Day Forty Eight: Dammarie-Les-Lys to Villeneuve St Georges: (Year 48: 2015)

November 7, 2017

Flash Back to 2015:

Things came to a crashing stop when a truck hit us from behind in Florida. We were both injured, but I was able to show the most lasting damages. This definitely launched the issues of mental and physical healing for us. There were some really positive events after this, like the marriage of Jeremy and Melissa and also treatments administrated by our Little Healers, the kids in Montreal.

This song from Leonard Cohen deals with healing of the mind and body and was helpful to listen to during the process.

Before too long we were again able to take the children bike touring, and eventually to launch a Grampies Ride Again tour in Europe

The whole Seattle family cycled the Hiawatha in Idaho.

With this trailer we were able to take Amelia and Evee on some of the Route Verte, the excellent cycle route development in Quebec.

Our Rides Again tour took us to some of the loveliest bike paths ever. This shot is from the Italian Tyrol.

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Fast Forward to 2017, France:

We were down in the breakfast room of the Budget Hotel at 6:20 a.m. because we had promised the desk lady last night that if we put the bikes in there we would show up to deal with them before they interfered with breakfast. But since the bikes wall were well tucked to one side, the morning staff did not seem to mind about them.

All the other people who showed up for their 8.50 euro breakfasts seemed content with croissant and coffee. But the staff asked us if we needed cheese and charcuterie. Well, yeah! They brought out plates with two kinds of cheese and four kinds of cold cuts. The cheese was fine, but of the cold cuts only two types were deemed edible by our Canadian tastes. Dodie kind of hid the rejects under our used napkins - not wanting to create any international incidents.

I did not get photos of these. One was just all fat and the other just smelled weird!

Michel had already written to us that there was frost in Nantes, and we saw the same thing here. It was real clean your windshield with a credit card weather. our point of view, lacking any windshield, it was mainly a problem of frozen hands - the temperature when we left was 1 degree C.

Frosty morning - first time the credit cards are needed for windshields on this trip.

We did however have a partial remedy for the hands - Canadian hand warmer packets. These provide gentle warmth once exposed to air and last a long time. We last used them in of all places Texas, and who would think they would be needed again in Paris! Well, we carried them 2000 km, so might as well use them sometime. We only had three, and Dodie graciously set me up with two. My circulation is a lot weaker than hers.

In taking a photo of Dodie with the warmers I at first asked her to look cold. But she looked cold and unhappy. So I asked for cold and happy. This is what I got - pretty good!

Dodie is happy to have Canadian hand warmers.

Despite the photo, there was lots of reason to be unhappy, although with Grampies what you actually get is a form of grim resolve. First, there was the same traffic that had plagued us yesterday. So that had us clinging to sidewalks, where we could find them. Once we got to the river, we had thick fog. Here is a photo of the road at that point. I also have a shot of the river, but it is completely white - the dullest picture of the Seine ever taken. Actually, I put a little tree into the frame - to add some interest.

There is just no place to cycle, gotta get to the river.

World's worst scenic photo of the Seine.

The next trick the route had for us was single tracking, and mud. I am not sure how they got the mud in there, since there has been no rain. Just magic, I guess.

The fog lifted on the river just enough for some kind of photo - here it is:

We then popped out of single track hell to enter heavy truck hell. The way by the river was totally infested with them. When we could, we took the sidewalk. When no sidewalk we often rode down the middle of the narrow lanes, with traffic breathing down our necks. As soon anyone would see half a chance, they would pass us in the other lane and duck back in, so many times missing head on collisions by a hair. The worst spot for all this was Corbeil-Essonnes. Cyclists should blot out this area on their maps with black marker! We have no idea what the EV3 planners had in mind in sending us there. Maybe they had no option. If so, then Paris needs to be bypassed on the Scandiberique route.

Through most of the day we had had traffic, but no commercial services. But once we got to Soisy there was traffic and commercial services. The services seemed to slow traffic down, and there were not so many heavy trucks. So we only had suicide passers, left turners, driveway exiters, and door openers to worry about. It almost felt like a vacation!

The vacation ended when our road, the D448, banged into the National 6. No bikes allowed. We diverted around the problem area and eventually found an overpass. From there we only had to return to the aggressive left turners and other driving crazies to make our way to Villeneuve. Here, since the road was completely clogged with cars, we only had to contend with pedestrians for sidewalk space, as we walked our bikes toward the train station area. Our hotel is Hotel de la Gare, of course.

Villeneuve is very near Orly airport. This random photo captured an Algerian airliner, bringing to mind France's ties and past with that country.

Along the street leading to the Hotel de la Gare

The street leading to the hotel was one of a type I like better than Dodie - Doner places, bakeries, fruits out on the sidewalk, lots of likely immigrant people. At one point we passed through five miscellaneous sketchy men standing outside a bar. Some might have been a little apprehensive. But we walked on through and were greeted with lots of "good day"'s and "nice hats". Most of the people we have found so far in life are nice.

We paused outside as we reached our hotel. It too looked a little (or a lot) sketchy. But a passer by stopped and said - "It's a good hotel", "Just ring the buzzer - here".

And yes, it was fine. We and our bikes were led through the building to a little enclosed courtyard, way at the back. Our ground floor room opens to that courtyard. Importantly, the radiator works, there are lots of electrical outlets, and the wifi is fast.

Our little courtyard. The bikes are happy and our food bag is cool here.

Right now as I write, around 5 p.m. Dodie has been asleep for 1/2 hour. Though we only went 42 km, the combination of cold, mud, and traffic is exhausting. She will wake up later with renewed strength. That will be good, because we need her to figure out how to actually get right into Paris and up to the 9th Arrondisement tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I think I will duck out and see what delicacies might be available on the sleazy street. So, photos later...

...I am back from my walk. I took some photos, trying to capture the traffic, the people, and the stores. They were not very successful. Let me just say that the streets were clogged with traffic, and that within a couple of blocks I found three bakeries and three shawarma/doner type places. Despite the basically Turkish background of such places, the majority of the people on the street are black. Being totally naïve, I can not make out if their country of origin might be African, Caribbean - such as from Guadeloupe, or several generations of native born. I am voting for Guadeloupe, only because I saw a Guadeloupe channel on the TV. With any courage I would as our desk clerk, except I have trouble understanding her Guadeloupian? accent!

The street, unlike the restaurant, does not have middle eastern people.

Next door to the hotel. But I now know two other nearby bakeries. They open at 5 a.m.!

Appendix

Hey, remember the Little Healers from the beginning of this page? They have sent an update. Here they are again:

Little Healers reprise (Amelia, Joe, and Evee). We will see them again in only about a week.

Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 2,035 km (1,264 miles)

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