Not your typical summer plans

Prelude.

This past winter, two highly compatible Americans stumbled upon each other in Paris with the help of a certain mutual English friend. They got along well, learned they had mutual interests (to be expanded upon later), and then made it past the small talk to get to the juicy stuff. They were pleased to find that they still liked each other -- even so much as to continue stumbling upon each other on a regular basis. Meet Joe and Hilary.

A tale of one city. The French one.

Fast forward a few months. Faced with the stark reality of the state of the Parisian real estate market, Joe was looking at summer homelessness -- square in the face -- and it's not a lovely face to look at. Blessed with the legendary summer holiday granted to all (or most) in the teaching business, he decided to stick it to the man, traveling from place to place in France and England, with stops along the way at friends' and relatives or pitching a tent on the side of the road.

In order to stick it further to the man, to refuse to pay for polluting transportation and overpriced touristic lodging, to taste, drink, breathe, and sweat Europe (yes, we count the British Isles as part of Europe) at the speed it was designed to be experienced (slower than that all-too familiar petrol-powered polluter), to live simply and with as little "stuff" as possible, to push his long legs to the limit, to prove that Lance Armstrong is not the only American capable of long-distance biking on la terre française...bref, it seemed like a gosh darn good idea to go by bike.

She says, "Yes!"

Fast forward to June 2. Hilary, also a teacher of English, on break during that lovely semaine blanche between classes and the hurricane of exams, invited Joe to accompany her to La Fleche d'Or, only one of the best indie rock venues in Paris. Overpriced beer in hand, they bopped along to a few groups signed to the Co-op label.

Of course, summer plans came up.

The Plan came up.

Her eyes lit up.

It's crazy, revolutionary, spontaneous, and reeks of adventure like a trash can that's been sitting in the sun on a summer day. She's been wanting to see Europe like this -- get out of the cities, but without a car, and for the same reasons as his aforementioned ones.

What? Really? Yes!

Can she really do this? Yes!

So, they dance the tentative tango -- I-want-to-go-but-don't-want-to-step-on-your-toes, I'd-really-like-you-to-come-too-but-don't-want-to-pressure-you, -yeah?-, -uh huh-, -let's go!-, yippee!

Let's paint your bike so no one will want to steal it, Joe.

Hygina.

By June 4, Hilary was searching craigslist.paris.org for used bikes suitable to both such a voyage and her budget. Boy, did she cash in.

She called Hugo. 18th arrondissement? Saturday? 50 or 60 euros? Okay!

18th arrondissement? Hm. Expecting a sketchy deal in a shady neighborhood, and honestly not knowing at all how to buy a decent bicycle, Hilary asked Joe to come along. They were very pleasantly surprised to see that at the other end of the telephone was not a balding, greasy man looking to take unsuspecting 'Ricains, but a funky little vintage shop run by two hipsters. Not seeing too much in the back room, Joe and Hilary asked Eddy to pull down a small, yellow-green bike. She was saddle-less, so Eddy swiped a leather saddle from another bike, turned the alan wrenches a few times, and Hilary was off up the street.

'Twas love, true love, before she reached the end of the block. By block two, they'd shared life stories. Turning right up the final stretch, they bonded. Crossing the shops threshold, they were life partners.

"What's your name?" Hilary asked the vélo.

"Hygina," she replied with a slight French accent. Ah, oui.

According to the stamp on the bottom of her light but strong frame, she was born on the 27th of September, 1979, making her Hilary's senior by a few years.

Dude, we're so plugging you guys:

18 Vélo Vintage, 58 rue du Ruisseau, 75018 Paris (06 03 89 61 21; 06 13 13 42 27).

The tentative plan.

As of today. It is very much subject to change at any time at the whim of those in charge -- us! Oh, and our legs. And chance. And any other mysterious forces left here unnamed.

Anyway, we plan to leave Paris June 26th-ish (perhaps cheating on the first step by taking the train out of Paris...it is after all besieged by boring suburbs), get to the Loire river and follow her down to Nantes, where one of Joe's sisters lives, by July 3rd. Then, we'll cut up western Brittany by Rennes and get to St-Malo by July 11-ish. We're thinking then that we'll hop on a ferry or -- even better -- a fishing boat to get to Guernsey, hopefully before the long Bastille Day weekend shuts down all of France for that weekend (this is a good chance for you, dear reader, to wikipedia "Bastille Day," and learn some French history). The idea is to be in England by July 15th. At this point, we plan to tackle the British Isles one of two ways:

- taking a ferry from southwestern England to southern Ireland, biking up to somewhere around Dublin, crossing back over to Liverpool, and cruising down south from there, stopping in places like Birmingham and Oxford, or

- the inverse.

We haven't quite decided when or from where we'll depart England, or to where we'll go next, but we're thinking Amsterdam, Belgium....well, they are the natural choices.

Our social and environmental responsibilities.

We see this trip as a challenge to ourselves and inspiration to our fellow humans. How much "stuff" can we pedal along without? What interesting people and things and places will we meet along the way? How far will we get?

We also want to share this with you! Though we are merely two mortal beings born by comparatively minimalist mechanisms, we recognize our role in the larger human community. We're blogging this so that you guys can see all the amazing things we get into, and perhaps be inspired to take on crazy projects too! Oooo, age of electronics.... (how liberating it is!) And do give us feedback and suggestions -- we want to be inspired by you, too.

We hope to blog regularly, but we have no idea how often we'll be able to access the internet. Keep checking in and hopefully we'll have something tasty for your eyeballs to lick.

PS

Hilary is quite excited that the font selection includes "Georgia" and "Webdings."