This weekend has flown by, and we are sitting on the TGV, hurtling our way through northern France, chatting through everything we have done. It was our first visit to this part of France, and we loved the beautiful brick houses, and warm welcome that we received, wherever we went.
The drive to Bruges was a bit painful, as the road network around Lille seemed to have been designed by a hamster, leaving an ink-trail on a mad run in search of food. 6 lane carriageways, and roads splitting to take different routes (all with the same road numbers). We had to remind ourselves that we had managed to navigate Tokyo city centre, in a camper van, on pretty-much no sleep. And in many ways that felt easier, than this!
That said, the drive was worth the effort, as Bruges was incredibly beautiful, and we’re pleased to have made the effort to spend a day there. It was such a lovely day and we have added it to the list for possible future cycling adventures. I have a feeling that being able to explore it in the early evening, and first thing in the morning, without the crowds, would make it even more magical.
Sightseeing done, we have loved passing the last 2 days, enjoying the build-up and atmosphere of the Paris Roubaix races; the whole weekend far exceeded our expectations.
We hadn’t really planned much, when we booked the house, just happy that it was described as being in a good location to access key stages of the races. We only realised, a few weeks ago that it was in a little village, close to the Mons-en-Pévèle Sector, and within walking distance of other cobbled sectors too.
This meant that we were able to leave the car behind at the house, and simply walk out to the course, to enjoy both the Challenge day, and the race day itself.
We had no stress about where we could park, or which roads may be closed, and could simply pop on our walking shoes, pull on our rucksacks and walk to experience the excitement, without any niggling worries at all.
I don’t think we will ever be as organised as some race-watchers, who seem able to bring gazebos, generators for TVs, barbecues, full bars , and even at yesterday’s race, a wood-fired hot-tub.
We can only take what we can carry, so have been honing our race-watching kit, and whether we walk, or ride to watch events, there are key things that will always be in our panniers, or rucksack.
We have never been good at waiting to go somewhere, we’re unable to settle, or focus on doing something else, so always arrive hideously early to anything, we are doing. This has its positives, and negatives too; a big one being that at our age, just sitting cross-legged on grass or stones for hours, waiting for a race to arrive, isn’t a good plan.
After a few years of numb-bums and aching joints, we now pack our little folding ‘Helinox’ camping chairs, that are both incredibly light, and amazingly comfortable.
We originally bought these for our cycle adventures, and they have proved to be the best chairs, we’ve ever had. They make waiting for races, an enjoyably comfortable experience, in fact they are so comfortable that we have been known to use them at home too. They may not be the cheapest on the market, but we wouldn’t be without them.
We also love our coffee, taking all the makings with us, so that we can enjoy a fresh coffee, while we wait. If you have followed us for a while, you will have seen our regular, long cycle rides from home to Cavaillon, to stock up on beans from our favourite coffee-roaster. We grind enough to carry with us, and take our superb little aeropress, which is what we use at home to make our coffee, every day.
Previously, we had taken flasks of hot water, but have recently bought a ‘Jet-Boil’, which enables us to boil water, at the roadside, in around 2 minutes. It’s an amazing bit of kit, and will be packed into our panniers for our cycle adventures, this summer. At least then, we will be able to enjoy a cup of coffee, first thing in the morning, and even at the roadside too, as coffee quality in France can be rather hit or miss, probably more ‘miss’, if I am brutally honest.
Then with the recent addition of a couple of Yeti mugs, our coffee stays hot for long enough for us to enjoy it, rather than in the old tin mugs that we used to carry, where the coffee was iced by the wind, in moments.
All these little bits make our experience so much better, and on Sunday, we were ‘cobbleside’ for about 8 hours, and loved every moment. You can read about our day here
These bits won’t be packed away for long though, as 2 weeks today, we set off on our first cycling adventure of the year. We will be pedalling across the south of France, following a slow route along back-roads, through small towns and villages, on our way to Pezenas, for the first ‘Grand Deballage’ Brocante of the year.
We love Pezenas, and also the Deballages there, where the streets are filled with brocante stalls from first-light, and all the town’s Brocante and Antiques shops are open too. It’s a bit like L’Isle sur La Sorgue, but is always worth a visit. The main benefit of going by bike is that we won’t be able to buy too much. We really can’t fit paintings or pieces of furniture into our panniers, and I would’t want to run the risk of pieces of pottery arriving home broken either. I haven’t told Andy yet, as I don’t want to worry him, but I have looked at shipping options, just in case!
We aren’t camping on this trip, as not many sites will be open yet, but have booked accommodation en route, and will be staying on boats and in little houses and apartments, as we make our way across.
The chairs may not be needed this time, but all our coffee-makings will be popped in the panniers, as we get used to cycling with them, on the bikes again.
It’s hard to believe that we will be setting off, 2 weeks today. January felt as if it took almost a year to pass by, and now, we are almost a third of the way through the year, staring summer in the face.
We have a busy couple of weeks ahead, getting everything ready to go and re-acquainting myself with pedalling a laden-bike, before we set off.
It is very much a little ride to get used to carrying our stuff again, as we have 2 long adventures planned for the summer, so I need to get some practice in. At some point in June, we will start pedalling north, back to the UK, and cycle home again at the end of August.
In so many ways, we’re pleased that our travelling, this summer, is based around bikes, as with so much uncertainty in the world, at the moment, we’re not sure that we would be confident that everything we want to do would be possible, if we were having to rely on our car.
So, I’ll enjoy this sit-down, on the train and tomorrow we’ll start building the piles of kit that we will pack onto our bikes.
All we can do now, is hope that the spring storms and icy winds have passed, so that we can enjoy every turn of the pedal.
Postcards from Provence and beyond 