Day 32, November 12, 75 km Barbezieux to Aubigné

Ordinarily we don’t post every day but today we arrived here around 1:00; there’s nothing to do or so see in this tiny stopover town and after 75 km of very cold riding that ended in rain we’re only nicely warmed up now, 3 hours later! A cup of tea, feet up, and some internet is looking really attractive. Thus, I blog. (And John haunts music arranging, math, and cycling equipment sites).

Aubigne is about an hour’s car ride from the coast, and just northeast of Remy-Martin cognac country. I wish I liked cognac, I’m sure it would warm me up quite nicely*. We’re pushing now, aiming at hitting the Loire Valley this weekend, and we will be back in Toronto 10 days from today. ACK.

The place we’re staying in tonight is owned by a young couple; he is from Utrecht, Holland, and I think she is Czech. John and I had problems finding the actual building so we were randomly riding around in the town and he happened to be out walking his dog. He shouted “are you looking for me?” – LOL: he recognized the Canadian flag and knew that his Expedia guests for tonight were Canadian so he took a chance. “Bastiaan” happens to be a chef so he is making us a pasta dinner tonight. I can’t wait! And also, I am CRAVING pasta.

A number of times yesterday we saw groups of two and three hunters in the fields or at the edge of forests with their hounds (seriously, hounds with red kerchiefs around their necks) and heard rifles being fired so we assumed – wrongly!!! – that these signs (see photo below) meant that the land was reserved for the hunt.

These signs actually mean that the land is NOT to be hunted on. We saw deer in between the rows of grapevines on one of those marked parcels of land today so I guess we know what IS being hunted.

And now, John is taking a hard look at the wear on our wheels – we’ve logged a lot of kilometres and some pretty hard stops – and trying to figure out how to get replacements for between now and when we leave for Toronto. He’s been in touch with the bikes’ manufacturers and they’re setting up something. We sure don’t want to wear tires right through to inner tubes: that would be a showstopper here in the middle of nowhere France. See photos. That yard is a beautiful place to do maintenance. L’Ancien Cafe Suites et Gites, Aubigne. Not fancy. But I AM very excited about dinner and breakfast.

• *We started out this morning wearing cycling shorts, shirt, heavy sweaters, coats. Added one pair of mitts. Added gloves. (Actually, the gloves I added were given to me years ago by my sweet cousin Lori Hall.) Added rain pants mostly for insulation against the wind. Tomorrow, in addition to all of those I will wear long pants, not cycling shorts. An undershirt. A down vest. And a hat. We have the usual 75 km to bank but I think the ride may be even hillier (great for warming up on uphills but freezing going downhill). (Like FREEZE YOUR FACE freezing. A statement of fact, I’m not whining. I love a good coast.)
• One thing I love about cycling, a.k.a. “slow travel”, is the sensation of the wind on my legs. (It always kills me to have to wear long pants.) Also, the sensation of wind on my cheeks. Not those cheeks. The OTHER cheeks; i.e. the ones you have to expose when using a “green door”. And today, for the first time, I experienced HAIL on those other cheeks. It made me laugh. (And shiver.)