Day 303 – EU – France [Thionville to Metz]

01/02/21

30.5km

  From Thionville (France) to Metz (France)

Europe

A run made shorter by floods on the River Moselle on a very wet day

The day started off nicely. Sure it was wet, with a persistent drizzling rain, but the temperatures were mild (above zero that is!) and there was no wind. The plan for the day was to follow the footpath of “Charles Le Temeraire” which is a 260km footpath running through the east of France and following the path of the Rivers Moselle and Meuse. I would be running on the river banks all the way from Thionville to Metz.

But… as it turned out, I only got to enjoy about 10km of this. Then the Moselle river appeared to be bigger and bigger and I got blocked where the path was fully engulfed in water as well as the fields around it. I knew that even if I managed to get around and back on it some kms later, it would get worse. It was raining non stop and just adding to the growing flow of water. I headed back to the main road for what would be a straight dash to Metz.

Metz is a beautiful city, dotted with a magnificent cathedral which boasts the largest expanse of stained-glass windows in the world. It makes the inside of the cathedral so bright it is dubbed the Lantern of God. From my window today I have a great view on the Temple Neuf, which is built on the “Jardins d’Amour”, a little island surrounded by the Moselle River. A very charming city!

Check my daily run GPS data on Garmin or Strava (icons top right of your screen) – here is the map of today’s run:

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: