Cyling Belgium & Northern France (Day 7)
 

Fresnicourt to St Omer 

Our host Kelly waved us off in sunshine, but within minutes we were tackling our steepest climb of the trip. Fully loaded bikes didn’t make it easier, nor did the heavy rain that soon followed.

We sheltered in a tiny café, four drowned rats sipping hot chocolates and coffees, making do with our patchy French. The rain kept bouncing off the pavements, so we stayed for another round before moving on.

On the way we visited another Commonwealth cemetery. The Gonnehem British Cemetry was begun in the middle of April 1918, when the German front line came within 3.2 kilometres of the village. It was made by fighting units and by the burial officers of the XIII Corps and the 4th Division, and used until September. After the Armistice graves were brought into Row H from the battlefields east of Gonnehem.

Gonnehem British Cemetery contains 200 First World War burials and was designed by W H Cowlishaw. One of the first headstones we saw was for Private L.J. Caister, a poignant 

coincidence on the very day we learned of the sad passing of Chris Hill, founder of the 

legendary Caister Soul Weekenders. Two lives, two legacies, linked unexpectedly by a name.

By late afternoon we rolled into St Omer, it's a quiet, unassuming but genuinely charming little town in the Pas de Calais department. Just a 40 minute drive inland from Calais, and easily reached by rail from both Calais and Lille, it was once home to one of the most important 

abbeys in northern Europe, and is surrounded by the sprawling, watery world of the Marais Audomarois, a Ramsar-listed wetland of international importance. 

With a magnificent cathedral, as well as several other very worthwhile monuments to visit, not to mention some excellent restaurants where you can enjoy local specialties like carbonnade or Welsch, delicious produce from local market gardens, and artisan beers from a panoply of 

regional brewers, St-Omer makes for a rewarding and memorable place to spend a few of days while exploring the town and its beautiful surroundings.

Too early to check in, we wandered the cobbled streets and refuelled with coffee before hitting Carrefour again. That evening, we walked 30 minutes to King Long, an all you can eat buffet offering everything from sushi to steak to snails. We ate ourselves silly, dessert included, and the long walk home helped us justify every bite.

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