Patti here: Our 74 kilometre ride from Nancy to Golbey was a fairly easy one: only 150 metres of ascent, 4-1/2 hours of – to be honest – pretty boring cycling. We were following canals south from Nancy so they’re straight, with minimal ups and downs. (I miss coasting down hills.)
In short, you have lots of time for cogitation.
To stave off brain rot, you can indulge in mental arithmetic. (“If I’m riding at 18 km/hour and my destination is 47-1/2 kilometres away with minimal hills and a temperature of approximately 75 degrees, at what time should I arrive in Golbey barring punctures, photo ops, patisseries and Green Door* stops?”)
Below: a particularly pretty Green Door
Or… you can let your mind wander, which, in my case, led to my naming of any Great Blue Herons I see henceforth, as “Jacques”.
Why?
There is a photo that was taken at my family’s cottage in the 1000 Islands decades ago. In it, there is a solitary heron standing on the point opposite where the cottage that my dad designed was. In my mind, that heron typified my dad: solitary, observing, dignified.
So… any herons I see here – and there are a lot of them on these French canals – I am hereby naming “Jacques”.
There is beautiful landscaping alongside many of these canals and on a day like Tuesday we were glad of the shade that the plane trees provided. Unfortunately, I think that many of them have a Fungus – Ceratocystis platani – but I didn’t see any signs of amelioration on the part of the forestry people so maybe they can survive that.
Distressingly, some canals were empty of water. When John asked a waterworks worker why a certain canal was empty, his response was “parce-ce que le soleil …. et pas de pleut”. Ugh… Having said that, many canals were quite full of water, so I guess it’s a water management technique to let some canals go dry?
You can see where the water levels have been, previously, in these shots.
A high point of our day was when we turned off the route to follow signs to a café where, while we hoovered French pastries we FaceTimed Claire, completely oblivious to the fact that it was only 7 a.m. in Toronto.
Sorry, Claire! Thanks for being such a good sport about that and boy oy boy, was it ever nice to catch up with you and see you looking so well. Keep up with your slow-and-steady recovery. We can’t wait to hug and kiss you when we get back. We think of you every day.
We finally reached our (completely-not-worth-even-mentioning) hotel in Golbey, finally gave up on its completely lacklustre Wifi – Mama likes her Wifi – and looked at the news on the tv (more protests) in the breakfast room for a few minutes before heading out for a little dinner. Then bed!
That’s enough for one day. Next stop, Corre.
*Green Door stops = bathroom stops. Au naturel. Use your imagination.
That’s sweet about naming the herons Jacques. I have a copy of that photo too. Brother John took it I’m told. I wrote a poem about that Heron because one of those still mornings sitting on the deck it was fishing at the dock facing east. Then it rose up from the shore flying very close to me and across the bay, settling on that point shown in the photo. It was a surreal moment.
Good to hear you’ve moved on from the protests. Loving the photos of your travels. xx
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