Cycling in France

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As I write this I am sitting on the train back from Narbonne (on the med) to Bordeaux (on the Atlantic) after cycling through the south of France along the canals from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean The idea for this “mini break” came about as we are about to embark on the transmongolian express and for that we require visas for Russia , Mongolia and China so we had to send our passports away. Thankfully as we live in the Shengen area we can travel within that area on our ID cards, so a trip to France was planned.

This trip was different for a number of reasons, firstly I (Septima) had to organise it) Jonathan does the most of the organising normally as he s so good at it and this was the first trip I had organised 100% on my own. Secondly it was a camping and cycling trip - both of which I have been known to disdain, So off we headed down to Bordeaux. We had a brief side trip to Paris where we had crepes in Montpernase and then hopped on the train which would bring us to Bordeaux.

We got our bikes and headed off, we had a brief outline of where we would stop every night but it was contingent on their being camp sites where necessary and with a quick trip to the tourist office we were armed with all the maps we needed.

The holiday itself has been more of an adventure that I anticipated. I discovered a side of France which I had never really experience before, trench people are really friendly - they could not have gone more out of their way to be helpful and they always had a “bon Voyage” to wish you on your way.

The sun does not always shine in the south of France, we had about five great days, two pretty crap days and the rest ok days.

At one camp site we arrived and I am not sure if it was even open for the season but there was no problem about setting up our tent, as it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere and there was not a shop to be seen - even thought they did have a bar (seppy was happy) - so we asked them if they would be able to provide boiling water (we had emergency rations with us) but the lady of the house agreed to prepare dinner for us that night (something which was tres exceptionalle). So we had dinner served in the main bar / restaurant area - they even put on the sound system (oh the pan pipes). The fare was simple but just what we wanted - pasta, fish and trench bread - it was great- they even produced yogurt for dessert.

some random things I learned about France - they still use pay phone boxes - when we were in the small towns people used them the whole time. French drivers are nicer to cyclists than anywhere I have ever cycled i.e. Ireland and Amsterdam. They do not know what wifi is - as they have it nowhere! Internet access is also limited - hence my lack of updates.

Funny things which happened - Septima got knock over by a bee ( he buzzed so near to me I lost my footing and fell - Jon claims the bee pushed me - I think he saw the bee movie too many times and is going to sue) - I fell in a big mud puddle (one day after a heavy nights rain all the bike paths turned to mud - literally and going through a big puddle my bike ground to a halt and the splat- Jon was all sympathy as he shouted “don't stop” knowing that he was the next puddle victim!

The most interesting thing of all was not the trench but the dutch ( yes they remain the only nation to actually still go camping) - when you would speak to them in trench they would answer you in trench - even though it is obvious that you both are not trench - I cannot get them to talk to me in Dutch and they will talk to me in French - bizarre. The trench on the other hand were brill if you made the least bit of sense they would persevere with the language and keep talking to you in trench They were great.


So we successfully cycled for between 500-600 km - still not sure if I really enjoyed the cycling but I liked the exercise - the camping was fine so it gets a big thumbs up (Andy smiths tent is class). The food and wine were brilliant and my tan is back with a vengeance, so it was definitely a result of a holiday.



So now we are heading back - we are heading back to the Dam and then on Tuesday we are off on the train again to Finland and then too Russia.

Really having a good time with my boy no matter what we do.

Seppy and Jon

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Comments

[Kate]

trench?
Who and what are the trench?