Why do you think Flanders is flat? Could it be because it starts with the same three letters?
Having wearily pushed our three-geared bikes up some of the steepest hills they've ever encountered, we know differently now.
But I am maligning it – the north may be hilly, but the south of Flanders is indeed very flat, the sort of place you would never ever need a spirit level, and the lovely, gentle countryside makes cycling there a real pleasure.
To begin at the beginning, we first read a newspaper article about cycling in Flanders in those halcyon days before the word Covid ever entered our vocabulary. French Flanders had apparently identified all minor roads suitable for safe cycling and endowed every junction with a number. Each junction had become a point de nœud (node-point) bearing its number and having arrows indicating the direction to the next numbered point, something similar to the system in Holland.
Flanders, already renowned for its prowess in the Tour de France and other arduous cycling events, had decided to get family-friendly. It sounded perfect for our little Bromptons – and, yes, we were still thinking it was flat at the time!
We sent for the newly devised cycling map and when it returned, accompanied by an assortment of freebies like saddle covers and map clips, we knew we were going to be very welcome. As it turned out, that was an understatement!
Two years and several lockdowns later, we had finally managed to book
