29 July 2010 Thursday

 

I want to try and eave by 10am this morning, so I’ve set my alarm to ensure that I don’t sleep in like yesterday.

I get up & make my way down to the kitchen where I put on the coffee, using Sara & James’ Porsche coffee machine! Unfortunately I don’t put the jug under the filter properly which means that when James comes down there is coffee all over the floor…not a good start to the day ;o(

Once again I have planned my route using the purple routes using my Best Rides Atlas ( www.thebestrides.co.uk).

From Silly William ( actually called Sille-le Guillaume but this is Jame’s name for it!) along D310 to Evron. The D7 to St Suzannes is closed,so I use the GPs to take me on an alternative route south which takes me on a lovely small windy country road , eventually rejoining the D7 to Sable-Sue-Sarthe.

Then West on D28 to Chateau-Gontier. Today is market day,so a small detour through the town centre is needed.

I am waiting in a queue of stationery traffic when unbelievably the car in front starts to reverse and before I can react she has reversed straight back into me. I beep my horn and luckily she stops. I have no idea what she was doing!  I get off the bike and check out the front wheel-there does not appear to be any damage. The woman just sits in her car & there is no point in me going to talk to her as my French is not up to that,so I get back on the bike and ride up the road-stopping at the next cafe for a coffee as it has shaken me quite a bit.

I continue on my journey. The sky starts to cloud over,and the cars coming the other way all have their lights on,so I stop to put on my waterproof top. Luckily I seem to have missed the worst of it, as the roads are really wet,but I do not actually ride through any rain.

As I ride,I am a little worried about not getting the stupid woman’s details that reversed into me-what if she has done some damage that I can’t see? But the bike feels normal and there is nothing I can do now.  As I ride up to a tiny village there is a small lake on the left and the noise of my bike makes a heron fly up and across the water-as usual when I see these birds a sense of calm comes over me.

When I get to Nozay I decide to hit the fastest route home button on my GPS-I just want to get to Caro now!

I get to the house and say my usual “Bonjour” to all the rooms.

Its then time to unpack. As I am putting away my stuff I manage to knock over a litre of vodka,which on the tiled floor smashes and goes everywhere! Well at least that’s the 3 things over and done with.

Once unpacked I jump back on the bike and ride to Ploermel to fill up the bike up with petrol and fill up my fridge with yummy French food, then its back home for my first night this year at the house.