A Bit of France

Photos: one of the many amazing churches, a church can be found in every town in France; a view of a newly planted field with yellow and green fields in the background.

Post parents France, still amazing. Yes they treated us to hotels and fancy dinners but that doesn't mean we got spoiled. One day Georgia even opted for a campground vrs. a hotel! None the less we greatly apreciated the help, hospitality, and home-ness of Kenny and Megan.

After they left (Easter morning) it was hard to motivate! We biked, however but only for a bit 20ish miles until we called it quits. We threw the towel in, in a town big enough for next day to be rewarding. A storm rolled in seconds after we had set up. The sky darkened, the rain poured and thunder roared. The next day came with poor response, nothing was open. Turns out the day after Easter everything is closed. Our morning soon turned to panic, we had no map and no food! We weren't sure which was worse for Emma. After rding circles in town we found a small open market. We stocked up on food. Still mapless we headed north as per the GPS. We ended that day early in hopes of the next day bearing a map and direction. We discoverdd that north isn't enough, maps are helpful.

We have found some hills but they are a nice change from flat. France is still beautiful every turn we take. Today we experienced something unique. We biked through an area where there was nothing except grand expanses of agricultural land. We have all experienced nothing driving and riding across USA, but this emptiness was different. There was no influence of humans (except the road), no electrical lines, no farm buildings, no tractors. We were all in awe.

We will soon be in Belgium and we are enjoying our time riding greatly.

Medival Festival Dance

The Stupidest Thing Ever

The weather couldn't have been more beautiful for our first day of ridding with Kenny. We headed off and after twenty miles of riding stopped for lunch. Along the way Em and I practiced holding hand while riding our bikes, an easyily accomplishable task. We joked about all of us holding hands and riding, what an idea. Reasonably do able, we ride no handed for long enough periods of time. After lunch
and in high spirits Gen planned to capture some footage of
Emma and I holding hands for the video. A nice stretch of realitivly flat road lay in front of us. In a split second thought I decided Georgia should join, I beconked her forward and reached out my hand. Georgia and I rode for a second before I clasped Emma's hand, which left me hand less in the middle of two bikes. By the time I had grabbed Emma's had we knew it was a bad idea, I am pretty sure Emma was already bailing. A slight swerve to the right, this was no good, abort but it was to late and huge serve to the left and Georgia and I had collided. Gen was able to get the last seconds of it on film and some how my digital SLR that was on my back landed gently right next to me. Slightly bruised and banged, Georgia and I were/are fine, but our rims were a mess. My spokes were literally severed and Georgia's was so bent it looked like a Salvador Dali painting. Plans were formulated and action was taken.
After a couple failed attempts at finding a bike mechanic near by with the help of some local people we found Megan or she found us. Kenny, Gen and Emma continued riding while Georgia and I packed up our bikes and stuff and us into the rental car. We caught up with the bikers and re-routed to a bigger city. The bike shop was closed so we would have to wait. Georgia needed a new rim and we thought my rim could be trued (replace spokes tighten them to straigten the rim). The next morning we went to action. Kenny dropped the rims off and with the little French he knows informed us the mechanic was on vacation and it would have to wait another day. After Megan conformed with the mechanic Kenny story which was completly wrong, we decided to head to Tour, a large city only fourty minuets away. Our luck and options would be better there.
After our drive there we started our search at a Decathlon a mega sports store similar to REI. They had a rim but it would be a smaller tire size. They pointed us in the direction of large bicycle store near by. We went there but it was closed. We drove into downtown Tour to catch some lunch. After lunch we headed back out to the bicycle shop rightly named Velo Land. They had no rim and said mine was most likely dead as well. Kenny convinced the mechanic to try truing mine, all the time Megan was learning many new bicycle related new French vocabulary. I stuck around to see the outcome of my rim while Megan, Kenny, Georgia and Emma went back to the Decathlon to get the smaller rim. It is okay to ride with different size tires Georgia would just downsize from a 32 to a 28, no big deal. Em was also able to get a cheap camel back and sleeping mat both of which have started leaking.
Upon arriving back at Velo Land Georgia got a new tire and some tubes and was in business. I had however been told the sad news that my rim was dead. The mechanic there had told us of a place in the city. Back in the car we pilled and made our way back to the city. Thankfully the mechanic there said we was able to build a rim for me and with a bit of convincing he would have it done the next morning. Kenny and I drove back to Tour the next day to pick the rim up and by 12:30 that day we were again enjoying the French countryside by bicycle. Durning the whole ordeal we discussed how much longer it would have taken for us to deal with this if we hadn't had the help of Kenny and Megan. Days would have been spent and things would have been lost in translation. We are so thankful for their help.
Now back on track we had an amazing day or riding yesterday accomplishing 68 miles, which we haven't done in a while. We also enjoyed some of the best strawberries any of us had ever had. And at the end of the day we crossed the Loire River, which if some one was riding west to east across the USA it would be like crossing the Mississippi River. It feels good, France is great.

Photos (top to bottom): Lucy's bike in a French forest; one of the many chateaux of the Loire Valley; Em and Gen reach 6,000km (3,700ish miles) spurpassing our US tour of 2006; lunch time photo shoot.

So Much So Little Time

We have been enjoying beautiful French riding. Small country roads connecting tiny villages, farm fields and forests. Not to mention the weather is beautiful, absolutely perfect, we could do with a little less wind, but the temperature is perfect and the forecast is for sun! One afternoon we were distractred by a filed of newly born sheep. We were hoping if we stuck around long enough we might witness a birth, however after almost an hour we moved on. We have been confronted with amazing helpful people even with our limited language skills. We had help finding an amazing little campground with the nicest Dutch family (they spoke English) running it, and because we were cyclist and they were not technically open, they offered it for free. Check it out: http://www.lagrossetalle.com/uk/camping/
If you are ever wandering around the French country side near Melle this is the place to stay. I would recommend your wandering to happen in April to catch the yellow fields that stretch more miles of a plant very similar to mustard.
In the past couple weeks we have been waiting more the arrival of Georgia's parents, Kenny and Megan, who were to find us once they arrived in Paris. Kenny was to bike with us and Megan was going to enjoy the French country side via car and and perhaps a chateaux or two. After biking a good morning we rolled into a town two days before they were to arrive and stumbled upon a medical festival. With bagpipes strumming, men on stilts and people in armor we decided we had to stay. We enjoyed the afternoon even participating in a tug of war, or side won of course. We made our way up to our campground ready to accomplish a good distance at day break. After making it to the grocery store with good timing we decided to stick around for another day. It would be convenient for Kenny and Megan to find us and there was plenty of exciting events and people to see. By the afternoon just after Gen and I got roped into some sort of dance game Kenny and Megan arrived finding us surprisingly quickly. We hadn't moved all day and stand out pretty well, plus Megan speaks French (extremely helpful). It was great to see them and speak English with people other then each other. Plus they brought a Tate's bag full of goodies, always an excitement. We enjoyed an amazing French meal, which we hadn't had because we had been waiting for Megan for help deciphering a French menu. We went to bed sleepy and tummies full ready for our first day of riding. . .

To be continued.

Photo (top to bottom): an ancient structure in France; country side shadows; sheep and lamb field; Lucy and her favorite vegetable.

Mixed up side down

Post lately have been a little mixed up due to shotty and inconsistent. Here are some missing photos. Obviously we wet over the Pyrenees before reaching the French coast, these two post are backwards.

Photos top to bottom: one morning I threw my tent stakes and they landed in my yogurt, oops; the Atlantic of Biarritz looking a little like the Pacific of San Diego, good surf!; a little afternoon pool on a beach day break; lunch time amusement trying to spell bike, it worked kind of; Gen modeling the sweater we found on the side of the road, which smells better than all of our clothes. We have decided it will be the sister of the traveling groady (to be gross or dirty) sweater.

Over the Pyrenees

After waking up in a cloud we got a late start on our journey over the daunting Pyrenees. The scenery was georgeuos rolling green hills scattered with sheep, butting up to still leafless trees eased us into our slow climb. The road (N-121a) was a busy road and tunnels had been carved through the mountains to ease the flow of traffic (many large tractor trailers). Being cyclist we were not allowed in the tunnels and had to exit to smaller even more senic roads. We climbed easily, only 870m (ish) which seemed like nothing, especially with the sun shinning down on us.

Mid day and mid climb found us at some beautiful roadside picnic tables. Gen was suprised to see another bike tourer all ready stopped. Our fellow tourer was quick to offer us tea and we were all soon enjoying good talk about our adventures. He, orginally from India, is a bicycle rickshaw driver in London who on his time off enjoys bike tours. He introduced an idea to us called cycle-osophy (spl?). Bottom line it is the concept that time spent on a bike allows one to connect with themselves, nature, and thoughts amoung many things. We all agreed that bike thinking time is some of the best ever. Since our new friend was going our way (the first of our trip) we road along together until we split at the end of the day.
After our easy climb I jokingly said "it is all down hill from here no more mountains for us." and for most to our surprise down we went, for the most part all the rest of the day. For the majority we rolled slowly down following a lively river. Once on the other side of the Pyrenees the grass was actually greener as were the trees. It was probably more due to the lower elevation but spring had really sprung. Trees with full on leaves shaded our path as we twisted and turned with the river. We climbed again at the end of the day, mostly to avoid the hecticness of N-121a.
We were excited to cross a border, it didn't matter we had already crossed the Spanish-French border before, border crossings are fun, and a great photo opportunity. However the small road we had taken seemed to bypass any type of distinction. Down the other side of the last of the Pyrenees and we soon found ourselves in France. We said our goodbyes to our new found cycle friend and headed off in search for a campground. After figuring most were closed we started our luck with asking. It had gone so well in Spain our hopes were up and our spirits high. The big downfall none of us speak much French, luckily with Spain not far away Geaorgia was still able to get by with her Spanish and she snagged us a front yard of a restaurant. We thanked the man greatly. He questioned if we needed anything to drink and we said in a bit we might come get something. We were more then happy to get a beer or coffee at his bar, but seconds later he reappeared with a bottle of wine for free. A classic welcome back to France.

Photos (top to bottom): grouped together with, pedestrians, horse pulled carts, and tractors; water from a lush mountain spring; to Francia we go!; waiting before we rage the tunnel together; in the only tunnel we were allowed to ride in.

Bike Paths and Beaches

We continued north on the bike paths and what fun it has been. Most of the paths are beautiful wide smooth stretches of empty pavement. However there are the secluded or unmaintied sections in which the forest has begun to reclaim its rightful territory. There are also the sections that end up being twenty miles instead of ten due to the twisty nature of some bike paths. We have slowly been heading north but it is hard to motivate with such beautiful weather and beaches.
A couple days ago we were able to enjoy a very touristic viewing of the largest sand dune in Europe. In reality it was a huge pile of sand everyone and their mother was walking on, which was only slightly disheartening. The landscape has pretty much been pine forest, dune, ocean. Em read today that the pine forest was planted to help with erosion. Some sections boast old tall pines bigger then one could reach thier hands around and other sections are completely clear cut and full of a shrubs bursting with yellow blooms. Other exciting aspects of this coast is the lack of large scale development, most likely due to the lack of roads.
We woke up to some poor weather (nothing will be bad compared to the rain of Spain) and took the morning slow. We route planned for France, Gen got some quality charging done, and at ten we tried for a second time to jump in the pool and down the huge twisting water slide. By twelve we had gotten lunch for the day and hadn't left town. The next thing we knew it was one and we were hungry and there was an amazing air plane show of crazy flying stunts going on, so we decided to wait and watch and eat. By three we realized we probably shouldn't go anywhere and at four we were heading back to the campground, after a bit of shopping. By five Gen, Em and I were renthing surfboards and wetsuits. By six thirty were were exhausted as if we had ridden 100 miles but in reality we had ridden less then two. That's life on the beach. Hopefully we'll motivate to bike a bit and in a couple days we will be heading inland again. The Atlantic will just have to wait.

Photos (top to bottom): Lucy and Georgia celebrate 2,000 miles; a stretch of pine free bike path; back into the pines; the really big dune.

No Bull!

Hey, hey. Off we go. Adieus Sapin, bonjour France. We enjoyed some long days a two day total of 162 miles (ish). Because of our long days and bad weather we decided to take a day off in Pamplona, which is made famous for its infamous bull runs. Unfortunately bull running season is in the summer so we missed that unique cultural experience. We did however after much scouting and asking found a real deal Spanish restaurant. Georgia got a crash course in who to ask as we waited for Gen and Em to buy postcards. Here are the basics. No women, young or old, if it must be a women ask an older one. Here's why, a women will most likely send you somewhere they think you would like trying to please you while representing their country. Ask no one young or hip looking, here's why; they most likely will send you somewhere young and hip, which was not what we were looking for. No one looking fancy or carrying many shopping bags, most likely their budget would be to high for us. No couples young or old, they would most likely start arguing over which of their favorite restraunts they each like better, we don't want to start anything. No one with cameras, too comfortable looking shoes, all purpose jackets or confused faces, they are most likely tourists and would know not much either. Also all souvenir shop owners, hotel managers, restaurant owners or any food sellig store are out, who knows who they are in cahoots with. Which leaves us old to middle aged somewhat scruffy looking men. We happened to find one working in a newspaper stand who fit the ticket and he provided us with our prize winning grub.
Imagine low tables small room all squished together. There was no menu and the waiter had to repeat the choices a couple times for us to get them all. But in the end we were all satisfied (even Gen, which isn't easing being vegan). Em had red beans and sausage and pork wrapped in bacon with blue cheese sauce and strawberry ice cream. Georgia had paella with clams, muscles and chicken, ham and cheese scaloppini and an ice cream cone for desert. Gen had a mixed salad, garlic potatoes, mystery green vegetable and no desert. I had the paella as well, pork chops and strawberries with whipped cream.

Next mostly likely if all goes well tomorrow well be checking in from France.

Photos (top to bottom): Gen and her 26th birthday cake a.k.a. an apple given to her with help from Jaun at Route 66 cafe; Em and Gen celebrate 3,000miles outside Riaza, Spain; Em and Gen celebrate 5,000km outside of Agreda, Spain; Lucy in front of a couple major Spainish cities; Hemingway street in Pamplona.