As far as classic cycle touring days goes this was not one of them, a sleep in, crap weather and a number of mishaps making the day less than memorable !.
Our reliable weather forecasting service (Henley standing outside with a piece of string) indicated art that today was going to be cold and wet mainly because Henley was cold and wet ! After a bit of a sleep in and a morning chat we finally got motivated enough to ready our bikes for a ride into Carentan.
We'd no sooner got ready when my front tube suddenly exploded sending the gang diving for the trenches thinking that the Allies had landed all over again. H the Minister in charge of tyre inflation (helping me out) said "I cant understand what went wrong" !
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| What PSI did you put in Henley ? |
We'd known the Chateaux's air pump had a faulty gauge (low reading) but H using his skilled engineering background and a previously tried and tested formula where he doubled his age in years and subtracted his street address number, thought he had worked out a workable pressure for the Chateaux's air pump. Noel who'd used H's same formula raced back to his bike to quickly let some air out !
Finally under way it was a stiff 6km pedal into headwinds into town where we set off in search of the towns local bike shop only to find out that it had recently moved. Realising that it was lunch time and the bike shop would not open till 2, we opted instead for the nearest Boulongerie where we partook in our regular daily intake of Baquettes, cakes and Coffee Au Lait !
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| The Bike shop has moved ! |
One of the joys of travelling is the unexpected interaction you have with locals and today was no different when a man came over to us as we ate lunch introducing himself as a Celtic Frenchman ! Having asked where we came from he then sung a couple of lovely French verses from some song and then said goodbye by blowing a kiss in either Henley or Viv's direction (it was hard to tell). What a delightful moment !
Back on our bikes we headed this time to the newly relocated bike store now in freezing drizzly conditions (13c). While we sort shelter inside, the shop owner was inundated by us trying to buy bike bottles, lube, spare tubes and some new undies after this mornings incident !
Satisfied, we stacked up with supplies before going our separate ways. The boys back to town to chase up a few essentials and Viv and Linton in the cold conditions, to Isigny sur Mer in search of some local caramel toffee !
Our collective returns to the chateaux were starkly contrasting. Ours a slow meander down the canal by way of a local coffee stop and Viv & Linton's by way of a muddy / overgrown field after finishing up mistakenly on a major road when leaving Carentan !!!
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| Linton - "Viv, where did you reckon that shortcut was"? |
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| Rick and his shorts ! |
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| Back at our well guarded Chateaux ! |
All's well that ends well though and muddied though they might have been our adventurers finally made it back with big grins on their faces after having scored some local delicacies !!.
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