Day 36: Troyes

Sunday morning began with a panic due to the toilets being accessable only through the boys rooms and them being sound asleep. Anyway Jonas eventually woke up and a possible disaster was averted. Feeling slightly claustrophobic I headed into town for food and internet. But wait, I'm in France and its a Sunday. How silly of me to presume that ANYWHERE will be open!

Found a boulangerie that was open at last to got some munch and wandered about for a bit in the vain hope of finding an internet cafe...no luck. Back to the boys for some banter and more pasta with tomato sauce and sausages (this is what we had last night). Surprisingly tasty though and I got a beer with it. Also they had a Scottish guy living in their block so I got to meet him and talk at my normal speed about how awesome Glasgow is for about an hour. I loved it! Also got to meet their Argentinian mate who had a hilarious voice and laugh but was totally sound. If anyone should be described as "bubbly", this is her with me, Jonas and Thiago.

Day 35: Lucy to Troyes. Approximately 60 miles.

Up and out early doors to contend with the hill. Having sucessfully negotiated this the rest of the day went pretty well bar the pissing wet rain and freezing cold. Why am I doing this in November?Stopped for some coffee and a wee heat in a sound wee village with loads of sound folk and good chocolate croissants. Back on the road heading for Arcis-sur-Aube where I passed this:

Thats right, its a plane on a stick, a red phone box, a nuclear device, half a car plastered onto the side of a house and a boat all plonked in the middle of the French countryside.
The rain really got going just before lunch which was nice but had I known what was waiting for me I would have been much happier. Formula lunches: officially the best thing about France and possibly enough to balance out the outrageous opening hours, lack of hard shoulder and shite youth hostels. Possibly. Anyway the situation is you get a buffet choice of charcuterie and cheese etc followed by a massive plate of meat and veg followed by more cheese and bread followed by a dessert of your choice. Then you have to pay about 11 Euro. Gallus!

While I was enjoying my new found lifeline I made friends with these folk who were sitting next to me. Gillian, Melanie and their blind and deaf dog who has apparently beaten all estimates of his lifespan. Good effort.

Still another 20 miles to Troyes but the afternoon was good with a full belly and Michael Jackson on the ipod (again). Got fucked by a hailstorm about 500m from my destination, thanks weather, but I was couchsurfing with two Brazilian exchange students so their apartment was about 40 degrees.

Everyone seemed rather worse for wear following a party they had the night before so we sat about and watched City of God, which was of course excellent, then hit the hay early.

Day 34: Reims to Lucy. Approximately 30 miles.

Oh dear... a day of low morale. The day started well with pretty gallus weather and an efficient exit from Reims. Sadly this good start was marred by numerous brutal hills and busy roads: on with the helmet! Not many miles to do but distance gets forgotten when its all uphill.

Got to Epernay for lunch and a visit to the Lavmatic. Left it a bit late to go to Lucy meaning that the temperature was unpleasantly low. Couchsurfing again with a bird in a tiny wee village which was to be found over more brutal hills...one of which turned out to be completely unecessary. Women cannot give directions, this has turned out to be one of the most important lessons of this whole journey! On top of this I realised that I would have to go back up said brutal hill first thing in the morning, good times!

Eventually arrived at my couchsurfing destination which was indeed in the middle of nowhere. it also transpired that the bird couldn't really speak English and her family coulcd't speak any at all. Ended up sitting on the computer while they all watched French tv and bantered in French....early to bed!

Day 33: Still in Reims

Due to the numerous (and varied) beers of last night Thomas and I agreed to sleep in, awesome. Shutters appear to be all the rage in France which is particularly dangerous for those of us who enjoy sleeping in until the light wakes us up...out of bed at 3pm. Anyway Thomas eventually decided to check if I was still alive and to suggest venturing out to find food and coffee and a bike shop. Off we went to get some pretty good pizza and a fucking excellent strawberry tart, much happier.

My cleats had taken the decision to dislike being attached to my pedals which is an annoyance and a half so Thomas took me to the local sports shop to see if we could get the situation dealt with. It is not, however, particularly easy to explain this when the person you need to understand you speaks no english and you speak no technical french. So into the shop comes the bike and following much clicking noises and dramatic reenactments the man seemed to get the picture. In the end he replaced the cleats for free, what a legend!

Coffee and a visit to another church (this time Romanesque rather than Gothic) then home for a sit and the greatest meal ever. This meal is as follows:

Tartiflette

Ingredients:

potatoes (enough to fill the dish)

shallots

bacon

comte cheese

creme fraiche

roblochon cheese

Essentially all you do is cook everything then stick it in the dish, put the roblochon on top and stick it in the oven until the cheese melts....heaven! Its greasy as fuck and Thomas was silly enough to ask me if I was "ok with greasy food", ha!

Couldn't really move afterwards to settled in for Into the Wild and beer. Good evening all round.

Day 32: Still in Reims

Following the out and out success that was my first ever couchsurf, I elected to stay in reims and continue kipping on random floors for free.

Headed out to meet Thomas, host number 2. Instantly likeable character who gave me directions to his house as he was driving and I, of course, was with bike and associated crap. Unfortunately these directions took me the wrong way down a one way street that was made even more hectic by extensive tram installation works. Anyway I got there after a few shouts from the locals.

Thomas is mental into climbing so we went to the indoor bouldering centre in the afternoon. I have only ever scaled the side of teh climbing frame in Rouken Glen Park so this was pretty exciting! Sadly my arms tend to do nothing excpet support the odd rollup so I don't think that climbing will be my new triumph but I enjoyed in nonetheless.

Following this experience I decided that constant cycling is not the way forward on this trip. A few solid days here and there are all well and good to notch up the miles (and get to where I'm meant to be) but the fun is in meeting new folk and seeing new things, neither of which are possible when staring at the road and concentrating on not getting flattened by speeding lorries.

Back to my new flat, in which I had my own room, for some chilling and beer and banter. One of the beers was a bit rogue: from Brussels and smelt suspiciously of sick. Anyway the second was rather more enjoyable, as was the chatter with Thomas and his mate. Off to the pizza shop then to a pub named "The Pub of the Joking Troll". Metallica playing as we entered and cider on the menu. Ahhh, nice. Thomas and his mates were total geeks meaning that they were really sound folk with funny stories of geekery and such. I liked them all. I also liked all the beer I had, of which there were many, including one with pink elephants on the bottle and one that looked like this:
Back to Thomas' friend's house for some guitar hero. Thats right. Guitar hero. And I loved it! Not played it for years now but I soon found my rhythm and the three of us had a great time! Total geek core, as a certain Mr Yates would say.

Day 31: Charleville to Reims. Approx no miles as I pussied out and got the train.

Up and about in Charleville for breakfast and more internet. Oh how I'm utterly addicted to facebook. Again.

Anyway off to the station to go to Reims and meet my first ever couchsurfing host! Exciting but also slightly nervewracking. Cheers to Mr Bell for pointing out the fact that they could well be murderers or similar. Although, Dad, I reckon at the age of 22 I'm relatively safe from the threat of paedophiles.

Thankfully, the woman was neither a murderer or a paedophile and was in fact a totally sound English teacher with a great flat and a phone that calls European landlines for free. This is her;

Lunch of chicken and tasty couscous style stuff followed by some peace and quiet cause she went out to meet her mate. After satisfying my facebook addiction once more and employing the use of the greatest phone in the world I headed out to see some of Reims. The cathedral is pretty fucking good, although I wish I hadn't seen York Minster as it makes even the best cathedrals look a bit rubbish.

Back to the flat for some dishes - I really miss normal quiet things such as this- coffee and cigarettes. Oh yeah, she let me smoke inside; couchsurfing heaven! She came back so we had some banter about her life and mine and watched some shit TV in the form of the French version of Come Dine With Me. Her name is Pascale and she has two kids about my age and a number of brutal love life experiences. Really sound woman though who made me feel totally at home.

Off to bed following a marathon phone call to London...happy days.

P.S. The photos are trapped in my camera which is trapped in my lodgings but I will add them shortly.

Day 30: Givet to Charleville. Approx 55 miles.

Up in the morning for breakfast with Jaques except that he had forgotten to bring the bread due to being far too pissed. Ha! Well tea with honey and directions to the boulangerie works just as well. On his advice I headed for the routes verts which leads all the way to Charleville down the side of the Meuse river, i.e. its flat.

After getting mildly lost mainly due to stupidity and it being early in the morning the path was fucking great. Pretty much flat the whole way, no cars and once the rain stopped, nice things to look at. Today was the first 'day of the jacket' though... hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have gone on a cycling expedition in October. Stopped in Fumay for 'lunch' but since it was Monday and I was in France, everything was shut. Managed some chips in the rain from a van.

Afternoon was nicer though until I got to Charleville and remembered that had nowhere to stay or a map of the city. Again.

Eventually after circling the town centre a few times I found the holy grail: an internet cafe beside the tourist information! Ended up having to pay 40 Euro for a shitty hotel though but I also got a french phone! Hello people of Scotland! The 10 buck of free credit didn't last an hour from leaving the shop though. Apparently calling home is not practical!

Bed: early. Money: low. Resolution: stop showing up places with nowhere to stay.