Luck and the Loire

It was raining when I got up this morning, as it was for the last couple of days. I've had some luck since I decided to ride the loire valley, a lot of it bad. I even started composing a blues song to myself (one of the ways to pass time on the road is to sing in your head, and occasionally out loud) with the chorus 'if it wasn't for bad bike luck, lord I'd have no luck at all.'

Bad Luck:

As has been the case virtually everywhere, getting out of a large city proved to be a pain in the ass. Paris was the worst yet though - the god dammned thing is enormous, qnd it was essentially one full day of riding before I got out of Burbanity. Then it started raining. The ultralight '2 person' (hah!) thent I bought turned out to have no fly, nor any ventilation. You're wet whether its raining or not. It rained, a lot. Then there were the headwinds in the loire valley itself. Nasty, nasty business for two straight days. If this weren't bad enough, my bottom bracket (for you non-geeks out there, thats the little axle that connects your pedal cranks together) started to work itself loose (WTF!). I decided that hell for bad bikers is a place with a slight but eternal incline, headwinds of 25k an hour, and wobbly cranks. The mechanics in the valley were unwilling to lend me tools, nor were their rates reasonable - an unfortunate side effect of choosing to ride in one of the more popular destionations of earth to tour (here, the 'tourers' are more like 'tourists' in the traditional sense). Then I got a flat, caused by a ruptured valve stem - unpatchable, and I discovered that my spare tube was one of the things that dissapeared when tout mes affairs had been jacked. Low blood sugar day. Low point in general. long walk uphill. Today was a gauntlet ride to bourges with a stop every 5 km _hand tightent_ my BB, with a nagging fear that the bike itself was permanent scrap.

Good Luck:
Of course, I'm making it sound like this is some kind of nightmare, which its not. Its just been a couple of frustrating days. Good luck found me too.

When I hit orleans my first stop was Decathlon - the sports outlet where I'd bought my tent. They let me exchange my (soggy) tent no questions asked for a cheaper, eaually light and similarly (and this time honest about its one-man-nes) sized tent. It is not neon green, and hence useless for stealth camping, it has a decent fly, and the tent itself is essentially a giant bugnet with a frame - I'm quite fond of it. I dropped into the tourist info center to pick up some literature on the loire valley by bike. Maps in hand I spend the day yes, fighting the wind, but in magnificent scenery. Castle upon castle (slowly) slid by. I arrived in Blois just around 7 oclock at night only to discover that the whole town was rampin gup for the all night party that is 'La Fete de la Music,' a national holiday that takes place on the solstice and has free music on stages all over town in every city in france. Its an idea we should consider adopting. I saw some really good music, got my dance on, and eventually rolled into the forrest at 2 am, in the dark, to set up my new tent for the first time. It went pretty well. My flat tire turned out not to be a complete disaster in the end, as eventually a pack of british cyclists on a 14 day tour spotted me and stopped to give aid (typical in these parts - it takes a foreigner to offer you help in France). I made it to the castle at chernonceau that afternoon, and rather than pay 10 euros to see the dammned thing, found a sneaky workaround by riding 2km up the road, crossing the river, and rolling back along a back road to end up close enought to touch the thing (there are dogs and tall trees on the other side of the river placed there to prevent you from even daring to laying eyes on the castle for free)



Unfortunately until I get a new camera cable or card reader, thats all you get.
Today I rocked into Bourges, intending to take the train back into paris to bitch out the mechanic who had either sold me a bum bottom bracket or done a sloppy job of installing it. Before paying for the ticket though, I had the sense to hit up an internet cafe and do a bit of research - sometething about french BBs being wacky in some way was nagging at the back of my mind. Sure enough, bikeforums.net provided the answer (french BBs are now obsolete as they have the bad habit of working themselves loose - the solution: re-seat the sucker WELL and put in some locktite to keep it there). So I'll roll on tonight, having dropped 20 more euros on the bike, but a small price compared to what I had expected the episode to cost me, and no detours back to Paris - thank god.

I've actually got a whole post I'd like to write about my thoughts on paris, but I think its going to have to wait for next time, as the road calls and its starting to get late. I've begun to slip back into a comfprtable rythm, and I'm getting faster and faster. If I hadn't stopped in Bourges all afternoon I might have done 140K today - seriously.

Anyway, ERE is my ride since leaving paris. Next stop is Montluçcon where I'm told there is a church with a magnificent organ that is a replica of one Bach played on? composed for? something. Then further and further south, possibly though the Massif Central - a chain of apparently beautiful mountains, if I'm feeling massacistic. I dont know if I'll make Barcelona for the begginning of july (though I'd like to, as I've some cool people to meet) but the road will take me where it will.

Don't know when I'll have internet next - its hard to come by in these parts - but until then, thinking of all you wonderful jerks!