Day 89: Boubiers-Day 3

May 5, 2024

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Taking a nice hot shower this morning, I was wondering just how this is actually achieved, from the solar panel on the roof of the building. I asked Ian, and got a tour of another little known corner of the property - I guess you would call it boiler room #2 - for hot shower water, as opposed to hot heating water. Briefly, the hot shower (and sink) water works like this: A pump circulates glycol to the panel on the roof. The returning hot glycol transfers its heat to water in a big tank, which contains a heat exchanger. If the water in the big tank is not getting hot enough "I think" it gets help from the wood pellet burner, and if that is not enough, then an electric coil completes the water warming in the way of a conventional hot water tank. But don't ask me if that electricity comes from the other roof panels or the grid, or both!

I think my slight confusion can be defended by this photo of a part of the system:

We took the opportunity of passing directly by the Boubiers church, which is called the church of Saint-Leu. It's an 11th century church, which is of course very old. Notre Dame in Paris, for instance, was only started in 1163.

The sign says that the church is an important part of Boubier's history, and that the exterior has not been touched since the 13th centrury.The church is praised for its stone bell tower, and flamboyant gothic style. However, restoration needs 600,000 euros, and that's just for starters.

Heading out from Boubiers, the photo below shows the unspectacular yet till glorious nature of the countryside here. The road too is quite typical, though it is not to say you never see a car. There are enough cars on the small roads that you have to be vigilant, and enough on the larger roads that you have to be very careful in crossing.

When not passing through beautiful open fields, or stone towns, we were in forests. These three features made up our day. Between them they delivered on of the most pleasant days of cycling ever.

A House Martin - blue back and white rump.

We learned from Ian that at Nucourt the Nazis had a plant for assembling V1 missles. This was tucked into a hillside to resist being bombed. Nevertheless many bombs were dropped here on account of the V1, leaving the countryside pockmarked with craters. We tried to find the rail line leading to the assembly site, and while probably close, we could not confirm it. Many locals collaborated with the V1 project, and consequently the site is not marked or celebrated in any way.

We think this may have been the rail line.

In the bushes, we found a sign marking the site of a previous station. The sign had "too much French" for us to try to decipher. The account in any event skips from 1914 to 1952, so is not relevant to the V1 story, exactly.

Ian had this book detailing WWII as it happened in this region. In this we could see all the villages we had been passing through, but in a much different context.

We were happy enough to go back to the gorgeous countryside.

Serans was an interesting place. In the town, just beside a quite grubby farm yard, I peeked through a gate and saw this grand building.

This sign on the front tells us that by leaving the country we will be avoiding at least one hard on cyclists religious holiday coming up.

Also by the door was this strange statue.

The strange statue is, let's face it, still strange, but there is an explanation of why this church of St. Denis has it. From Wikipedia:

"Denis is the most famous cephalophore in Christian history, with a popular story claiming that the decapitated bishop picked up his head and walked several miles while preaching a sermon on repentance."

Inside the church:

This is one of the carvings. This can not be a violin, which is from the 16th century. More likely a rebec, a medieval stringed bowed instrument. The source is muslim, as is the case for most instruments.

The facade of this church just looks so old!

Across the street from the church was the chateau of Serans. It's available for conferences, if you are interested.

Looking out over the lands of the chateau.

The Hotel de Ville, and the Serans church, across the street from the chateau.

Looking up at the Serans chateau from below.

This cute horse was in the field with one sheep. Four men came and grabbed the sheep, after a chase. It got sheared, we think, not slaughtered. Poor thing. The horse seemed to come over to us for protection.

For the last third of the ride, I rather abandoned photos, since it was a repetition of those three features: the fields, the stone villages and churches, and the forest. We cycled this third a little sadly, trying (as on most days) to absorb and remember the wonderful place. Dodie repeated fairly often that she was not ready to quit cycling or to leave Europe yet. We recalled the famous, in our family, time when grandchild Avi was crying by the roadside: "But guys, I'm not done having fun yet".

But readers, don't despair. You can still follow this blog for a bit more. Will we find our gate at Charles de Gaulle? Can we survive Calgary as a transfer point. Will Sandra find and rescue us at the Victoria airport? And will we be able to get into our house?

Following that, there will be the customary financial reckoning, our overall impressions of the trip, and the almost immediate plan to return to France. Stay tuned!

Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 4,218 km (2,619 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	3

Scott AndersonI don’t doubt you’re both feeling wistful, but congratulations! Have a safe journey home.
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1 month ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonThe temperatures at home are now reaching or exceeding what we have here in France, so at least we can continue cycling, albeit on the useless roads they have there, with not an 11th century church in sight!
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1 month ago

Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesYou can console yourselves too with the chance to finally see your first cackling geese!
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1 month ago