March 30, 2017
Day Three: Chartres to Huetre (near Orleans): Adopted by a lovely family
We started out as early as possible, though "started out" only means pushing the bikes from the hotel near the cathedral to the bakery near the cathedral. I was parked outside while Dodie went in to find something for lunch and of course something to supplement the breakfast we had already made in our room. Standing around outside is quite valuable. Sometimes it results in a French lesson as someone will approach to ask about the bikes, goofy hats, etc. But other times there can be moments of quiet reflection, a chance to look around a really appreciate the details of a place.
This time around it was a chance to look at the cathedral, the buildings, and shops when all was quiet and most were closed. Without the vibrancy that comes when customers are around, you can look at a shop as just another business, probably jostling its neighbours in meetings of the local merchant's association.
Anyway, these were the kind of thoughts rattling about my head until Dodie arrived with the much needed chausee pommes.
We descended from the cathedral hill and actually got better overall views of the building than appear when you are in close. Some architecture in the main town was also very interesting. For example we saw more of those buildings with alternating red and white bricks.
Quite quickly we were out of town and onto some of those no shoulder but fat white line roads that we had used yesterday. Traffic was at times a little heavy, but the drivers never came too close to us. A bit further on our road narrowed and traffic thinned, so that often we could weave back and forth over the whole lane.
It was not just the traffic that had thinned, though. We had entered a zone where little towns were strung along the route, each one being what I call a white village. That is, most houses are white or grey and made from stone or stucco on stone. These villages had no services. None Oh, one had a bakery but today it was closed. A closed bakery has exactly the same non-effect on a potential bonk as a non-bakery. Fortunately we were well stocked up with stuff from the bakery in Chartres.
We had not wanted to mention (or think about) this so early in the trip, but we have been struggling over the past two days. First off, Dodie's left knee has become swollen and more painful than usual. And I added to the fun by coming down with a severe chest cold or infection. We were doubtful this morning about whether Orleans was going to happen. But we put special cream on Dodie's knee, plus a brace, and we stuffed me with cold tablets and also antibiotics.
So 5:00 p.m. found us cranking into a headwind down D102...readers note:this the point at which my keyboard died, Thursday night. I am repicking up the story now, on Friday...
Ah yes, D102, our hope was to make it a further 15km to Saran, on the outskirts of Orleans, where we had located an Ibis hotel. We badly needed a place to rest Dodie's knee and for me to finish (or continue) being sick. But at this point a young woman pulled over in car and invited us to her place, at the last farm along the road in the little hamlet we were passing. The woman turned out to be Florine, and when we arrived we also met her husband Bernard, plus 4 year old Pierre 15 month old Clement. We sat out back in the garden and commenced a long chat. We learned that Florine's brother was a cyclist, and that she had invited us because of the appreciation of the rigours of the road that that brought. But qs time passed we came to realize that this was an in invitation to a chat rather than to a room. In the the house did not have a spare room. So here we were, formerly with a fair chance of reaching a hotel before dark, now stuck. Florine solved this when we mentioned our tent, as there was plenty of room for in the garden.
A little leery now about what was on offer, I mentioned that we could use our stove and do a little cooking in the garden as well. But no, Florine stepped up with a lovely supper of chard soup, cheeses, an Alsatian pfannkuchen type pizza ane chocolate pudding cake.
We continued chatting, finding both Florine and Bernard to be well spoken ane educated. High on their list of concerns was Marine LePen, the right wing candidate in the upcoming election. However at the same time Florine was concerned by terrorism, particularly since Bernard works at an air base.
With my external keyboard broken and so much discussion going on, I could not finish the blog entry. It's a main reason why "Warm Showers" type stays do not quite work for us.
Since this blog is in English I do not expect Florine or Bernard to read it. Still I wanted to record somewhere just how impressed we were with the way they spoke to the children. So direct, so kind, so clear were both their teaching moments (like where do these weird cyclists come from and why are they at our house) and their instructions. And at bedtime there was no fuss. What good kids, and parents!
Early morning we folded our tent, left a note, and disappeared. It had been an interesting experience.
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Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 164 km (102 miles)
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