Blogs from Centre, France, Europe - page 3

Heute habe ich es etwas ruhiger angehen lassen, meine Füße geschont und nach dem Frühstück nur die Kathedrale von Tours besichtigt. Der Kreuzgang ist auch sehenswert, aber Montags geschlossen. Von dort ging ich zum Starbucks und habe dort eine Kaffeepause eingelegt. Meine deutsche Kundenkarte ist dort leider nicht gültig. Es gäbe noch zwei empfohlene Museen in der Stadt, die ich aber ignorierte und den übrig gebliebenen Turm einer Basilika in der Nähe der Altstadt hatte ich gestern schon gesehen. Daher war es das auch schon und ich kehrte zum Hotel zurück. Dort telefonierte ich mit der Heimat und machte so dies und das. Abends bin ich zum Essen auch im Hotel geblieben. So kann ich anscheinend auch das Fußballspiel im Internet verfolgen. Morgen will ich dann vermehrt durchstarten und ein oder zwei Châteaus auf dem Weg ... read more

We arrived Friday at the family home of our friend Marie-Laure to stay for a couple of days. A really welcome break after 7 straight days of riding, between 60 and 80 km a day! The first few days we rode through rolling farm country, often passing through villages with old stone houses. We spent a night in Vitré, where the old centre is full of half-timbered mediaeval houses, surmounted by a truly imposing castle. We reached the Loire valley, and rode along the river and its tributaries for a couple of days. Lots of other cyclists on those routes! Two nights ago we stayed in the village where Rene Descartes was born. His childhood home is now a museum, located on rue Descartes in the village of Descartes. Here we've had a good rest, as ... read more

Many villages in this area end with 'Olt' which means 'Lot' in the old Occitan dialect. St-Geniez-d'Olt lies between the Aubrac, a volcanic granite plateau and the limestone plateau of the Grands Causses. Breakfast was basic but ok and I did have the "special bread". Back in the room it was washing and sorting things out time before spending some time in Reception where we could access the internet. After a stroll round the town we had a pizza each for lunch. This was more than we wanted really but the supermarket was closed and it was either pizza or a full scale restaurant lunch. The people of this area are known as 'marmots'. According to legend two children befriended a marmot as a pet. One day it ran away and they followed it. A great ... read more

Breakfast was in the dining room with the other cyclist who was doing the same route as us. He was doing it in about two weeks and he was meeting his wife in Nice and they were having a week together there. The owner of the B&B sat with us and we talked about living in France and running a B&B. She had lived there thirteen years and had two sisters who lived in France and two still in England. She said the B&B was busy from February to the end of October. She just had the three rooms to rent out and guests could use their lounge and dining room. You had to walk through their Kitchen to get to the bedrooms which seemed a bit strange but it was a very nice house with ... read more

I decide to surprise Issy with breakfast in bed, so I do that most French of all things and make my way down to the local boulangerie to buy a breadstick and some cheese. I’ve seen lots of people walking the streets here in the mornings carrying their breadsticks wrapped in paper, and I now feel like a real Frenchman. This feeling lasts for about thirty seconds until I get to the counter to pay, and I’m asked a question in French that I can’t understand. I read an article about some slightly unusual French habits and customs. Apparently I need to be very careful with the breadstick I just bought. It is considered very bad luck to put it on a table upside down, and not just because it wobbles. It seems that putting it ... read more