Up a gear

 For the record, neither Kate nor I sneaked down to the 'pub' below us for a snifter of alcohol in the night. In fact we slept. It was the first night for a long time with rectangular pillows. French pillows are square. Why does that make a difference? I don't know but we're both obviously rectangular pillow sorts of people. 

I was up before I needed to be. I think it was the lure if the Golden Grahams for breakfast.  They didn't disappoint. With Cooper's original marmalade on my toast and cup of good coffee, we hit the jackpot. 

Thus fuelled, we set off for what was the last full day's ride, saying goodbye to Auntie Susan and Uncle Eric and thanking them for being wonderful hosts.

There was much up and down today but geographically only. Our spirits remained up. We seemed to be 'up a gear' in every sense. Was it the smell of victory? Was it the slightly favourable wind? Was it the Golden Grahams?

We had wondered about having lunch in Fougeres, but we were there for 11am, which, as you should know by now, means coffee. We eventually found that bit of the town where you go if you want a coffee whilst sitting in a 'let's have a coffee in a really nice place' vibe. We leant our tandem against the fountain in the middle of the square and noticed that there was another tandem there already. It had a union flag on the frame. I wandered over to the two most likely candidates to be riding it (the only other people dressed in lycra) and said Hello. They looked young enough to have just left school and decided to do something really odd like ride a tandem through France. They were camping and their tandem was an old Dawes Galaxy, which probably haven't been made for forty years. But they're young. They'll be fine. They are in the middle of a trip from Cherbourg to Bordeaux. I didn't ask them how they'll get back from Bordeaux. Possibly just leave the tandem there...

We compared lengths of time we had ridden tandems. Us, 39 years. Them, 1 month. I told them that if they're still talking to each other  they're doing well. We wished each other Bon Voyage. 

Whilst we were drinking our coffee, I heard a young French girl ask her Dad why our tandem had such tiny pedals. "Because the riders have tiny feet" I heard  him say. Poor girl. How will she learn about cleats?

Our voyage now feels very much in its closing stages. In our determination to get it right with French opening times, we googled a restaurant in the wonderfully named, St. Brice en Cogles, called 'Toute le Monde en parle', and headed straight for it. We made it in time and got a table. Drunk with success, we ordered Galettes, steak haché, and a fraise melba, washed down by a pichet of cidre. 

We set off for our final leg in the scorching heat. Who would have thought it? In Brittany! But we sensed the end of our remaining ride of any consequence and put our best pedals forward. 

By 3:15, we were at my parent's house. After sweaty hugs, we were soon cooling down and drinking tea.

Dad told us how they very recently been for a meal in 'Toute le Monde en parle' it was with their French learning class. They have been going to this class for years and lived in Brittany for 35 years. I think it's just an excuse for getting together and having a natter. The name of the restaurant says it all.

We have a 'day off' tomorrow so I won't write a blog about how we went out for a nice coffee with Mum and Dad.

My final blog will be on Saturday, then I shall leave you all in peace.

Saturday's blog will be something of a reflection on the whole trip. I shall try not to get all existential but I'm not promising anything. I get existential the moment I get a sniff of the question 'why'

The photos are on the wrong order...

Kate, Mum, Dad and neighbours getting in on tne action
Parents and us
Slightly random, but i like it
Kate and Mum having a natter 
On arrival at Mum and Dad's 
Me with a pichet of cidre at 'toute le Monde en parle'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dungeons and Dragons

Image
 We washed our clothes last night. Thought I'd let you all know. We hung them up to dry marvelling at how quickly licra dries. This morning they were still as wet as they were after being wrung out the previous evening.  We sat at breakfast, thankful that we were on a wooden bench tather than leaking on to an upholstered chair, freezing cold from wearing very wet clothes. We weren't even that sure they smelt any better but perhaps I ought to stop there? At the other end of the very long  breakfast table were a young Spanish couple. They spoke some English which we made full use of and asked them to convey our apologies to our host for our sorry lack of knowledge of the Spanish language. I did learn Lo Siento: Sorry. Every English person needs to be able to apologise in whichever country they find themselves. After all, you're not truly English unless, if you walk into a door, you apologise to it.  The day started quite cool. We made the most of it by setting off as s...
Read more

Caped Crusaders

Image
 I heard lots of watery sounds at about 6am and decided that either one of our hosts was having a vigorous shower or it was chucking it with rain. Alas, it was the latter. But no matter for a while because first we had breakfast to look forward to. There was a door which joined our accommodation to their half of the house which they kept locked but said they would unlock it for breakfast at 8, so that we could go through to the dining room. At about thirty seconds to 8, we heard the key turn in the lock. Breakfast was excellent and we sat in a magnificent room to eat it. The size of the wardrobes alone was something to marvel at. The French still take their wardrobes seriously (quite right too) and it didn't stretch the imagination much to consider finding a lion or a witch in this particular structure.  Our hosts were lovely. By far the most welcoming so far and happy to communicate despite the fact that all conversation was in French. In the end, though, we had to set off in...
Read more

The Oddities of us all

Image
 I had pictured this day in my mind many a time over the last few months. Bowling down the Loire in relatively familiar territory.  The day started cold but bright. Cold enough for us to put on our jackets. We cycled through Tours in early Sunday morning sun and the absence of the srum of cars, buses, trams, pedestrians and cyclists of yesterday. This meant miles of utter lawlessness as we ran red lights, careered the wrong way round roundabouts and nipped across pavements.  We stopped the moment we saw a boulangerie, stocked up on pain au chocolat,  then stopped at the first bar tabac that was open. It is one of the wonderful things about France that you can buy pastries somewhere, then stop somewhere else for your coffees and get your pastries out. How civilised!  Tours seems to be full of rivers. Not content with just the Loire, it has included the Cher and all sorts of little tributaries within its boundary. Today's journey started with several bridges to be...
Read more