Part Deux - En Francais

'The Real Father of The TDF'

Clairac - Christmas Day, 04:02 pm

"Do you think you could try to retrieve our voice mail messages, sweetie, I don't know how it works on this new phone and it's all in French?", said Vicki

I considered the situation for a moment and then had a 'brain wave'.  I'll try typing 1571 - which is how we retrieve them from Sky in the U.K

I punched in the numbers.

"Bonjour, avez-vous une probleme?", said an authoritative male voice.

"No, I don't have a problem I'm just trying to get my messages".I said

"Do you not speak French?"

"No, do you not speak English?"

"Non - one moment"

It all went quite, then after a few seconds another voice came on the line.

" 'allo monsieur, what eez your problerm?"

"I don't have a problem, I'm just trying to retrieve my messages, is this not the phone company?"

"No, it's the fire brigade"

"Pardon"

Oh, shit!

I made another call.

"Dermod?"

"That's me"

" I tried to get my messages by dialling 1571 and I got the Fire Brigade!", I said, all agitatedly.

"Ah, jeeze, you don't want to be doing that now. The Fire Brigade is 15 so it must have 'kicked in' before it acknowledged the 71.  It's a volunteer service so you would have disturbed someone having their Christmas dinner; he'll be well fecked off!"

Tonniens - Boxing Day, 01:22 pm

Whilst strolling around Tonneins - which is 5 miles from Clairac- I was amazed to find a monument commemorating the exploits of Theodore Joyeux.  I must admit I had never heard of him, but his is an amazing story.  If you look at the inscription on the plaque you can see that, in the words of Henri Desgrange, he was the inspiration for the Tour de France.  In 1895 he did the first tour of France covering 5500 km at an average of 289km a day over 19 stages.  This was done on a bike without a freewheel or brakes to promote a new bicycle called an 'Acetene' - where the chain was replaced with a gear set (if you Google it you can see a picture); for this feat he was paid 2200 francs - a not inconsiderable sum in those days.  The statue was not actually erected until 2008, but it is great that the town of his birth has finally recognised his achievement.

Commemorating the exploits of Theodore Joyeux

Preyssas - Saturday 9th Jan, 11:07 am

"Bonjour, avez vous du cafe?"

"Oh, oiu monsier"

This was great news; I had been concerned that I would be unable to get a coffee in this little 'one dog town'.  I was on a modest 55 mile tour around the Lot Valley and was desperate for coffee.

"You are on zee Tour de France?", she inquired, good naturedly, after seeing a TDF logo on my jacket.

"Un petit Tour de France", I replied.

"One moment, monsieur I 'av a gift for you"

She disappeared for a couple of minutes and then returned with a big smile"

"My 'usband is a sponsor of ze tour and zis is for you"

She handed me a red picnic blanket (that'll come in handy when I eat the handful of Haribo 'Gummy Bears' that are in my pocket; I can find a sunny spot and spread the blanket on the ground - I thought to myself.)

"You are most kind"

Life is beautiful in  Villeneuve-sur-lot

Between us we fixed the blanket to the top tube with the velcro handles and used a rolled up plastic bag as additional support.  I downed the excellent one euro coffee and went on my way.  I love France and in particular I love the series of surreal moments that cycling, and life in general here, seems to provide.   I headed for Pujols (pronounced 'poo shoal - the French way and not poo holes as it would be in Spanish.)  On arrival at the town I saw a sign saying 'Centre Ville', which pointed up a really steep hill, so I decided to bypass it and headed for Villneuve-sur-Lot in the hope of finding the 'Voie Vert'. There was a great downhill section that took me into the town and immediately I spotted the 'Voie Vert' sign.

On the Voie Vert

 The cycle path is a similar design to the one I used the year before last from Dieppe, where just as you get up a decent 'head of steam' you have to negotiate width restrictors and end up loosing all the momentum you have built up.  It was amazingly picturesque as it followed the Lot, and small streams, which it crisscrossed via some interesting bridges.  I felt a bit cheated as on the map it shows a cycle path going all the way along the Lot, right back to Clairac, but in reality after about 5 miles you end up on the road again.  I arrived home happy with my little adventure, very impressed with my new B'twin and, best of all, the blanket was still attached.

I have been in a different mindset about cycling since I've been coming here and am quite content to just cruise around taking in my new surroundings.  The roads here are great - in fact I don't think I've seen one pothole! - and the lack of cars is a great bonus, but I have also been really surprised by the lack of other cyclists I have seen while in France - I can only assume they cycle in parts that I haven't discovered yet.   I haven't made an effort to find a club to join yet, but I will do soon.  I know there are quite a few around. I have also spent some time cycling with my dear friend John who stayed with us for a week over the New Year and, as predicted, he is loving the Dawes!

Update on 'The Pigs'....

Whilst I was in England and Vicki was in France with our friend Isabelle, she had reported to me that the pigs were getting very bold and were hanging around just outside the back door, and they had decided to take direct action against them.  Armed with saucepans and spoons they went outside in the darkness and made as much of a racket as they could, this was accompanied by Isabelle (who is great singer and sung at our wedding) singing opera in a soprano voice.  This definitely did the trick and they did not see them again, and I saw no signs of them when I went back for Christmas. When we bought the house we were told it came with 2.5 acres, but we have since decided it must be 2.5 hectares - we worked this out in a very scientific way by standing at the top of the hill behind us and imaging how many football pitches could fit inside the garden - it is at least 6. So it is possible that they are still lurking around somewhere at the back in the undergrowth, or they may have been scared off by Le Chasse.  Since they have retreated we are now seeing deer in the garden - watching them graze with their ears twitching, particularly in the early morning mist, is a moving and memorable sight. However, as lovely as it is, we have to take action to stop them coming too close to the house as they are notorious tick carriers.  Poppy suffered from tick fever between Christmas and New Year and only our quick response in getting her to the vets stopped it from being fatal.  One quick jab and she was well again within a day or so.  Ticks are a massive problem in the UK as well (there are warning signs in place in Normans Bay), but the french ticks carry a parasite that can be lethal (we have found out that there is a vaccination against this parasite which is 90% successful and available in France. (We wre a bit p*ssed off that our UK vet wasn't up-to-date with this information.)) .  We are slowly working our way up the garden creating more short lawn which will deter them as they prefer long grass and piles of leaves where they lie in wait for a host - little b@stards! To assist in this task we have invested in some heavy duty kit: petrol strimmer/brush cutter, petrol hedge cutter and a John Deere ride on lawn tractor.  I was happy as a 'pig in muck' on my tractor until I went down a bit of a dip and it started making funny noises. To make matters worse, Vicki, who was quite a distance away heard it and stood hand on hips looking accusingly at me - I just gave a classic 'Gaelic shrug' as if to say 'not my fault I never touched it'; it's now in the garage awaiting repair.

Je salut France!

We had a fantastic Christmas and New Year in France and the weather was great up until new years eve when it started raining and didn't really stop.  We are intending to stay in the UK until March and then spend a lot more time in France.




Peter Buss