The Bike Back (part 2)

~continued from part 1~

The reality to my Blois fantasy was arriving with a dead phone to a city much larger than anticipated. The former does not necessarily have to be enough to thwart dreamy accommodation plans though when unhelpful bar staff offer up such suggestions as 'Hotel Ibis' to queries around cheap places to stay, you begin to question the initial idealism. Reluctantly mobile data was switched on and I found myself following google maps back outside the city to a CRJS or an 'auberge de jeunesse'.

The adventures were not over however as Google maps, potentially in a fit of jealousy against Komoot my chosen bike map app for the trip, decided to lead me astray requesting that I firstly cycle up a vertical track and follow this with a stroll through a pipe no bigger than a bull dog's back side.

An hour later, golden hour feeling slightly less golden I emerge, eventually, onto the correct road. I am thirsty, hot, sun burnt and worried about a bicycle whose chain refuses to stay on the gears any time they're changed down (a regular occurrence given the steepness of the road). Stopping for the fiftieth time to attempt a gear fix, I am greeted by a concerned face leaning outside a window, "ça va bien?". ..

Broken French and English lead happily to me wheeling my bike inside his gate, tightening the offending screw which had been interrupting the gears and being invited into his home where he and his wife Emilie allow me to charge my phone, drink my weight in water and recharge my own batteries before sending me off to my 'auberge de jeunesse' with a packed dinner. This time it really is, just around the corner.

The couple were called 'Pierre-Alain' and 'Emilie' and they were so much kinder than any B&B hosts that I could have conjured up in my imagination.

The next morning I set off early from my hostel in Blois (past Pierre-Alain's house to deliver a 'thank you' note into his post box) in order to reach Orléans . This time, accommodation had been booked so arrival straight to the hostel and a rebirth in the shower was all possible before 7 PM. A large dinner and glass of wine led to delightful optimism and the decision to spend an extra night in the city before heading to the metropolis of Paris (aka away from the peaceful Loire valley) two days later.

Orléans was beautiful and on the menu during my stay was a light show projected onto its Cathedral and documenting the life of Joan of Arc, escargots and happy touristic wanders through flag stoned streets watching trams and other forms of traffic negotiate their way seamlessly around its 'vielle ville' and all its medieval timbered houses. Fittingly there was also a 'vintage festival' held here on my last evening with, confusingly, a resounding homage to ghost busters.

The following two weeks followed a similar theme of 'thank god for the kindness of strangers' as well as appreciating the diversity and breadth of Europe. After Orléans I cycled 70 miles to Paris, setting off at 8 in the morning and eventually arriving, triumphant, to a friend's apartment in 'le vientieme' by 6 PM--just in time for dinner . I did not crack the center by bicycle. I reached 'Orsay', on the RER line to said apartment and didn't look back, but forward, to a ticket machine. Despite having cycled, at that stage, many routes and journeys 'toute sol', it was pedalling furiously along 'D' roads and overtaken too many times for comfort by trucks--a far cry from the lazy cycle paths following the Loire--that the reality of a solo cycle trip hit me. Before any real fear could set in, it was neutralized by an ego massage during a lunch break in Etampes. ..

Here my French lunch companions repeated, each time with more disbelief, 'a Paris? a velo?!' 'Non!'. A female on a bicycle who does not have French as a first language was a new and strange sight in that bar and I was only delighted to be the first to break the spell.

A weekend in Paris, finally wearing clothes other than Lycra, eating my way through their dense streets and trying (failing) to find a Banksy, set me up for Germany--nearly.

Paris--Colmar--Münster

~to be continued~