Loire a Velo with Friends
| 2018-06-18: Mandatory Pre-Trip Night Before | ||
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| Laura and I have been planning a beginner self-supported cycle tour along the Loire Valley in France ever since our tour in Germany in 2017. We have ten riders for the mandatory pre-trip... I guess we'll see how many we get for the actual trip!\n Tonight we convened at Jarvis Bay Campground at Sylvan Lake and camped overnight. Jarvis Bay was gracious enough to let us leave our vehicles in their parking lot while we do our tour. Yay for Jarvis Bay!
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| 2018-06-19: Mandatory Pre-Trip Day 1 | ||
| We convened at Jarvis Bay Provincial Park at Sylvan Lake last night. This morning, our group of 10 riders did a great job of getting an early start (not perfect, but that takes practice). We rode from Jarvis Bay to the west side of Gull Lake via Bentley where we stopped for lunch.\n As we were on approach to Sunset Legion, we had a short stretch of gravel road to complete today's journey. The gravel road included a fairly steep downhill, and, unfortunately, Lisa took a spill on the gravel. Doug and Lisa did not continue with the trip afterwards, but they did follow us with the truck and camp with us the remaining two nights.
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| 2018-06-20: Mandatory Pre-Trip Day 2 | ||
Today we retraced our steps back to Bentley. After a break in Bentley, we continued east where we briefly had a separated cycle path, which was nice. We found our way to Wilson's Beach Campground, which was a little tricky to find because of construction that had changed the route slightly since I'd scoped it out the year before.
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| 2018-06-21: Mandatory Pre-Trip Day 3 | ||
Day last. Doug and Lisa had stopped riding after Day 1. Lynn stopped riding at lunch today (another visit to the Monkey Top in Bentley), and Ann stopped riding in the scary scary traffic heading north on Highway 20. After we finished the ride, we collected everyone back up, and returned home. A very successful pre-trip indeed.
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| 2019-01-27: The Touring Crew | ||
| After this trip was planned and the mandatory pre-trip executed, a couple of things happened in Laura's life - she had a medical event in the summer of 2018 which may have prevented her from doing the tour in France... and she got a new job and moved to Vancouver which may have prevented her from doing the tour in France.\n We always figured that Ann was our most likely candidate for coming on the trip, but Ann had indicated that if Laura didn't come, she wouldn't come. Lynn and Geoff were a solid maybe, Trisha wanted to come, but only for a portion of the trip, Michel was not interested in the trip (he came on the pre-trip just for the fun of it), and Doug and Lisa aren't ready for a month of self-supported cycle touring.\n Toward the end of November 2018, Brent and I had a chat about what we would do instead of the Loire if it ended up just being the two of us on the trip. After all, if Laura was out, Ann was out, and likely there was no beginner trip. No sense in Brent and me doing the beginner trip with no beginners! Plus, we've already done most of the Loire in 2015.\n In early December, Laura confirmed that she was going to be able to do the tour. YAY!! So, then the three of us had a chat about what we might do instead of the beginner trip if it ended up being just the three of us.\n In mid-December, Ann confirmed that she was in for the trip... and in January she put her money where her mouth was and paid for flights to and from France. YAY!! We have a beginner for our beginner tour!\n Shortly after Ann bought her flights, Geoff and Lynn also bought flights, so now we have even MORE beginners! YAY!! A full complement of beginners for our beginner tour.\n As of this writing, Trisha is planning on coming as well, meeting us in Nevers where she'll rent the bike and gear she'll need to do about ten days with us. | ||
| 2019-04-10: Hard-Copy Maps | ||
| Brent and I got the \"EuroVelo 6 Part 1: Atlantic - Basel\" map from Huber (http://www.craenen.be/index.php?pid=204) when we were in Europe in 2015. We really like it a lot, but:\n 1) It is now four years old and I'm not sure if anything has changed\n 2) I like having more than one hard-copy resource for my evening-ly dreamin' and schemin'\n so, I decided I should at least try to get the Bikeline Loire-Radweg map. There were a few places I could order it from, but I liked Omnimap (http://www.omnimap.com/) the best, so I ordered it from there on January 19.\n When the order hadn't arrived by March 5th, I contacted them to find out what was going on. I was advised that Omni had gone out of business and was acquired by East View Map Link in December, and the timing of my order was during the chaos of them acquiring Omni's orders and inventory. The diligent customer service rep that I dealt with assured me that she would get my order taken care of and I would have the map by mid-May. It arrived on April 10th, so now I'm all happy and I have the resources I need for my evening obsessing.
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| 2019-04-11: France and Canada Flags | ||
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| 2019-04-20: The Montague Twins! | ||
The Montague Twins arrived today! I'm so excited I \"blogged myself\"! https://www.faintofheartcycletouring.blog/2019/04/the-montague-twins.html
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| 2019-04-27: Veloria Luggage Trial | ||
Brent and I hosted a \"Three Killer Hills\" event for the EOC today and I took the opportunity to load Veloria up with all my luggage and try her out loaded. I don't have all my gear in the luggage, rather, I filled it with water bottles and styrofoam, but I think it's about 2/3 of my normal carrying weight.
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| 2019-04-28: Front Pannier Racks | ||
The Navigators aren't meant to have front panniers on them (it interferes with the folding), but Brent and I need our front panniers. We've been faddling and angst-ing about how we're going to make it work with these bikes and considering all kinds of new racks and modifications. In the end it turns out that our existing racks are going to work. My Filzer rack fits on just fine with only minor mods to the skewer itself, and Brent's low-rider racks go on with just a minor mod to the mount. In the most Canadian McGyver way, he chopped up a hockey puck to make spacers for the top mounts.
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| 2019-05-02: Re-Arranging Flights Home | ||
| When we were initially booking our flights, Ann chose a specific flight from Calgary, connecting through Halifax, because it was the same flight number (her bike wouldn't have to come off the plane and get back on the plane). Brent and I didn't have that kind of an option from Edmonton, so, since connecting onto Ann's plane in Halifax was an option, we chose that option. Return was the same way.\n Turned out that our flights (specifically our return from Paris to Halifax) were affected by the global grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes - WestJet has suspended all flights between Halifax and Paris, effective June 3.\n Ann called WestJet right away (a few days ago) and they said we'd be contacted in turn for a resolution. I vowed to be patient.\n Today I checked the WestJet web site and my flight from Paris to Halifax was missing, and the web site said \"all affected customers have been re-accommodated\". Well, I haven't been re-accommodated! So, my patience ran out, and I called WestJet to find out what was going on.\n I spoke with a lovely customer service rep who assured me that we would get a resolution, but they were working their way through everyone according to how soon their flights were. I told her that we were going on a cycle tour and I wouldn't be able to deal with resolving the flights after we'd left at the beginning of June. She said they were figuring out how to get everyone to Halifax without having to come all the way to Calgary to get there. I said... wait a minute... there's no reason for us to go to Halifax - our final destination is Edmonton (and our friend is Calgary).\n She put me on hold and came back momentarily to say that she could put Brent and me on \"Flight 3\" direct from Paris to Calgary on July 1st and then a connecting flight from Calgary to Edmonton, arriving YEG at about 9:30PM. I told her that we'd be traveling with our bicycles, and I was concerned about our bikes being able to get on the flight at Calgary because the planes they use for that short commuter flight are often very small. She went away and came back again, having moved us onto a larger plane, arriving YEG at about 9:45PM. I gave her a \"Hero Cookie\" for all of her assistance.\n I told Ann about everything, and Ann called them and got booked onto \"Flight 3\" on July 1 as well. I booked the three of us an extra night at the hotel in Paris. Our \"Room for Four\" wasn't available for the extra night, so I booked us a \"Room for Three\", so the three of us will have to change rooms once Laura has vacated. \n I'm glad to have this little hiccup resolved... and I'm glad it doesn't involve me riding in a MAX 8 aircraft! If/when they go back into service, I'm not sure I'd want to be one of the first people riding on one. | ||
| 2019-05-11: Training: Highway 66 | ||
| A group of our friends, including Geoff and Ann, who are also training for France, came out to ride Highway 66 today. The highway is closed to vehicular traffic until May 15th. We love doing this ride just before it is re-opened. It was warm today - short-sleeve weather, to my surprise. \n I was very happy with how both Veloria, and my flag assembly fared in the wind and on the fast downhills. We reached 62km/hour downhill in the wind. The bike is awesome. It's a smidgen harder to ride than Dewey, but I love the more upright posture.\n \n
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| 2019-05-16: Packing Party | ||
Laura is in Calgary this week, so tonight she got together with Ann, Lynn and Geoff for a \"pizza and packing\" party, specifically to teach our \"newbs\" how to pack their bikes up. Lynn and Geoff practiced, but kept their bikes out for riding over the next couple of weeks. Ann's bike is now packed up. Good job, Ann!
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| 2019-05-29: Don't Miss in the Loire | ||
| 2019-05-30: Group Messages - Planning | ||
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| 2019-05-31: Planning and Prep | ||
| I started a new blog this year, called \"Self-Supported Cycle Touring for the Faint of Heart\". It's mostly for me, but maybe someday someone else will get some value from it.\n During my preparations for this trip, I wrote a few posts:\n
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| 2019-06-01: Head to France | ||
| Brent and I got up at 1am today. I’ve been slowly moving my body clock up so that I’ll have an easier transition to France time when we get there. Brent had thought about maybe doing an all-nighter, but then instead slept for a few hours and got up with me at 1. We had a leisurely breakfast and did some last-minute prep and cleaning. Tannis showed up, as planned, at 4am to take us to the airport. Previously our stuff boxes have gone on the belt with other luggage at the airport, and only the bikes had to go to the oversized screening, but today they made us put everything through oversized. Not sure why. They weren’t oversized and nothing was overweight. \n\n checking in was amazingly easy and pain-free, so... we ended up having LOADS of time waiting around at YEG before our first flight. The flight to Halifax was only about four hours, but it was kind of tough because we were both struggling to stay awake. We planned to connect through Halifax so that we could connect with Ann, and that resulted in us having a seven-hour layover at the Halifax airport. We walked some ‘laps’ of the very small terminal, had dinner and some drinks. In the interest of maintaining my body clock momentum, I commenced with napping at around 7pm Halifax time and got about 1 or 1.5 hours of sleep before Ann showed up on her flight from Calgary. \n\n The flight to Paris was about six hours, and Brent and I slept through pretty much the whole thing. We arrived in Paris at about 10AM on June 2nd, and so far no one feels completely wretched - we’re all doing pretty good.
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| 2019-06-02: Stay Hotel Le Vert Galant | ||
| Brent, Ann and I landed in Paris. We had to wait in a super long immigration line, but by the time we got out to the luggage area, our luggage was all sitting there out in the open waiting for us. We assembled bikes while Laura waited for us at the Brioche Dorée café outside of Arrivals (she’d gotten there an hour before us, assembled her bike, and made her way to our terminal to meet up).\n\n I really needed something to eat, so we had a quick bite at Brioche Dorée and then came the challenging part of the day. We chose to ride from the airport to our hotel, which is about 14km - easy distance, but... a lot of it at, and near, a major international airport. Thankfully I had found a great blog that describes, in tremendous detail, how to ride from CDG to downtown Paris, with the route taking you right past our hotel. The blog said traffic on the route was not bad, and we decided to go for it. It turned out great — I’m glad we rode and would definitely do it again. \n\n In addition to riding from an airport, something that was even more challenging for me was to keep my nose out of the route-finding. Brent and Laura are the trip’s navigation team. I am the absolute pits for navigation, especially in towns and cities, and especially if I’m tired and/or anxious. So, I did my best to keep my nose out of everything and Brent and Laura did a stellar job of navigating us to the hotel where we met up with Geoff and Lynn.
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| 2019-06-03: Travel to Nevers | ||
| For a day spent on logistics, today was a pretty awesome day. Everyone was up and ready to go at our chosen time. Geoff and Lynn already knew the way to the Canal D’ourcq, so they led us over there. The ride down the canal was easy and lovely. When we reached the end of the canal, Brent and Laura used their stellar navigation skills to take us nearly directly to Gare de Bercy where we arrived about 30minutes before the Rhonda/Brent/Lynn/Geoff train departed. The train station was on one level so there were no ups-and-downs to get onto the platform. An easy load onto the train and the four of us were off, with Laura and Ann following on the next train. At Nevers, Lynn got directions to the campground and we had an easy ride over. Upon getting our campsites arranged (at the only ‘zeltplatz’ I’ve seen so far in France), Geoff and Brent dumped their gear and headed back to the Gare to collect Laura and Ann while Lynn and I put up our tents. \n\n The campground has great washrooms, free WiFi near the reception building, a laundromat (which we’re not ready for yet), free showers and taps for potable water.
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| 2019-06-04: Ride to Beffes | ||
| Off to a really slow start today, but still ended up doing 40km which is awesome for this early in the trip. \n\nToday was a day of escapes:\n - the air from THREE tires (fixing flats was our biggest delay)\n - the ukulele off the back of my pack\n - Brent’s rear wheel (yikes!)\n - my flags off the back of my bike and Geoff’s flag off the back of his - neither was lost, unlike Laura’s which escaped for good yesterday. \n\nThank goodness for Lynn and her maps app as it knew there was camping at Beffes (which my maps didn’t show) and knew that there was no camping at two places that my maps said there was.
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| 2019-06-05: Rainy rest day in Beffes | ||
| Windows Surface is officially done. The machine is still working but the browser is no longer able to deal with web sites. I’m abandoning it and I’ll do DAMDetails via my phone (at least for now because... ugh). \n The computer owes me nothing. I bought it for our tour in 2015 because I needed a Windows machine to send in my 2015 FYE to my accountant. I really only wanted it to survive long enough to do that. I didn’t need anything fancy, so I bought the basic Surface 2 (not even Pro). It did survive, obviously. It survived that six-month tour through bumps and rain and heat, and survived several more vacations as well. It hasn’t ‘died’ per-se, but it’s gotten to the point where the defunct browser can no longer deal with the web sites I want (and it can’t be upgraded). I’m sad to see it go, but it doesn’t owe me anything. I’m so pleased with my ability to French now. My hat’s off to my dedicated tutor, Erika. I’m able to converse so much more easily and naturally than if I had simply done self-study. Each day I’ve been recording which verbs I’m using (both speaking and hearing) so that I know which ones to focus on for future language study. We decided to take a rest day today because the forecast was calling for 11mm of rain over the course of the day. Yeah... that isn’t happening, but at least we’re at this WONDERFUL campground.
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| 2019-06-06: Ride to Saint-Satur | ||
Other than one flat tire, a pleasant, uneventful ride to Sancerre today. Lynn wanted to go up the hill to see the old town of Sancerre so we rode only 36km and set up camp. Laura and I stayed behind while the others went up the hill.
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| 2019-06-07: Ride to Briare | ||
| We decided that we couldn’t trust the forecast of rain for the day and left at 8 as planned. We had small sprinkles through the morning and then around 11:00 it started getting worse and worse. By the time we reached Beaulieu-sur-Loire, it was an absolute downpour. We looked at crossing the bridge, which had no separate cycle option and decided that was a no-go in the downpour, so into town we went for a break. We invaded the pub and were equally entertained by, and entertaining to, the proprietor and his clientele. We had some Frenglish laughs and an amazing lunch while the rain eased off. After lunch, the bridge was still scary, but at least do-able. We took the lane and made it across as quickly as possible. \n\n When we were just one km from our campground, one of Brent’s front racks broke... and it broke bad. We’re now hoping to find a bike shop to buy a new one, or a welder to help fix this one. \n\n Brent McGyvered a fix for his front rack using bits of an old chain and some hose clamps. He’s so delightfully manly. Sully-sur-Loire is 40km down the line and has a bike shop that is open tomorrow. Hopefully he can pick up a replacement rack or get this one properly repaired.
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| 2019-06-08: Ride to Sully | ||
| Today was my turn to have the flat tire. No idea what caused it. Brent changed it and didn’t find a hole or a cause but it was definitely leaking. We found a store in Sully that sells patch kits and tubes (and yes we bought some) but no racks and no repair (for Brent’s broken rack, which, so far, is holding up nicely with the McGyver fix). The repair shop looked to be permanently closed. \n\n We had a really great day all around and I’m thrilled as heck that we’ve arrived at the historic part of the Loire. Medieval towns and castles!!! So much more interesting than endless forest and rail beds. \n\n
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| 2019-06-09: Ride to Jargeau | ||
| We broke camp in lovely weather, and then right at go-time the rain started. Thankfully our campground had a cafe that opened at 8:00 for first coffee so we tried to wait it out. After two hours of trying to wait it out, Brent, Laura, Ann and I decided to get while the getting was good (lighter rain) while Geoff and Lynn waited longer. \n We had lunch and took an extended break in Chateauneuf before continuing on to Jargeau. We saw Geoff and Lynn’s bikes there, but not them. They arrived at the campground about 30min later than us. \n The rain broke around 11:30am and so far the nice weather is holding. Hopefully we can enjoy this for a while. Before dinner we walked into Jargeau to have a look around. It was a neat little town and we wandered into the only open store - ‘Velo Val de Loire’. They don’t sell front racks but we learned that Zefal is made in Jargeau. One of their products is a flat-prevention tire liner. Ann bought a set and I wish I did too. Hopefully I get another opportunity. \n
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| 2019-06-10: Ride to Olivet | ||
| Our friends from Manchester, Nick and Cathy, who we keep meeting at campgrounds, told us about staying at Olivet. It’s quite a bit off the Loire a Velo track and wasn’t on my radar but they said that you can take a tram from there into Orleans. We decided to go for it, and using a combination of Brent and Laura’s navigation brains, our paper maps and Maps.me, we cross-countried our way down. It’s a wonderful campground and I think the proprietor gave us the best site available down a hedgerow corridor to a private spot beside the canal. The train is easily accessible, and there’s a quick easy hop over to a pathway that takes us directly back up to the Loire a Velo when it’s time to leave!\n\n\n\n After setting up, Laura, Ann, Brent and I took the team into Orleans and had lunch and a look around. Yay! I’m so excited to see Place du Martroi again! Geoff and Lynn aren’t feelin’ the rhythm of our travel so they’re off on their own most of the time, making their own fun.\n
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| 2019-06-11: Ride to Beaugency | ||
| We rode from the campground up to Orleans on the separated bike path which was very civilized. We had second coffee while waiting for the bike store to open and then visited the store. They sold front racks but nothing that will work with Brent’s rig, so he is continuing to ride with his McGyver rack, which doesn’t seem to be giving him any trouble. I managed to get the flat-prevention liners I wanted though. \n After leaving Orleans, we had an easy and pleasant ride to Beaugency, arriving just as the rain started for the afternoon. \n I am having ongoing issues with my phone trying to connect to WiFi. Everyone else has been able to connect but I can’t. Maybe there’s something wrong with my antenna or something ? \n | ||
| 2019-06-12: Ride to Val de Blois | ||
| I haven’t been tracking the costs of the campgrounds because we’re always sharing expenses. They’ve been between 6E and 8E/ea everywhere we’ve stayed. I left my ukulele behind in the campground this morning. It’s getting really beat up and I’m not playing it so I don’t feel like carrying it around anymore. Hopefully someone will pick it up and give it a nice new home. \n\n As has become routine, it was quite nice when we got up but not long after the temperature dropped and we had a cool day of riding. We took the long way to Blois, via Chambord Castle, which is quite crazy. \n We had some amazing black clouds gathering just as we were waiting to get into the castle and suddenly there was a loud thunder clap and the skies opened up. Everyone rushed the door and we cuddled in the entry getting slightly less drenched than when we were completely outside. \n The storm cleared while we were inside but then more clouds gathered. Just as we left the castle it started to rain again but it only lasted a few minutes before it eased off. I was quite amazed that everyone voted to camp tonight rather than look for a hotel in Blois, but I’m so happy about it! I love camping while on a tour. It started to rain again just as we threw all of our stuff into our tents and now it’s quiet again. \n Whew! What a day. We’re all REALLY ready for the rain to stop. \n
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| 2019-06-13: Ride to Chaumont sur Loire via Blois | ||
| No rain and no flat tires. It was a glorious day! Either our luck is changing or we’ve started setting the bar really low. \n\n We camped near Blois last night and chose a near site on the other side to allow lots of time in the city today. I wanted to see the old town and Laura wanted to see the Magic museum. \n\n When we got to the campground it was so hot that our stuff dried in minutes of sitting in the sun. Amazing how something can seem so impossible one moment, and then be done the next. Our stuff had all been wet for dayyyys!\n\n We took a ‘Rhonda Detour’ today - Ann’s first. We missed a turn to stay on the paved trail and ended up doing a few km down a really rocky dirt trail. It seemed right at first but by the time we knew it was wrong we were so far along that we decided to take our chances on being able to correct further up rather than backtrack. Thankfully that worked out swimmingly - as soon as we reconnected with the road, we could see our trail again right away. The sun came out and we all celebrated by stripping on the trail. \n\n We keep running into a group of Vancouverites who are doing a tour and today we ran into them in Blois. We also met a group of four from China who are traveling the opposite direction from us. Tonight we have a couple from Sydney sharing our campsite. They have the kind of tent with a super long vestibule in the front.\n
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| 2019-06-14: Ride to Bléré | ||
| Another day of riding with no rain and no flat tires. Brent finally got to see Chenanceau castle after missing it in 2015. \n I like the spirit of the flag ensemble (country you’re visiting on top, then your own country under), but it hasn’t been working out the way I’d hoped. The Canada flag just droops while the France flag waves happily. So, tonight I am reverting to flying only Canada.
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| 2019-06-15: Ride to la Ville aux Dames | ||
| My favorite moment today was when we had to climb a relatively steep hill. We started behind a group that we’d seen before who were not friendly. The two women were on ebikes and I think the men were on regular mountain bikes. Shortly after starting, one of the men had to stop and get off. I thought, ‘oh, he’s not going to be happy about the four of us, heavily-laden, passing him by on this hill’ and oh, he was not. Especially when Laura started from a full stop on the hill and passed him. \n\n The route back from the Cher river to the Loire was supposed to be very hilly and poor surface. The surface was completely fine and there was one big climb up followed by a long false flat, followed by a down. No biggie. We had more hills in between Amboise and Tours. \n Amboise was a town that Brent and I had visited in 2015. It’s where Brent got his Loire a Velo skull cap. We went back to that store and got him a new one, got me some gloves and a replacement for my sunglasses that broke yesterday. \n
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| 2019-06-16: Ride to Bréhémont | ||
| I had FOUR flat tires today. Hopefully no one will beat that record. I got what appeared to be a pinch flat. Brent patched it. It went flat again immediately. Brent checked the patch and it was peeling off. We put on a new patch. It went flat again immediately. So, he changed out the tube entirely and that seemed to fix that one. A little later my other tire was soft from a slow leak on the valve. We didn’t get to the campsite til 6:30pm even though we only rode 45km. \n\n After my first three flats we debated about how we’d find lunch. We talked about having lunch off the bikes but we really wanted a restaurant. We decided to ride one hour and hope to find a restaurant. At Savonnières, we found a FOOD TRUCK at a park that has the best savory crepes and ice cream I’ve ever had. Yay for waiting!!
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| 2019-06-17: Ride to Saumur | ||
| The tour of flats continues. Brent had a flat first thing before we left. My front tire was soft in the middle of the day but we pumped it up and so far it is holding. \n We promised Ann two easy days of riding then a rest day at Saumur. She says ‘why take two days - can’t we get to Saumur today?’ Be careful what you wish for, my friend... be careful what you wish for. We had an easy pleasant ride to Montsoreau, including the best Second Coffee break ever in Avoine, and a great lunch at Montsoreau, and there was no question that we would continue on to Saumur. The second part of the day was incredible climbs on incredible grades through cave towns and vineyards, and scorching scorching sun. I think in the last two hours we may have broken Ann. At least we can tell she’s still alive from the groaning. \n We are planning to all take a rest day tomorrow and probably do the side trip to Doué-la-Fontaine to see the troglodytes the next day. That would mean spending three nights in Saumur.
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| 2019-06-18: Rest day in Saumur | ||
| First rest day since the 5th. Ann has been a rock star about riding every day but we all needed a rest day, especially after yesterday, which was tougher than anticipated. \n We spent the day exploring Saumur and its château, and doing errands. We’ve been talking about making adjustments to our plan for the remainder of the trip and still haven’t made a decision about where we’ll go next. \n
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| 2019-06-19: Ride to St. Mathurin sur Loire | ||
| I consider it a tremendous success that Ann got back on the bike today. She is such a rock star. We finished the hilliest part of the Loire (either side of Saumur) and are now in the home stretch. The plan is to press on to Nantes, then train to Rennes, a day trip (without bikes) to Mont St. Michel, day rides from Rennes (time permitting) then train back to Paris on the 27th. \n I’ve already gone through Veloria’s first chain. We bought a new one today and Brent is installing it. Laura was having some brake issues so Laura and Brent have fixed that as well.
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| 2019-06-20: Ride to La Possonnière | ||
| This has been one of the best days of this trip for riding weather. It was quite ideal. What was less ideal was the potato chip flu that I had for several hours. I had bought some potato chips that we ate for a snack before dinner (I really pigged out on them). I felt a little off at dinner and could hardly eat any of my delicious galette. In the middle of the night I woke up feeling food-poison-ey and tried to hurl but couldn’t. I felt queasy for half the day today. \n We took the side trip into Angers today, adding about 10km to the ride and getting lunch in town and a good look at the Chateau, which is quite an impressive structure. Brent and I didn’t recognize the way in or out of town, so we’ll have to look through our notes from 2015 to see what we did. \n One of the things we certainly did not recognize was the self-ferry. Ann and I wouldn’t have had a hope of getting across without Brent and Laura who provided all the brains, skill and brawn to get us all across safely. \n I’m very pleased to be having completely conversations with people in French, including giving other people directions. So glad I did all the French study over the last year. \n We stopped to check out one of the Catholic Churches in Angers and were treated to an organist practicing on the enormous church organ. \n I had ANOTHER flat today, bringing me up to four for the trip. I sort of had six, but three of them were all the same flat (two of them were patches that didn’t hold).
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| 2019-06-21: Ride to Ancenis | ||
| We started today with ‘Hurty, Didn’t Sleep Ann’ so I thought we’d have to shorten up the plan for the day. She started doing better once we started, though, and 20km in I thought she’d do fine for our planned 39km. Then I saw a 30km to Andenis sign. My info from the Bikeline map gave me the wrong distance to Ancenis! It would be 50+km, not 39. Yikes! So, over lunch we discussed adjusting the plan and staying instead at St-Florent-le-Vieil. We thought perhaps the 30km sign was wrong and we still might make it to Ancenis and we would just see how things went. Not long after we came to a branch which offered an alternate, more direct route, which we decided to take, keeping St-Florent in our back pockets if necessary. At the turn off for St-Florent, we decided that we could press on to Ancenis, so we did, for a total distance of 51km (on the SHORTER route). \n We met lots of folks today, including Denis at the campground who was patiently waiting for his wife to get up before beginning his day, Matt and Harry from London, Ontario (father and son- Harry being 8 years old), and Steve from Nelson. \n Laura had her feet flat today, bringing the total up between the four of us to TEN. A crazy amount of flats.
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| 2019-06-22: Ride to Thouaré-sur-Loire | ||
| We started off the day with the best breakfast ever - coffee shop across from the Ancenis Chateau across from a farmers market. We had an easy 32km ride to our campground and decided to spend only one night here and take a hotel tomorrow near the Nantes Gare for tomorrow. It was a rerun day in reverse from May 23 2015: http://www.damdetails.com/calendar/day/23
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| 2019-06-23: Errands and fun in Nantes | ||
| We cycled into Nantes from the campground today, sorted out train tickets from Nantes to Rennes and from Rennes to Paris, established that our accommodation will work ok for bike storage, and then went out to see Les Machines de L’Isle. It’s a stinkin’ hot day - I’m glad we’re not riding in the afternoon sun. \n Just as we returned to the hotel in the afternoon to check in, Brent got another flat, bringing us up to 11 between the four of us (eight just for Brent and me). Yeesh. \n Today I say hooray for the Montagues. We’re staying in a hotel in Nantes that hasn’t got much storage for bikes but I told the skeptical young woman that Brent and I could fold our bikes and put them in our room. She was quite pleased and astonished. \n I’m more than a little impressed that Brent’s McGyver pannier rack lasted the whole trip. We didn’t even know if it would last out the day when it broke and he had to figure out how to hold it together. Old bicycle chain and hose clamps for the win! This evening we walked around and saw the Chateau, and the Catholic Church and ate some galetes (savory crepes). Mmmmmmm galettes...
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| 2019-06-24: Train to Rennes | ||
| We took the train today from Nantes to Rennes, connecting in Redon. When we got to the Nantes train station there were bunches of weekend Hellfest revelers waiting for their trains. It was super crowded. We were early so we went next door for second coffee. When we got back, most of the Hellfesters were gone but we had to walk down the ramp through Child City. Again, very crowded. Our first train was jam-packed with bikes. It was quite amazing to see and we barely fit on. Brent got cussed out by a guy for being near his bike and all of us got cussed out by a grumpy old lady who was very annoyed at having to squeeze past our bikes. Our second train was also jammed but the doorway that we were crowded into allowed just enough space for people to squeeze past to get to the WC and there was no out-cussing (although some stink eyes, and I’m sure some in-cussing). Moving through the train stations was relatively easy with most of our ups and downs being on ramps instead of stairs. I had plotted out a route from the Rennes Gare to Camping Gayeulles that looked promising with lots of separated bike paths. I had it on the iPhone but that is of limited use when we’re on the move so I wrote three cheat sheets (Laura, Brent, Rhonda) and asked Brent and Laura to familiarize themselves with the toute (approx 6km through the city of Rennes). We made it to the park nearly directly with only one mistake (my fault, naturally). The campground is nice, the park is beautiful, and the cost is considerably lower than the $2500 it would cost the four of us to stay in a hotel here for three nights.
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| 2019-06-25: Day in Rennes | ||
| The four of us followed the Velo Tour de Rennes from the campground into downtown Rennes this morning. We had an interesting poke around the old town and had some lunch. Then Laura and Ann went one way to see more stuff in town while Brent and I went to run errands and finish the Velo route. \n We went to the Gare and found out where to catch the bus to Mont St Michel tomorrow, and looked into the Velo parking for the day. We had to make a couple of trips out to see the parking guy who was never there, and I was disinclined to push the ‘call’ button to try and talk to a disembodied tinny voice speaking French to me. We asked the terminal info lady who told us we had to talk to the guy. We poked around some more, and while we were stalking the Velo cage a guy came in and he confirmed that the Velo parking is free and always open. Score. \n We then tried to finish the Velo tour and discovered they beyond where we had ridden to the signage was poor, removed or damaged, and we couldn’t follow the route. Three lovely French people came by to try and help us interpret the map, and one of them did advise that the south part of the route would suck anyway. So we turned around and retraced our steps back to the campground. Oh and that was when I got yet another flat. Ohhh life is good. We managed to arrange ourselves to be in Nantes at the same time as Hellfest. Then we managed to arrange ourselves to be in Rennes at the same time as the women’s World Cup with all the revelers from the Netherlands (who especially like to revel in our campground), and, bonus, we’ve managed to arrange ourselves to be in Paris for the next round of Women's World Cup! Who planned this trip!!??
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| 2019-06-26: Mont St Michel | ||
We rode our bikes into Rennes today and Ann wiped out from expecting a slight curb to be flat (it wasn’t). But we continued on and took the bus, as planned, to Mont St Michel. The bus worked out so much better than a train to Pontorson followed by a shuttle! Mont St Michel was just as amazing as I remembered, but the crush of humanity there today was overwhelming. It is a month later than the last time we were here, and the weather is nicer.
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| 2019-06-27: Train to Paris | ||
| Brent and I left the campsite first thing this morning to catch the 9:30 train to Paris. Laura and Ann followed two hours later. We all walked over to the RER B station together and went to check in at our hotel at CDG. Who would have guessed that there would be two IBIS hotels beside each other!!?? We started off at the wrong one but the helpful desk lady quickly helped us to correct our error. \n We then went to the airport terminal, per Ann’s suggestion, to see about sourcing stuff boxes there. The luggage storage guy didn’t sell boxes but he advised that there’s a Safebox in each terminal (the guy who wraps luggage). We found a Safebag guy and he sold us two boxes. Laura and I are pondering having our panniers wrapped instead of getting boxes.
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| 2019-06-28: Prep Day and Steph visit | ||
| Brent and I headed out bright and early this morning to go meet Steph (Young) and her fiancé, Diego for a lovely lengthy brunch. Doug, I know you read this page - Steph and Diego would be interested in joining us on the Bike ‘n Barge if their life at the time permits. Laura and Ann went shopping and sight-seeing for the day. \n After brunch we went in search of bubble wrap and packing tape. We were nowhere near Cartonland nor a DHL so we just started wondering in a direction of interesting sights and a DHL. We randomly found a place called Fly Car that was closed for lunch but listed prices for bubble wrap and tape. We had a beer down the street until they opened again and then went back but apparently they don’t sell that stuff anymore. So, we assessed and decided to take the Metro to a DHL. We went to the closest one and although they sell that stuff, they don’t sell it separately - only if you’re shipping with them. But the guy was friendly and helpful and recommended an Office Depot down the road (who knew France had them!?) where we were successful in our mission. \n Returning to the hotel, we took the tent out on the grass and dried it out so that I could re-pack it dry. \n In 2015, Brent and I bought rechargeable Paris Metro pass cards that are good for five years. We brought them back with us and charged them up yesterday for the rest of our trip. Laura and Ann had to pay €40/ea for transit until we leave. Brent and I paid only €20/ea thanks to the rechargeable passes. Yay!
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| 2019-06-29: Prep Day 2 and Ian visit | ||
| We’ve always used packing boxes for our stuff. This time I’ve decided to try wrapping from SafeBag. Looks pretty awesome.\n I hemmed and hawed about including the tailbox or using it as a second carry on. Decided on carry on, but it would have been easy enough to include if I’d wanted to. Maps.me has been a very valuable addition to my touring toolbox. We have not been using it for choosing where to go like some folks. We’ve only been using it to supplement our normal process, but it’s been really great for two things:\n 1. Showing us exactly where we are. Our paper maps are great for helping us figure out where we want to go, but sometimes we’re not sure where we actually are at the time. Maps.me does that and has prevented a few ‘Rhonda detours’ on this trip. \n 2. Finer details for how to get someplace specific when the paper maps aren’t detailed enough. \n One thing that surprised me was that it still knows where we are even if I haven’t connected to WiFi since the last time I switched the phone on. One thing I’ve really enjoyed about having Ann along on this trip is her ability to interact with bipeds, which is something some of us other introverts struggle with at times. Ann is a very warm, friendly, engaging person who can easily establish a rapport with just about anyone. She doesn’t have very good French, and she often accidentally throws in Spanish words (and English) words but she always achieves very positive responses and interactions. When she is speaking her mish-mash of French, English and Spanish, I say she is speaking Annish. I think I need to learn some Annish. It seems to work very well for travel. We spent more days than I would have preferred on transit and logistics on this trip. We left home on June 1st and are returning on July 1st. ‘Lost’ days:\n - June 1: flying to France\n - June 2: airport to hotel\n - June 3: train to Nevers\n - June 23: planning/logistics in Nantes\n - June 24: train to Rennes\n - June 27: train to Paris\n - June 28, 29: prep in Paris\n - June 30: lost to Max 8 aircraft issues\n - July 1: fly home\n\n Ten days for a 31-day trip. One of them was my own doing to make sure we could get our stuff packed at the end. Transit to and from the tour is unavoidable. But ten ‘lost’ days is too much. I will consider this in planning future tours. Brent and I went on a random walkabout today and saw Notre Dame with some spectacular scaffolding. Later on, we were going to meet Ian for an afternoon beverage near Gare de Nord. When we got there, though, we realized that GdN was the epicenter of a yellow vest protest that was just getting started. There were protesters, cops in flak jackets, police vans and busses and cabs blocking every intersection. We tried to go\ndown the street of the intended establishment, but it was right in the middle of everything, so we deked this way and that, texting Ian the whole way, until we found a little establishment in Indiatown that seemed off the protest route. Some excitement for the day. Holy heat wave! Temps higher than 30 for several days in a row now. I’m dyin’! Glad we were finished riding on the 23rd. Today was close to 40 in Paris, and much higher than that in the subway trains!
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| 2019-06-30: Laura Leaves France Boo Hoo | ||
Today we helped Laura get all her stuff to the terminal and pack up her bike. Then we went off to meet Ian for Indian lunch and went walkabout. We saw some arch and a tower. And then, just like that, this vacation was over.
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| 2019-07-01: Leave France Boo Hoo Two | ||
| The moment of truth today - how would we make out with the Wiggle bags for our bikes? But first...\n We had a very leisurely morning at the hotel today since our flight didn’t leave ‘til 2:20pm. At 10:00 we started moving out, starting with bringing the three bikes down to the lobby. We took the bikes over to Terminal 1 and left them there with Ann to guard. Brent and I went back to the hotel and used a cart to bring their stuff boxes and my stuff... bundle to the terminal. \n We then commenced with preparing the bikes to go into the bags, turning the handlebars, adding some bubble wrap around the dérailleurs, etc. A WestJet agent approached us right away and insisted that we had to have boxes for the bikes. We insisted that their web site says bags are ok. He left to find a supervisor. We kept preparing the bikes. He returned and said the supervisor confirmed that we had to have boxes. Again I countered that the web site states otherwise but he was insistent and told us we had to get boxes from Air France upstairs. Brent went to look for Air France, but it turned out they’re actually in a different terminal. Then the supervisor showed up and confirmed that the bags were fine. WHEW! Crisis averted! We finished prepping the bikes and put them into the bags, and on our way we went. \n All we can do now is hope that the bikes arrive safely in Edmonton. Geoff has his bike in a box and Tristan, the French traveler on his way to Calgary to cycle the Great Divide Trail has his in a self-constructed styrofoam, bubble-wrap and tape construct. We’ll see on the far end how everyone made out. \n\n\n Happy Canada Day! We woke up in Paris and flew home to Canada, making for a 32-hour Canada Day! Woo hoo!
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