Gendarmes rule, OK
09 November 2011 | Joinville
Sunny again, 18 deg.
Yes, I know, you've missed me. But I'm back. I'm afraid nothing too exciting to report up to now, we were in Vitry for 5 days waiting for some post, which finally arrived on Tuesday. While we were waiting, the two bicycles received some attention. As you know, the little fold up bike received the attention of a French bike thief, who threw it in the canal. It was rescued, but then the gears seemed not to work after the unexpected dip. Then the tyres on my old fashioned ladies bike (eBay bargain) seemed to go flat very quickly and the tyre walls were badly perished, so after interrogating the Office de Tourisme lady in bad French, we established the whereabouts of bicycle shops in the town that would sell spare parts.
BUT all bicycle shops are apparently closed on Mondays, except one, InterSport. This store was situated just along the road from the big Bricorama DIY store, which bizzarely closed for a 2 hour lunch break on Saturday afternoon, which is probably when the majority of customers might want to buy something, it being
the weekend. So we set off in a bike convoy, Tim riding the folding bike permanently stuck in third gear and rear wheel not turning freely, with me following on eBay bike with tyres getting flatter by the minute. But we did manage to buy a new gear cable for little bike, and two new tyres and inner
tubes for eBay bike, which now has spare parts worth as much as I paid for the bike!
We finally left Vitry and headed for St Dizier on Tuesday, probably our worst day so far weather wise, grey and drizzly all day, and also the least interesting day. We travelled about 30km in 7 hours, ( yes, you could cycle or walk faster than that! We met a walking couple and said hello at one lock, then lo and behold, we also met them at the next lock too!). For most of the day the canal was dead straight, rather boring, especially when you could see the next lock in the distance, and the one after that.