The day started so well, Martin was up and at ‘em by 8.50 am, cycling through the fog which seemed to cling to him so he quickly resembled a white cloud beetling down the road. By 12.15pm he was feeling peckish and looking for sustenance. Dear reader, we are ashamed to say yet again Martin was seduced by the global McDonald’s brand and had another Big Mac – has he not seen the film "Supersize Me"?
Anyway, he had arrived in the delightful French city of Angers which among other things, is blessed with a tram system. We say blessed, Martin would say cursed, as he slipped among the 2” wide tram tracks on his skinny 1” tyres. As he tried to carefully negotiate the tram lines the queue of irate French cars built up behind him, honking merrily, so he tried to be a bit clever dickey and use BMX tricks to jump the tracks which resulted in a crashing collision with a kerb. Immediately he felt that sinking feeling as his real wheel lost pressure and just knew he had a puncture.
Never mind he thought, I am in the middle of a city in a cycling mad country, no problemo. For some reason he thought going into a gym would be the best place to start finding a cycle shop. “Ou et le velo magasin?” he enquired in his best O level (or was it CSE) French. “Oh, you mean the bike shop” came the reply. Of course, as he is in France, the shops are not only shut on Sunday, but apparently on Mondays as well so Martin had to not only fix the puncture himself but had to rely on his puny hand pump (ooh er missus!) to get 80-90 psi in his tyre, when he wants a full on 120 psi, only available at bike shops we understand.
Things just got worse; he set off and had to cross the Loire, that famous big river you find in the middle of France. He got hopelessly lost and ended up cycling back and forth trying to find a bridge; still it was a nice sunny afternoon.
However, he has now checked in to another Logis de France (you know, the little hotels with the green sign showing a fire in a hearth) in Bressuire, a bargain at 49 euros. Cycling total today a reasonably impressive 110 miles although he was aiming for a stonking 120, that Angers place scuppered his plans.
Sadly, your trusty reporting team are setting off on their own adventure tomorrow, chugging along the canal system in wildest Shropshire so a combination of a) few canal side pubs offering wi fi and b) almost no mobile coverage means reporting may be a bit sporadic over the next couple of days, but we will do our best. Our intrepid pedaller is also struggling to sort out his photo transmission – something to do with work phones and service providers, we rather lost interest – but hopes to get that sorted soon.
However, onwards and upwards, or as they say in France - “allez, allez, allez!”
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