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| All the luggage made it! |
Travel days are just a blur. We left home at 10:30 am Sunday, drove to Chicago, flew overnight, managing to doze on the plane a couple hours at best, then stayed awake until 10pm local time Monday. The good news is we slept really well Monday night! All our luggage made it in good shape, though one bike case has a lovely new divot in the shell… Thanks American Airlines!
Our one mistake was taking public transportation from the airport to the hotel in Paris. Brian had thought he found a train that went straight from the airport to the station by our hotel. I didn’t ask about that specifically at the ticket office, so we got a train that required us to transfer to the Metro to get to our hotel by Gare Montparnasse. Both bike cases weighed in just under 50 pounds, plus we took another old hardshell American Tourister suitcase with our fenders, racks and some of the heavier tools. Fortunately, those three have a handle and two wheels each. The biggest hassle was the nearly 50 pound duffle with a couple of our packed panniers, the camping gear, my trunk and Brian’s rear bag. Add to that a pannier each and our front bags on our shoulders. Then imagine us carrying all that up and down about a million steps to make the transfer from the train to the metro and from the metro back out of the station. Then in 90f degree heat about half a mile to the hotel. We both have sore arms and shoulders today! Next time: taxi.
We dropped our luggage at the hotel and set off on errands. We needed local sims so our phones can get data. Orange has a good deal, btw. On the Holiday package, for 39 € you get 10gb, unlimited local calling and 1000 texts. They only last 15 days, but we can top them up then so they’ll get us through the trip. After we got that taken care of, we set off on search of lunch. We found an adorable little family run place that had a wonderful selection of gallettes and a friendly atmosphere, La Duchesse Anne.
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| Gallettes chez Duchesse Anne |
We had planned to go to a local bike shop to get souvenir water bottles since we intentionally didn’t bring ours. Turns out it was Monday and all the nearby ones were closed, but we have plenty of opportunity for that before we get underway in earnest.
Back at the hotel, fatigue was setting in, both from the travel and from the heat. Fortunately our hotel, which is très mignon, has good air conditioning! We rested up a bit, then steeled ourselves to go build our bikes. They had a tiny courtyard we could use… More like a secret garden. The doorway was even small. The concierge couldn’t help but crack a Dr. Who joke in English, “it’s bigger on the inside!” We had just enough room to work, but it was made even more sweaty since the AC units were dumping hot air on us from above the whole time!
It went really well, start to finish in under 2 hours, and only one bolt lost. Fortunately it was one that we have plenty of extras of, so no worries. We were able to lock the bikes up in that courtyard for the night, which was really nice. The hotel is also keeping our cases for us until we return at the end of our trip. We worked that out with them by email well in advance. An alternative could have been lockers at the train station, but I’d be worried the whole time!
On Tuesday we rode our bikes, fully loaded, back to the train station to go to St. Brieuc where I spent a summer with a host family in high school. Much easier than carrying our bikes and all of the luggage! The larger train stations have elevators to the platforms, but to get into the station, we had to roll our bikes down a long flight of stairs. With all that weight on them, I had a grip on my brakes the whole way.
We had reserved this trip to include bicycle
service. Good thing, too. Turns out it’s only by reservation. There was a special car that had one section of 4 seats that folds up and straps to secure the bikes. Our assigned seats are just across the aisle. We’ll see how it goes with the regional trains tomorrow, since you can’t reserve for bikes in advance.
We got to St. Brieuc and Paul, the French father of the family, met me at the train station. Despite our emails back and forth, it hadn’t
occurred to him we’d have our bikes. So he drove in front of us the 6 or so kilometers back to their house. What a great ride! Right along the coast, so many memories
flooding back, such beautiful scenery. It was almost all downhill from the station, but a descent climb back up to their little village of St. Laurent. Totally worth it! The house, Nicole, Paul, all such great memories. I’ve been here twice in college and then once 5 years ago with the family. I would have never predicted I’d get to come back that much.
After spending what seemed like hours catching up, with me trying to keep Brian caught up on the conversation, we freshened up in our room.
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This was a gift my
Mom made to bring
Nicole the first time! |
Did I mention they’re having a heatwave here? Over 90f. That hill climb left us pretty sweaty! Then we left to walk in a local park on the coast and then on to Rosaires to walk along the beach on the promenade. After that we had reservations at a great little restaurant that makes traditional gallettes. These are like crêpes, but heartier. They’re larger and made with bulgar wheat. We washed it down with local cidre and had crêpes for dessert. Now I really need a good long bike ride to
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| Paul ponders his giant dessert! |
work off all this great food!
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| At Rosaires |
I’m exhausted. It’s not just from the travel. Just functioning in a second language is tiring, but trying to translate constantly is an entirely different skill, one that uses all the brain cells I can engage!
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| Crepe with caramel buerre sele |
Tomorrow we visit just a bit longer, then we catch the train to Nantes to begin our bicycle trip. But first we have to climb that hill back into St. Brieuc!
Birdlady42
