From here we decided to

From here we decided to stop off at the Chateau de Chantilly where Mark promised me he’d treat me to some Chantilly cream for my birthday a week before. What’s a girl to do? Fling the diet plans out of the window and dig straight in of course! In the gorgeous gardens of this fairy tale castle is a hamlet that was allegedly the inspiration for Marie-Antoinette’s hamlet. Pretty little halftimbered buildings and sweet bridges over a bubbling stream. The restaurant serves great lunches including strawberries and Chantilly cream, which was whipped at our table, right in front of our eyes, which were not bigger than our bellies, we both managed to get through a very large dollop of utterly seductive cream. Read more about Chantilly castle and its amazing stables here. My birthday surprise didn’t end there, we took a detour to the area of Chateau Thierry on the Champagne border. I’d never heard of it before and was amazed to discover that more than 10% of all the Champagne made, is actually produced from vines in this part of Picardy! I have to tell you, if you’re a fan of the fizz like me, it’ll make you effervescent with happiness to go here and enjoy a fabulous tasting at several Champagne Houses (yes, we squeezed a couple of bottles into the bike boxes). We headed off under a sky that looked like a black velvet bag full of twinkling diamonds to find our hotel for the night. It was time to cross the border into Lille but first we stopped off at Thiepval Memorial. It was one of the most emotional memorials I’ve been to, not just because of the 72,000 names etched into the white walls, or the row upon row of crosses.

Road trip to northern France film... We were followed by a film crew! The guides who work here offer free tours and they share anecdotes and stories of those whose names are forever remembered. As the guide told me about a man whose bravery at trying to save the lives of his comrades ended in his own death, I looked up on the wall and saw those names so familiar to us all, Davis, Smith, Roberts – and Cedric Dickens, great-grandson of Charles Dickens who’d loved the north of France so much. The absolute tragedy of the sacrifices made, the terrible losses, completely overwhelmed me and I burst into tears and thought how very grateful I am for all that I have. inn. We went to a microbrewery and Mark fell in love with a beer called YuZu. We visited museums and art galleries and fell under the spell of this vibrant city that’s crammed with cultural highlights and full of friendly folk, so that we could hardly bear to leave. And like, Amiens, this city gets an article to itself – see page 80. Nord: Bucket loads of culture and fabulous markets… Photo: Lauren Ghesquiere, OT Lille Parking the bike up in a street right near the centre of Lille, the capital of Hauts-de- France, we strolled down cobbled streets under colourful bunting, past boulangeries and cake shops where people waited patiently in queues – a small price to pay for the lushest of dishes. We dined at an authentic estaminet, the Flemish word for an