In Uzès

April 13, 2022

Some news

I’m going to defer judging whether the news of the day is good or bad. It’s too soon to tell, but two developments sound promising and at least forward-going.

On the now definitely lost suitcase saga: Bike Friday was prompt with emailing me replacement invoices for the two suitcases, sending them the day after I sent them a request. I sent them on to the UPS agent in Barcelona, who is responsible for submitting the loss claim. He accepted them, completed the claim and submitted them to UPS. The right steps, but now we wait again.

On the now definitely broken derailleur saga: I walked down to the Giant dealer this morning, and he said he was successful in ordering a replacement. He expects it to arrive tomorrow sometime, and if it does he thinks we’ll get my bike back tomorrow. The best we could hope for, if it pans out. In the meantime it means we have another night in Uzès, so we booked ourselves into a new hotel for tomorrow night since our current one is fully booked.

It’s a pretty unpleasant walk (or even bike, really) on the busy, shoulderless road south to the Giant shop. Instead, there’s a nice parallel route that is quite pleasant that the Giant guy pointed me to.

It’s quite nice, really. After about three blocks you’re on a dirt footpath along old stone walls the rest of the way. Yesterday when I was biking Rachael’s bike back up this thing I passed a young girl and her mom feeding carrots to a donkey.

And, in one other news item, we’re having second thoughts about moving to Narbonne. When we were chatting with Jean Paul at the bike shop near Sommières we mentioned that we had been in Perpignan and Narbonne a week back and the winds were fierce. He said he could never live in Narbonne because the winds are always terrible, and it’s often rainy besides. At least here in the lower Rhone valley the Mistral is a drier wind.

And before that, chatting with the German restaurateur in Lodève, she made the same point. when she and her Dutch husband looked for a home in southern France they considered Narbonne but nixed it because of the wind.

As did our hotel manager in Beziers.

As did our friends Rich and Robin.

So, that’s four data points. We’ll need to reconsider.

Around town

I was due for a rest day anyway, so while Rachael went out for a 13 mile hike I milled around Uzès. It’s a lovely small town that we’ve explored before, but that didn’t stop me from collecting a new set of images today for something to remind me of our stay here other than the broken derailleur.

This is lucky timing. It’s Wednesday, and the market is on.

At the spice counter. Does he look like he’s about to sneeze?

Interesting thing to find lodged in the crotch of a tree. Did someone forget their book here, or is this a VLFL?

My plan is to sneak off on this if Giant can’t repair my Bike Friday. That hat would look great on me!

A pleasant way to recover from a lazy walkabout. And I’ve got company, from a shaggy gray dog interested in what I’m having.

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Bruce LellmanGood decision about not moving to Narbonne due to the winds, in my opinion. If there is even a rumor that a place has recurring winds it's a thumbs down for me. I hate wind.
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2 years ago

Keith ClassenDarn - I was looking forward to your take on Narbonne. Remember you’re not going to live there but just “blow” through.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Keith ClassenOh, we’ll be back. We plan to spend several days there in the fall on the way back south. It’s a great place, except for the wind.
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2 years ago

Rich FrasierYou've probably figured out that the French are pretty chauvinistic about the towns they live in. Nowhere else could possibly be as good a place to live as the town that French person lives in. So take those criticisms with a grain of salt. You probably want to do your own research.

Nonetheless, we're preparing to wine you and dine you to convince you that Limoux is really where you want to be. IMHO, it's really the best town to live in. But maybe I'm starting to pick up some of the attributes of the French after living among them for so many years. A scary thought...
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2 years ago

Rachael AndersonTo Bruce LellmanI don’t mind some wind but when 15 miles an hour winds are the norm and winds 25 plus are not unusual that’s too much!
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2 years ago

Rachael AndersonTo Keith ClassenGood one!
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonEven faster than I could react to the bad news of your derailleur, it looks like a solution to the problem has been found. Indeed no bike dwarfs the inconvenience of lost luggage and Garmin. But I suspected from your creative problem solving in the past, it would only be a matter of time before you are again on the road. Fingers crossed!
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2 years ago

Suzanne Gibson"Indeed no bike dwarfs the inconvenience of lost luggage and Garmin." ??? What was I trying to say? "Having no bike ..." I guess.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonThanks for the clarification! I did puzzle over that one a bit. And you’re right - the other two issues feel like nits. It reminds me of the time we arrived in Innsbruck for a 3week vacation and the airlines lost our bikes for three days.
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2 years ago