Happy Bastille Day!

Bonjour tout le monde!

After a week on the road, Joe and Hilary arrived in St Malo yesterday! Whew! We found an internet café this afternoon, so we pounced on it and are catching up on the blog and our email, and are trying to figure out how to get to Ireland. We have a few gems to recount in about an hour (speeeeed writing!), so do follow along!

Day 12 (cont'd)

Allez! Allez! Allez!

Okay, we lied. We didn't leave Nantes on Monday. It was raining on and off, we had a ton of things to do, and a stage of the tour de France finished less than a block from where Joe's sister, Laura, lives. Couldn't pass that by! We had to go see that!

They're just so fast!
In the end, only Joe saw it. Hilary couldn't see over the heads of all those tall Frenchmen in front of her. And bikes, unlike cars, don't really make much sound when they pass. So, Hilary just cheered along with the rest of the crowd for good effect on their cue.

Joe, a head or two taller than her, got some interesting footage though:






They're on their final sprint, so gee willackers, they're fast! We calculated that they go about four times faster than we do. But okay, they aren't carrying stuff.

Fix 'er up!
We want to give a shout out to Laura and Julien! They helped us out so much! Julien and his friend Jérémy tinkered on Hygina a bit, much to Hilary's GREAT APPRECIATION, since she seriously needed all ten speeds to get across Brittany. Two just won't cuttin' it.


Reflections after living in civilized society

• we still didn't shower much, and we find that, in fact, we smell less when we bike than when we sit around on a day-to-day basis (our armpits are aired out nicely, sweat is wicked away!)
• our hair, though short to begin with, had to get even shorter. Less maintenance and great cooling effect!
• we kind of see this as an Oregon Trail...ford the river! kill a bison, but you can't carry the whole thing! Timmy died of dyptheria! Maybe it's a generational thing...
  

Expenses: groceries: 9.30


Day 13 (July 8)

After an early start and a quick stop at LeaderPrice (okay, can't beat their granola and dried fruit selection), we sped out of Nantes...or tried to.

At least we're in the Mondo Vélo parking lot!
Hilary learned how to change a tire.

And boy, did we have luck: Joe's tire went flat right next to a bike shop!



An hour or so and a blue tire later, we were off!

BZH = 44
Spectators who came out to cheer on the tour de France wrote encouraging messages on the road: "Allez, Jérome!" They also took advantage of the helicopter footage filming from above to write out protests such as "Avion! Non!" (against the new airport being built) and, even more frequently, "BZH = 44" or "Bienvenue en Bretagne" (Welcome to Brittany). This is worth explaining. Historically, Nantes was part of Brittany, which later became part of France through the Duchess Anne's marriage to two (successive) kings of France. A few years ago, the French government rearranged things a bit and put Nantes in a new region, the Loire Valley, with which it is argued it has more to do with economically than Brittany. Hm.



To give you an idea: this would be like if Virginia were classified with the north, because Northern Virginia has more to do economically with Washington, D.C.

Buns of steel
It must be said that had we started our trip by this stretch of road, Hilary would have sat down by the side of the road and cried. The hills are beautiful, though, and we find that our bodies are up to the challenge after that week of training down the Loire. Rah!


Coffee! And pasta! And spinach!
We both are rejoicing for the new (lightweight!) campstove Julien gave Joe for his birthday! This has increased what we can cook by a phenomenal number.

Searching for a lightweight pot, we forewent expensive camping sets -- pshaw! -- and chose instead a homely little can of spinach. Or, big can of spinach.

This was our first hot meal on the road: spinach and bread. Pop-eye'd be proud.

So, now we can make ANYTHING!

Coffee first thing in the morning! (Props to Laura for the instant coffee!)


Boil some water, and ya got pasta on the go!

The great thing too is that pasta packs small and yet swells to a fill-yer-tummy size in just 10 minutes! (15 with the time to boil the water)

Weight
Hilary: 55 kilos herself + 11 kilos of stuff = 67 kilos. She's carrying 22 percent of her body weight.

Joe: 77 kilos + 17 kilos of stuff = 94 kilos. He's carrying 18 percent of his bodyweight.

Note: Joe weighs more than Hilary, her stuff, and Hygina combined.


We're so camping here
It was the mattress that convinced Joe to stay:


Someone had unknowingly donated it to our cause, leaving it in a ditch for us to find.

We STILL missed the sun!
Gosh darnit, that sun outwitted us again!

We pitched our tent in the MIDDLE OF THE FIELD so as to catch the first morning rays. Guaranteed or your money back.

The sky was cloudy the morning of Day 14.

Sounds rather tinny to me

The all-purpose spinach can can! Is there nothing it can't do?



A painter's t-shirt:


A white canvas (thank you, spf 50+!)
Black: grease
Blue, green, yellow, purple: bruises
Red: sunburn, stinging nettle, blood, bugbites

Roadkill seen so far:

• hedgehogs (and lots of them)
• birds
• an owl
• snakes
• mink?
• rabbit (the ears give it away)

Expenses:
-groceries: 9.20
-bread: 1.90
-juice and veggies: 2.30
-bike tire: 22
You calculate the total.

Approx distance: 60 or 70 km. Oh, yeah. That's 12pm to 8:30 pm, up HILLS, baby!



Day 14 (July 9)
What?? Forest in France??
Maybe it's her east-coast standards, but Hilary hasn't seen forest like this in a LOOONG time. Paimpont is a lovely PRIVATELY-OWNED forest that will fulfill any forest-lover's desires. Breathe in the air, listen to the leaves rustle in the wind....ahhhhh...

It's in Broceliande, the land said to be where King Arthur and his gang called home.


All downhill from there...
Literally. After a day and a half of climbing slowly uphill, we got to say

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for a good half hour.

We did 40 km in 1.5 hours! A record!



No dump in King Arthur's Forest!

Still being disputed, apparently.

Water tower turned climbing wall:



Chez Florian and Héloïse
We spent July 8 - 11 at Florian and Héloïse's, who are friends of Joe from Laval who now live in St Méen. These guys showed us around the area!

We celebrated Joe's birthday again:


We went to the aquarium in St Malo:


To a reptile farm near Mont St Michel:


And Hilary learned how to make authentic Bréton galettes:


Yum! Props to these guys for showing us around and introducing us to fantastic Bréton cuisine!

Coquelins -- another Bréton pastry, this is a hard, shell-like crust made of flour, eggs, and sodium bicarbonate. Light and fluffy. Tasty!


We must go!!
Okay, we're about to be kicked out of the internet café! We'll update again along our way. Right now, we're in St Malo, but we're heading up to Cherbourg to catch a ferry over to Rosslare, Ireland on the evening of July 16th. Thanks to everyone who's been writing us! Gros bisous!