As with the first one we jumped in a car and drove off. We'd figure out the destination while we go. Eventually we ended up at Lac de Madine, which is incredible during sunset and at night.
Autoroute du Nord
We left from Ghent, Belgium around noon. Destination, unknown. Looking for a good spot somewhere in France as it is one of the few countries we could still travel too with Covid. We started driving along the Autoroute du Nord, direction South. This was our first stop, still closeby rainy Belgium. We took cover underneath a small kiosk with a bench, had lunch, and kept going towards better weather!
Vauclerc
For our second stop we were near Vauclerc. We briskly drove of the main road onto some dirt road, parked Herman (it's how we called the old car from 1994) and had an impromptu picnic. At that time I had found a place called Lac de Madine on the map, so we had a direction on where to go!
Lac De Madine
We arrived an hour before sunset at the lake. At first I wasn't convinced, as it seemed like a fairly well-visited place (which often takes some of the charm away for me). But after a short 15 minute hike we found a beautifu and quite secluded spot, normally allowed for fishermen only. After getting a splinter out of my foot, that I accidentally stepped into, we pitched the tent, poured out the wine and enjoyed the sunset. Unfortunately during the sunset a park ranger told us we were not allowed to camp there, so we had to pack it up. We went back to the main beach about an hour after sunset as there was a little spot behind it the ranger had told us it would be okay to camp. To my pleasant surprise, there was almost noone there anymore, except for about 10 campers, the area was empty. After pitching the tent one more time, we went back to the waterside and watched one of the craziest night skies I have ever seen (did not expect that in France). There is barely any light pollution around the Lac de Madine. We saw the milkyway and one falling star after another. It was quite the magical experience with the soft sound of the waves in the background. After almost falling asleep at the lake, we dragged ourselves back to the tent to get some sleep before continuing our route tomorrow!
My rating: 9/10
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[//]:# (!pinmapple 50.3685863 lat 2.968234 long d3scr)