Tour of Roubaix

Yesterday, we got up bright and early to drive out to Roubaix, France so that Jeremy could participate in the Paris-Roubaix Challenge.

My husband is amazing.  And he was incredibly excited to get to ride part of route of the Paris-Roubaix for the challenge.  The Paris-Roubaix which is known to be the biggest bike race outside of the Tour de France.  It’s also one of the hardest since many sections of it are ridden over cobbles (basically bumpy brick roads).

It took him about three hours to ride his race, so during that time, I took a little tour of Roubaix.  And I have to be honest, there wasn’t much to see really.  I started out at a nearby French outlet mall, which was probably cool, but I had no idea because everything was in French.  I did find a cute sweatshirt for Ellee.  After that, I wandered down some streets looking for something of interest.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but it’s actually been pretty cold the past four days.  Overall, it’s not so bad, but it has made being outdoors a little less appealing.  Especially when someone thought it was going to be much warmer and only brought a lighter jacket.  Oh well.  I did briskly walk a good mile and a half until I finally found this redeeming sign.

For only 1.4 euros, I was able to get a delicious chocolate eclair.  Which totally made the 3 miles roundtrip walk through random neighborhoods very worth while.

I was able to catch up with Jeremy at the very end of his ride and got to watch him make his final round in the Roubaix velodrome.

To be honest, I had to look up most of the general information that I’m sharing about Jeremy’s race, because I have no idea.

But I do love that my husband loves cycling and these things and I know it was a great honor for him to get to ride in this challenge race.

In almost 16 years of marriage, I’ve learned that you do your best to love and support your spouse.  Yes, there will be highs and lows.  But overall, it’s worth it.  Getting to live life with someone that you truly love and who truly loves you back is a blessing indeed.  It might sound strange to some, but we take these trips because it’s our time to really connect with each other and it always helps to strengthen our marriage.  Oh, and of course Jesus helps us tremendously.  Trips to Europe and Jesus would be my top recommendations for strengthening your relationships, haha.  It’s worked for us.

Post ride, we enjoyed a nice burger and fries.  For the record, Belgiums love mayo with their fries, instead of ketchup.  It’s weirdly tasty, but the super secret is actually the combination of the two.

Also, on a fun note, we were a little hungry after sharing our first burger so Jeremy went back to get more fries and when he did they gave him another burger for free as well.

It was really cool to be in the velodrome.  We hung out for a bit more and then headed back to Ghent.

I’ve said this before, but Belgium is an incredible place to visit (and we’ve really loved staying in Ghent as well).  The people of Belgium are incredibly friendly and many speak English as well.  There are so many beautiful cities and buildings to see and it is definitely a place that we would love to return to someday.

Also, I’m a huge fan of sparking water in cute glass bottles.  It’s my favorite thing to drink when we travel to Europe.  Sometimes I wish I was more fun, but water (usually sparking over still) is my preference and I go with it.

We finished our day at a restaurant called Fry Willy, and it was really, really delicious.  That being said we waited (quite hungry after the days adventures) a good 40 minutes for our food, but by the time it came, and after tasting it, it was well worth the wait.

Jeremy and I talked at dinner about how happy we were to be here, but how we are at the point in our trip where we are definitely looking forward to heading home.  We here one more day and then will be flying back Monday to see our kids and return to our normal, wonderful lives.