Checy to Beugancy

It rained a little and the waitress at the lunch spot was crying.  I don't know why.  We ate bread and cheese and beer for lunch and then found out that the campground we were heading for no longer existed. Surprise! We had to bike on to the next town.  While beer is delicious and should be drunk at lunch when one is on vacation and eating at an outdoor cafe on the banks of a river, it is cryptonite for biking.  As we prepared to saddle up and slog on, a German couple hit us up.  Where we from? Why did we leave California to come to Europe? Why were we riding bikes the whole way?! They thought we were crazy to pick Europe as a destination when it was their dream to go to San Francisco.  And as for bike touring, they could barely believe the loads we had strapped to our bikes.  We told them it was the best way to travel and to try it for themselves.  There's really nothing like going somewhere you've never been before on your bike.  You aren't in the bubble of your car.  You really are out in the world, part of your surroundings.  

We biked out of town past monuments to Joan of Arc for organizing an army and saving the city from the British. 

The Bastille day fireworks started that night and we saw several different large shows going on up and down the river.  There were at least six other couples camping near us who were also on bike tour.  Seeing our counterparts we felt validated that weren't crazy for liking to bike camp.  In the morning we met a couple from Sweden and struck up a friendship.  They were photographing all the other bike tourists they ran into.  After taking our picture, she took this picture of us. 

Bike Tour #2 - The Loire Valley

We picked the Loire Valley for the bike route.  They have laid out a network of backroads and bike trails along the river through a UNESCO historic site.  250 miles or so of Castles and vineyards.  The bike route is flat and scenic with lots of campgrounds along the way.  It was so delightful to follow signs from town to town with almost no cars along shady roads.

We started off with a hectic train adventure to Orleans.  Like New Orleans there is a huge river as big as as the Mississippi. Thanks to a 6:30 am train combined with a very late night and many bottles wine on our last night in Paris, we were very tired when we arrive in Orleans (we had made some friends from Texas & they BBQ'd for us - delicious!). To add to our difficulties it was Bastille weekend, which is the French equivalent of the 4th of July.  Everything was closed.  We needed food and rest.  We found a cafe and made like the locals having espressos and smoking a cigarette (when in Rome!).  We biked along the river for a while and stopped at the first campground we came to.  

Checy is a small medieval  town.  After we set up or tent and took a 4 hour nap we biked around to find food.  This of course was a holiday and so we ended up eating at an McDonalds on the outskirts of town! A "Royal with frites" was a remarkably expensive and gross meal! But it got us through the wild goose chase that ensued as we search for a grocery store.  We finally found one just as it was closing.  We didn't have a corkscrew yet, and so we had to get a bottle of wine with a screw cap (sorry Dad!).  As we biked back through the town  we past Joan of Arc's house and the church that she went to as a girl.  The campground had a nice view of the bell tower.

The Louvre

Wow! Art can hurt you! I spent 7 hours at the Louvre and am both amazed by the vastness of Western culture and exhausted from it. What can I say? It was all so historical!

I'm in Paris!

Hi! I can't believe I'm here! It was quite an experience just getting here. After a crazy urban ride from the train station in a hard rain, we made it to the houseboat. We couldn't bring our bikes on the metro, but our train came in a half hour before we had to meet the lady to get the keys. So me and Marc sat with all four fully loaded bikes in the train station while Carrie and Emily rushed via Metro to the boat. They made it just in time before she left! Then they had to take the Metro back to the station so we could all ride to the boat. As we pushed the bikes out the station doors, it started pouring. So we tried to go quickly. But this is not the Netherlands! We almost got killed by a trash truck and had to negotiate a huge traffic circle.
Now we have a fabulous home base from which to explore the city.
Today we went on a sewer tour (interesting but yuck!) and saw the eiffel tower. It was hot and crowed so we got ice cream, sat in the shade and vowed to come back at sunset when the lights come on. Last night we ate at a lovely restaurant but tonight we went to the store and are cooking in.
tomorrow the Lourve! Can't wait to see all those famous pieces of art...

pictures

O.K. I was able to upload photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28205135@N07/
so cut and paste that url and check out the sights!

peace!

the adventure continues

Hi All!

Thanks for checking in on me. I am trying to type on a French keyboard so sorry for typos! Its a trip being in a new country! I keep trying to speak Spanish and its not getting me anywhere. I am still struggeling to upload photos of our latest leg of our adventure, so far no luck. Did anyone find the photos of the Noorde Zee on Flickr? My screen name is Ms. Murphy. I,ll keep trying...

We have been seeing beautiful old buildings in Metz France. Its a walled city east of Paris with Medieval churches and towers. Its crazy seeing things older than anything in the States. The biking has been wet- lots of rain and it turn out my rain gear leaks! So I am going to go shopping in Paris before we head out on our next 10 day bike trip. Today we're training to Paris with the bikes and we'll be visiting museums etc. for the next four days. Then µCarrie and Emily will be heading home and Marc and I will be heading to the Loire Valley to see Castles ans sample wine!

We all agree that the Netherlands was the absolute best for bike touring. France doesn't have the same kind of bike trails or the extremely clean bathrooms. In Holland the camping is fantastic and plentiful.

We all feel better now that Rock Werchter is over! We camped in the mud with 100,000 other hippies and drunk teenagers. Turns out that peeing in public is no problem for the men and I saw way more than I wanted to of that! But the food and beer were plentiful and the music was great. My favorite was seeing Gnarls Barkley rqise the roof. Kings of Leon was a huge hit as well. It was cool to see all the European fans singing along and almost crying during their set! Radiohead had an amazing light show. We endured so much to see those guys play it was a relief to pack up and bike away from there. I still feel dirty!

Hopefully I'll figure out how to get some photos up. The old buildings are lit up at night and reflect on the canal waters. Its so pretty!

Camera didn't work!

O.K. so I got some great pictures but I can't seem to post them. I'll keep trying. In the meantime, I put some photos on Flickr. It's a photo sharing site. My screen name is Ms.Murphy. Maybe you can find them there?