Samedi et dimanche

After a lovely breaki with my hosts I set of with some level of uncertainty after yesterday’s mind games on the bike. I knew I had around 85k to do and I was determined to follow the EV6 cycle route. Well…I can report it was a great day! I travelled over gravel, canal paths and small back roads all day. Yes, the wind was always in my face but that aside, it was sunny and dry! I stopped in the gorgeous town of Gian for a mid morning coffee, and here met a fellow cyclist. Feck aren’t we the most boring people to talk to!! He went on and on and on about this trip and that and I swear he never once asked where I was from or where I was going!! Shoot me please if I ever get like that (some might say……!!)

The scenery was stunning all day and tho Bob was quite sick (it sounded like two pissed off cats in the bottom bracket I had no misfortunes like yesterday. I had been forewarned about the climb in to Sancerre and whilst I didn’t need to go to the village (as I was staying near the canal) I decided to try. Well, around 150 metres in the road reared up and I stopped and wondered what I was doing! But then I thought ‘Sod it….I’ll keep trying’ so I chucked it in the 46 and hauled my sorry arse up this most ridiculous of climbs (of course Maps had found the toughest route to the top!). It ground on for about 1k at 20 odd percent with Bob groaning with the task. But god it was worth it at the top. What an amazing place!

I then flew down the other side to the one supermarket I knew was open and right next door was a bike shop. Bingo! Got chatting to the owner and through sign language and verbal gymnastics I was able to explain my predicament! I had a spare set of bearings so together we went to work. I think he said ‘c’est de la merde’ when he say the crap bearing that were fitted in Ireland! He laughed! I didn’t! Anyway….the sound of silence was restored to Bobs Bottom Bracket!
I stayed overnight in a sort of gite…a family run type of bed and breakfast but it wasn’t particularly good – they forgot they had fee paying guests and family chaos continued all evening. I was glad to leave this morning!

Ok so as I meandered today (more like buried myself in to the unrelenting headwinds of the Loire) I pondered a few things about France:

1: you do not need the precision of a Swiss Watch to know the exact time in France. Stand outside any shop in France at 1o’clock and you’ll have the exact time, for this is precisely when the doors close. Exactement!

2: I now know how NASA work out their ‘window of opportunity’ to launch. They send their best and brightest to France to examine how the whole of French life is dominated by tiny ‘windows’ when a shop (or anything come to that) might actually be open. There are minuscule windows in any given day when something, anything, is actually open. Outside of that….forget it! And as for launching on a Sunday….the windows all have shutters on them, so don’t waste your time!

3: to Team Ineos, or McLaren….forget your wind tunnels and ‘marginal gains’….just bring your time trial bikes and your F1 cars to the Loire and voila…wind tunnel for free 😊.

Today was another good day, though Bob continues to fall apart on me – these tracks have wreaked havoc with the bike especially as it’s so heavily laden. I got through the day well until I tried to find a supermarket open (🤣🤣🤣). I had directions to one which was open in the afternoon but when I got there I couldn’t find it. I was in an area which was clearly very run down, with significant signs of social deprivation. However, just as I was about to resign myself to having snack bars for tea tonight I asked a guy where the market was and he pointed out a small shop heavily boarded up. I got everything I needed and then bang….the heavens opened in what can only be described as a freak weather system….rain like a monsoon, hideous thunder and near constant lightning! In the end I had to leave as the shop was shutting so I did the last 4K in torrential rain 🌧!  But at least it was warm!

Thursday and Friday

Thursday was a day of rest!! And gee did I need it. I stayed with a host called Susan who comes from England but has made France her home for decades. Her home was utterly delightful. I had an apartment all too myself which was incredible. Susan is a cycle tourist too, and a tandem rider in to the mix too so we had much to share and reflect on. She had a cat at behaved like a dog and a dog that behaved like a cat!
In the morning I tried to map out my next week as I knew I had to be in certain places at certain times to ensure I could connect with colleagues in Australia. That done is strolled in to the gorgeous village of Beaugency -picture perfect French village. I can see why Susan made this her home – just beautiful. As she had ridden the Eurovelo 6 route a few times she was able to guide me through the route, with countless expressions of ‘you cannot get lost, it’s sign posted all the way…’. Note to self – trust your instincts when someone makes it sound so easy-peasy!
During the night it bucketed down with thunder and lightening so I awoke to a very damp morning with more rain before I set off for Sully Sur Le Loire. I found the EV6 easily but that was about the only highlight of the day! I am not ashamed to say I wept today – a combination of fatigue, general weariness, getting utterly lost (….’you can’t get lost…!!), then puncture after puncture after puncture. The first 20k on the veloway would have been easier in a boat! After some serious downpours of late the track which was hard gravel was submerged in large sections. Bob did not appreciate it one bit! Neither did I. Then the signs disappeared so I got lost going in to Orleans then …bang! Blew the back tyre. I found a coffee shop and asked for a bike shop which luckily was only a K away so I walked to it, filthy wheel in hand to get things fixed. The bike was a complete mess, as was I and the bags, one of which of course I couldn’t take off as it’s held on with cable ties!! This saga took an hour! Having got out of Orleans I then swapped my Maps to ‘car’ which then proceeded to take me to a motorway despite it being set to avoid that! Then I punctured! So I stopped for a bite to eat and try pull myself together. I had done about 30k in 3.5 hours. I got utterly lost soon after restarting. And punctured again. My cassette had worn loose and my bottom bracket which I did a temporary fix on day 1 in France gave up the ghost. So I walked the last 3k to my hosts. I was feeling pretty fragile! A hot shower and a cup of tea helped 😊. I spent the next two hours washing, fixing and generally giving some TLC to Bob! My hosts were so understanding and I appreciated not having to cook or camp tonight. 70k in 6 hours tells its own story. I had a huge sense of disappointment as I wanted the Loire valley veloway to be such a wonderfully calming experience…,it was anything but. And for other cyclists reading this you’ll know that feeling of just not trusting your bike any more – that it seems to be on a self destruct road and you can’t get off it. It takes all the joy out of riding when you’re constantly wondering ‘what next’. Tomorrow I can only but hope is better. I need new tyres and new tubes for sure….priority number one when I get to Sancerre tomorrow! I’m going to bed utterly exhausted and to be honest, homesick and sick of travelling! But I also know that’s just part of the tapestry that is cycle touring. France has thrown up challenges every day and so far I’ve coped – today was a step too far and it showed!
Tx

Sloooow down Tuesday:
Having made the decision to take a leaf out of Daniels book and slow down, I awoke with a calmness which has been missing. Knowing I could do my 85k and feel ok about it was refreshing! After an excellent petit dejeuner with my hosts, I set off to enjoy the day. I listened to podcasts, stopped to take photos and drink coffee, and generally reflected on a number of things, something which had gone astray in recent weeks. I had forgotten what all this was about. It had become about the destination not the journey, about emptying myself and in the process missing the bloody point…and then feeling so wrecked as to simply want to sleep! I’ve spent a career doing that, as well as spending a life dominated by seeking external validation. Lessons on this trip come from the strangest of places!
It was an utterly enjoyable day, full of off- road tracks, forest roads and cycle paths, though the open fields threw up their own challenge of strong cross winds! I stopped for lunch in a small crossroads/cross track in the middle of a forest…a moment to savour. I found myself just being happy to be on the bike and in my own head, reflecting on how old habits are so stubbornly rusted on. The urge to keep pushing on, to do huge distances, when actually that stops me from really enjoying the experience.
I loved this quote in reading Bessels book (again!)

‘Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer’
Rainer Maria Rilke

I love the idea of ‘loving the questions’…and not trying to answer them!

Slowed down: Wednesday
I don’t think anything prepared me for todays riding experience. I had heard about the ‘haut vente’ of the Loire – winds that whip across the wide open plains of central France. Well they didn’t disappoint 🥲. I remember doing a 62k climb in Malaysia to the Cameron Highlands. Today was a 64k ‘climb’ except with almost zero elevation!

Kilometre after kilometer the wind smacked in to the side of the bike which has the aerodynamics of a shipping container! Hour after hour at 15kph….expending huge amounts of energy to go nowhere is soul destroying. With a cadence of 90-100 it’s exhausting simply to stay upright and whenever there was a slight downhill my speed would increase by a measly 2-3kph and then only with pedalling. If I freewheeled I think I’d have been pushed back up the hill 🤣. At least when you’re climbing there’s a sense of elevation, scenery, the challenge of the climb. Here….”boring as batshit”, as the Aussies would say. It was the French equivalent of the Nullabor! I must confess to simply hating it. There was no enjoyment whatsoever….nothing to see, except seeing the road disappear across the plain knowing you had to get across to that horizon only to be greeted with….more of the bloody same! A lesson in mental fortitude and bloody mindedness 😊. I arrived at my Warm Showers host utterly stuffed. But nothing that a hot shower, food and a warm bed won’t resolve!! Rest day tomorrow- after 8 days of cycling (admittedly some days only being short ones) my body, mind and soul need a break!

Snap, crackle and popped!

Sunday….was, er, ‘interesting’! I’m sitting writing this on a bench outside a church in the back Arse of nowhere in a town which could easily double up as a grave yard! I had forgotten just how absolute the shut downs are in France! On the one hand it’s nice as it’s so different from the 24/7 openness of most places but….when you want a coffee and a Coca Cola it’s shite!! Fortunately I had packed sandwiches, snacks and fruit so sitting in the church square was very pleasant – quiet, but very pleasant!
After a battle with Maps to get me out of Rennes (note to self…..avoid Rennes!) I found myself utterly lost in an apartment car park when this little shite of a dog (when I say dog, I mean ‘rat’ so favoured by the French) chased me, much to the owners amusement! In the end I sprayed it with coke but in so doing lost my balance and whilst remaining upright my panniers weren’t so lucky, snapping off the rack. Snap being the only word as the clasps that hold the pannier to the frame sheered right off. Whoops! I’d only done 10k and my day looked over. I sat for a while pondering what to do.

Remembering I had my faithful cable ties and a spare strap I made a temporary repair. Bingo…we were mobile again. Periodically Maps took me off down lanes and tracks ….not ideal with panniers precariously strapped to the bike! But somehow they stayed together with minor adjustments every now and then. Some of the tracks were pleasant enough whereas others were simply outrageous….having to push the bike up crazy embankments and over ditches, and in one situation being confronted, having descended down a gravel track, with a small lake! I had to push the bike up the track and when I found terra ferma it only redirected back down to the same bloody track! One day I’d like to meet the little shite who devised the ‘cycle’ routes in Maps. If you had an ordinary road bike it would simply disintegrate! There should be warning on this part of the App….something like ‘only use this option if you’re completely bonkers and are happy to wreck your bike and wear your cleats out, as you’ll spend more time pushing than pedalling. No refunds offered because if you’re mad enough to use the app you’re not safe with money!’
Today was also about the head wind too….so many times I just ‘popped’ – it was just unrelenting as it swept across the open fields.

I eventually arrived in Sabre sur Sarthe around 5 – 8 +hrs at 15kph average! This was a day that kept on giving…..the ‘open all year’ campsite was very much not open, and the hotels were booked out because of some horse racing carnival in town! Oh the joys, the joys. I sat and contemplated my fate for an hour or so, so buggered from the ride I was unable to contemplate moving an inch further. I pitched up outside a motel which was shut until 6:30 but it’s wifi was free so I hot spotted off it to track down a bed ….no easy feat! But in the end alls well that ends well. Went to bed buggered!!

Monday; hop, skip and a jump!
Rest day with a short 25k spin to my first experience of Warm Showers, an app which connects you with fellow cycle tourists who can host you for a night – hot shower, food and bed! My hosts lived in close to Sable so after finding something to repair the pannier I set off and after an hour arrived to this sleepy village. I enquired as to the whereabouts of the hosts address in this heaving metropolis with the one person I could find, who had no idea! In France it’s a patience game….so I rested and waited and soon a woman arrived who, whilst not knowing the couple or the address, went out of her way to find it then asked me to follow her in her car until we arrived at Daniel and Huguette’s gorgeous French cottage. Both retired educators, they greeted me with such warmth, friendship and…food!! Lots of food. They have travelled far and wide on their bikes, all the while stopping to paint/draw, or simply soak in the atmosphere of where they were. Incredible. And when I came to sort out my bike I found a few more issues which required tools….Huguette was on the phone sorting it out, got me to a shop where the problem was solved and drove me back. Today I experienced the real France, with their quiet generosity and kindness, willing to open their doors to complete strangers who share a common love of cycling.
What it also taught me was that cycle touring is not about the destination but the journey. On Tuesday I had planned to cover the 150 to the next host but made a decision ….nope, slow down, stop flogging yourself. Stop after 80, then get to the host on Wednesday fresh! An important lesson for me as I’ve found I’ve been focussed too much on ‘how far’ not ‘what did you see’, something which is long standing trait of mine, thinking others will be more impressed with the huge distance! Thank you Huguette and Daniel!

l pleut comme vache qui pisse!!

Well, just as forecast, the weather was as good as it said it would be….shite! I woke to a very wet tent having got completely waterlogged over night (tho I slept very well apart from that bloody wasp sting). It was a mad panic to get things put away dry, but I gave up in the end when I discovered that I had forgotten to put away my winter rain cycling jacket I had hung on a nearly tree…to dry! It was soaking ….nothing says ‘let’s go cycling today’ than putting on wet cycling gear! Not that it made a blind bit of difference as within 2 minutes I was soaked anyway. It wasn’t ‘cats and dogs’ rain, but a constant fine rain which gets in to your clothes in minutes. In Ireland, they’d say ‘tis a grand soft day’! Feck ‘soft’ it was bloody wet…full stop! But it was actually quite warm -around 14 or so- so whilst I was pretty soaked I was never really cold. That might have something to do with the heartbreaker hills in Brittany ….short, 12-15% ers that sap you of energy but keep you warm! On a few I was in my granny gear and struggling to hold the front of the bike down. But even these stinkers gave way eventually to more reasonable roads. My ‘Maps’ set on ‘cycle’ mode delivered again…delivered me to dirt tracks, footpaths and deviations which took me through every small hamlet and god forsaken hole on a mistaken belief that cyclist love nothing more that adding countless kilometres to their trip by sidetracking you in to these lost worlds ….via goat tracks, farm yards and orchards! But…don’t tell Maps, but it was actually very interesting and did keep me away from…well, from civilisation actually 🤣🤣!

I eventually made it to St Briuec (too many vowels to know which order they come in!) to find that the owner of the Air BnB I was due to stay in had forgotten to put the keys in this state of the art digital key holder! After sitting around in wet gear trying to think what to do (as I don’t have wifi) I thought ‘ I’ll just check under the door mat’ 🤣🤣….yep. All that wanky digital thingy and the keys were under the mat!

Breezing along in Brittany!

I had a shite night….the wasp sting was so irritating I couldn’t sleep. At around 4, having tried everything including putting my hand in the freezer, I remembered I have anti histamines in my magic medical kit! That helped!

I set off before sun rise here (like the French it arises late here – 8:32!), and was treated to a lovely sunrise. Today was one of those days where you smile at the joy of riding. The roads were exceptional, the landscape stunning, and when Maps took me off road it did me a real favour-15+ kms of dirt track cycle path which is stunning. Apart from having to learn how to ride over the fallen conkers and acorns- that was like riding on marbles or ice but I worked it out quick enough – you just belt over the top of them as fast as you can!!

Todays ride was 112k of glorious riding. I arrived early in Rennes, which couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the preceding 112k – a concrete jungle devoid of any character (though I’m staying on the outskirts so the city might be better…I’ll pass through tomorrow so I’ll let ye know!!)