we are French, that we aren't linguistically lazy Walloons.
The countryside is pretty, and the villages are increasingly scattered. The flat country isn't as flat as we thought. Especially in the afternoon, we climb quite a bit. We do our more than 80 kilometers, without much effort. We are happy for the first day on the bike. We follow the small directional signs set up by the Flemish region: those are numbers, which are placed at intersections. A sequence of numbers makes a trip. In Brussels, we noted our number sequence for the day. On the way, we meet huge cows, very muscular, almost bodybuilded. Have we forgotten European cows? They are really muscular, and they are ugly. They had to run them on a conveyor belt to make them look like that! We've the same impression with sheep. Even shorn, they are very big and well muscled. They seem to be crossed with pigs. All the rest of the day, we call them "mouchons", a contraction between the French words for sheep (mouton) and pig (cochon).
We arrive at Frederik and his parents place, who have a beautiful house in Etikhove. The mother, Liv, tells us that the cows crossed earlier are called Belgian Blue cows. These people receive us very well, and, with the help of Frederik, we plan our route to Charleville-Mézières.
