so I'm 2 days behind, due to really bad wifi and just being busy. I have learned that the French take their holidays very seriously! So I am going to post my last 2 days of notes below and have a separate entry for today.
June 4- R&R day
To put it mildly I am beat, only a few days on the bike and the last 2 got longer and longer. Yesterday ended well with a missed train and luckily getting into a campground which was sold out but the owner made a spot for me in the sitting garden area which was probably nicer than a regular pitch since the grass thick and soft. The only issue was the neighboring campsite with the couple that must have been newlyweds as they seemed to be either playing tug of war or something else. They quieted down about 2am. I got up at 530 so I could pack up and make my train so 2 hours sleep is about all I got. I stopped by the bakery on the way to the train station and they had chocolate croissants (hot) just coming out of the oven. I’m not a big chocolate person but those were amazing!!!The baker kept saying you want chocolat and I said no and then finally said you try, you like! Boy was he right, I went back for a 2nd.
To the train station and on the train. After 1 stop a family came on board and a young man asked me if I went to the citadel. I told him yes and he said he recognized the big red flag on my backpack. He is a jr, his dad is an 81 grad and his brother will be a knob in the fall semester. Pretty damn cool to see Citadel family members so far away.
The Swain family is traveling Europe for a summer vacation. They were at the same sites I visited the past few days. Pretty cool. They are now heading to Nice for some R&R. We all separated at the paris station where I am heading to Bayonne. The ticket lady that sold me my train ticket in Bayonne said I did not need a train ticket for the bike. She also talked me into a route change as it would get me to Bayonne a few hours early. She was right except for the bike ticket issue. I got to paris and I was told there was no room for the bike. Another passenger had the same issue, he pulled out some cash and was given a very stern look from the conductor. The train was booked solid and no room for bikes. They told us to leave the bike. I decided I would stay and get the later train. Upon rebooking the ticket they told me there was no room for a bike. The manager of the station gave a stamp on my ticket and suggested I try anyways and he would talk with the supervisors about the issue and see if they could accommodate. The TGV trains don’t have bike storage like the SCNF trains. Hopefully at time of writing I will be able to get it done.
SO I had 5 hours to kill. What better to do than visit Paris. With it being the bastille holiday and D day and everything else being closed I decided to go for a walk in paris. Its like NY except everyone speaks French. I had a pizza, a drink and looked for bike shops and sporting goods stores. All closed. And the luck stayed bad with no availability on the train.
I called my friend Jamie and we met at an expat bar called the Moose. It was an irish pub. Fantastic. People spoke English, the bartender was irish and another was from Mexico. Awesome! We had Guinness and the chef Potine. So the potine (spelling????) dish is basically good French fries, gravy, hamburger meat and mushrooms and onions. OMG!!!!! Perfect hangover food. Oh yeah and they put cheese curds in it that melt (think mozzarella or white cheddar). IT was great!! We walked paris at night which was incredible.. My phone is sufficing for pictures as I killed my new sony camera (not sure but it wont recognize the lense). I will post a few photos. Back to the hotel and to bed. First night of real sleep, which was midnight to 930! Awesome!!
