After leaving Luxembourg I reached the river Saar and followed this through a progression of towns named such that you’d be sure which river they were on: Saarlouis, Saarbrucken and Saarguemines.
Some parts of the river were pretty but a lot was industrial as the region is famed for its coal output.
Riding through I entered France without realising my only clue being people were now saying bonjour rather than morgen (at least they knew which country they were in).
I then left the Saar in order to head south and east and reached a part of the route which I’d marked on my map with a line across a forest. A route that I’d assumed would be easy to follow… After some winding through the Bois de Lorraine I emerged determined to stick to roads or rivers for the rest of the day.

This included descending my first marked Col, which was fun if nerve wracking with all my kit rattling as I flew down and round hair pins.

I was then able to find the Zorn canal and ride easily into Strasbourg where I was being hosted by Marie from warmshowers.com.
This involved staying on the to floor of a beautiful old French apartment block.
Marie was kind enough to take me to a concert with her friends, which was nice but about forty five minutes by bike away.  Luckily on the return we were able to fit the bikes in a friend’s campervan so my legs were spared.