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| 29/30-08-2003
:France |
| It’s
now the 31st and we’re both knackered and
happily writing away in the mountains of the Massif
Central in France.Packing up at a lazy pace we drifted
out of the campsite at Lecco with the intention
of just riding some fun roads and stopping when
we felt like it. A two-day jaunt down to see our
friend Chris in the mountains of France sounded
great. With our destination plugged into the GPS
we set off. GPS units are not infallible and two
hours later we were still skirting Milan finally
finding our way onto the main A7 heading South down
to Genova.The A7 is wonderful and scary at the same
time. A long and very fast dual carriageway which
snakes through the mountains and is home to every
Michael Schumacher wanabe’ in Italy. Today
we would use every little bit of rubber our tyres
could offer. The A7 is one long adrenalin ride,
not surprising then, when we arrive in Genova, we
blast off again, only to get ourselves onto the
wrong freeway which took us into the very centre
of this huge city. U-turn…The A10 was our
new companion and we were heading for Monaco, where
we would look for some camping and stop for the
night. By 9pm we were tackling the very, very steep
and twisty side road down into Monte Carlo, it was
time for coffee and food. Joining the raceway that
is Monte Carlo harbour we ‘pit stopped’
for an hour at one of the cheaper restaurants. We
hadn’t seen any camping signs and it was now
getting dark.“We could just carry on”
Lisa suggested, like it was the normal thing to
do. Lulled by her defenceless manner and happier
now that my belly was full, I agreed. Why oh, Why
oh, why?10pm came and went and midnight crept round
very slowly, we were now riding the A8. Doesn’t
quite have the same ring to it as ‘Route 66’
does it? In the wee hours we passed Marseille and
began to feel like we were making some progress.
The A8 was changed for Highway A55, which in turn
became the very long and straight N568. Ducking
South of Nimes and at 4am we found ourselves, somehow
in Montpellier. We hadn’t planned on going
into the City, it just happened. I think we actually
went round Montpellier twice before managing to
escape. Cruising along the A9 towards Bezier fatigue
got the better of us and common sense said it was
time to pull over and take a cat knap. Tank bags
for pillows again we both fell asleep on the bikes
only to be woken 20 minutes later buy an Italian
couple who had decided to start World War III.Feeling
slightly refreshed we started up the bikes and joined
the highway again. Food was called for at 8:30,
as I was feeling shaky.The last few hours seemed
to really drag, we were now on small country roads,
which normally would be great fun, but with our
concentration dwindling they were now hard work.
At around 11:30 we had ridden the last 7KM up the
mountain outside of Olargues and crested the road
down to Chris’s 17th Century Farmhouse home.
Chris was on the steps waiting for us and his grinning
face said it all…”you pair of idiots,
you’re not meant to be here for another day”!
Well, what’s a day between friends?Before
long we were slumped in chairs sitting around Chris’s
dinning table gentle drawing on wonderfully cold
French beers…bliss!!! |
| 31-08-2003 |
| Not
much to write really. The day didn’t start
early, as sleep was a priority for some strange
reason. Chris dragged himself out of bed around
mid morning and the rest of today has been spent
catching up. All in all a pretty good day.Great
to see Chris again, the farmhouse is progressing
brilliantly. He’s done so much since we were
last here. |
| 01-09-2003 |
| Chris
is a party animal. With the intention of getting
an early night, we finally got to bed at 2pm. Good
conversation, cold beer and better red wine are
one hell of a good reason to stay up. Needless to
say we’re all feeling a little sensitive today.
I’ve spent a couple of hours working on the
diary and putting some pages together for the web
site. |
| 02-09-2003 |
| Tuesday-
lazy day at Chris’s |
| 03-09-2003 |
Diary
and web pages were the order of the day today
with afternoon spent exploring some great trails
around the forests of Chris’s home. Lisa
and I both thought that getting some more off-road
practice was a good idea. Once again the bikes
felt so different with all the weight and luggage
removed.By 4pm we were both tired and dirty so
headed back to Chris’s. “Do you fancy
going out tonight”? Chris asked eagerly,
on our return. It was clear he was up for a party
again. Rejanne was a friend of Chris’s who
bought a restaurant down at one of the local campsites.
The season was coming to an end and it was time
for her and her staff to let their hair down.
Chris and his two guests had been invited. Food
was sorted; all we had to bring was ourselves
and a few bottles of wine.We pitched up with Chris
in his Cherokee Jeep, it still felt strange to
be in a car, and handed over the wine and exchanged
a thousand kisses. OK, OK, a little exaggeration
but I lost count. Anyway I’ve always been
a little confused with the whole French kissing
protocol (no not that type of French kissing).
Do you kiss once, twice or three times? Does once
mean, hi I like you but not that much? Does two
kisses mean, hi I really like you but I can’t
go for the third ‘cos you’ve got really
bad halitosis breath and does three mean, I really,
really, like you and I could carry on kissing
you all night but people will begin to talk? I
was simply working on the premise that you carry
on kissing until the other person stops. Of course
this plan does backfire if the person you’re
kissing is doing the same…luckily for me
everyone else seemed to understand the rules and
I managed not to offend anyone plus - I’m
still married.
The
evening was great fun and the company relaxed.
By 11pm the evening was beginning to hot up, with
instruments brought out and vocal cords stretched.
We were in for another late night. We finally
headed back up the mountain at 2:30am. This time
I was behind the wheel. Nothing like driving up
a steep mountain pass in the dark in a car you
don’t know to wake you up! |
| 04/05/06/07-09-2003 |
| The
next few days were spent having very long lie-ins
recovering from the previous nights socialising
–if it wasn’t Chris insisting we had
one more drink for the ‘road’, it was
Frederick (Fred) or ZuZu – Chris’s neighbours
– coming round for a chat and a drink. Bare
in mind, Chris only has 7 neighbours on the whole
mountain! |
| 08/09-09-2003 |
| Monday
has swung round and – ‘Yes’ –
we are still here! We had had every intention of
leaving on the Thursday, however…Chris was
having his first house party. The party had been
in the planning for a week and Chris had been asking
us to stay for the last few days, as much for moral
support than anything else. To our surprise our
laid-back and very cool friend was actually nervous
– and was very keen for everything to go with
a ‘bang’. With the three of us allocated
jobs, which ranged from picking up more chairs and
scrounging enough cutlery, the daylight hours saw
a hive of activity. Builder’s dust brushed
away, timber planks stored (bearing in mind Chris’s
house is a work in progress) and copious bottles
of booze brought up from the valley, just in time
for the first guests to arrive. Chris began to relax
and conversation flowed as easy as the wine. The
evening was a success from the word ‘go’.
For us, our only concern had been the language barrier
and quite frankly….it wasn’t! All of
Chris’s guests were characters in their own
right – and brought no pretence or ‘hidden
agenda’ to the table – they were here
just to enjoy a great evening and each others company
and once again we felt very honoured to have been
accepted into this close-knit group of friends so
warmly. At some point in the early hours of the
morning the table was cleared, moved to one side,
music turned up and dancing commenced! Fred was
on form and determined to dance with everybody and
anybody! The Chris and Fred dance was particularly
scary and we hope will NOT be re-enacted within
living memory!! By 4am guests were beginning to
disappear, Chris had been taken to bed (to sleep
we hasten to add!) leaving only three gyrating,
drunken people, which were myself, Lisa and Fred.
Lisa disappeared at 6am, I followed suit at 7am
and left ‘Billy No Mates’ Fred dancing
with himself. Some people have more stamina than
is good for them. Eyelids were finally peeled open
at around 2pm and an hour later animation was once
again brought to lifeless limbs! Cofffeeeeeee…..cofffeeeeee.
Needless to say the rest of the day was simply spent
surviving the aftermath and recovering slowly. |
| 10-09-2003 |
| The
plan was to leave around lunchtime…as usual
we were running late and finally left just after
3pm. Well – we had hoped to get to Lourdes
but as the night drew in we finally stopped just
outside Foix. Our route along the D18 past Limoux,
the D63 past Mirepoix, and finally onto the main
N20 to Foix has been a wonderful return to biking
after so many fun days stationed at Chris’s.
Emerald green French valley forests swapped quickly
for drier earthier hilltop vistas at higher altitudes
as we carved our way down to our first night under
canvas since leaving our friend and his party-loving
neighbours! Dinner was courtesy of the local pizza
van with after dinner drinks supplied by our new
Bavarian neighbours - Ruprecht and Ingeborg Quast.
Ruprecht had introduced himself with a smile and
a host of questions about the bikes and BMW. Later
his interest in the BMW bikes became apparent as
for the last 20 years Ruprecht had been intricately
involved with BMW’s fuel injection systems,
most recently working on the Formula 1 circuit!!
You meet the most interesting of people in the strangest
of places! |
| 11-09-2003 |
| A
lunchtime start was in order today as Lourdes was
our destination and only a short 60-mile ride. Opting
to use only the GPS to guide us and having selected
to use back roads only in order to avoid the main
highways we zigzagged across country passing countless
hamlets and villages each more picturesque than
the last. The day was beautifully warm as opposed
to the stinking hot we had become used to. Our route
was a surprise, as until we reached Lourdes we had
no idea where the GPS was taking us! Both Lisa and
I had quickly found our biking equilibrium again
after our stationary stint at Chris’s and
both enjoying the special kind of buzz that only
travel on two wheels can provide. I spent the afternoon
grinning to myself as I rode as I listened to Lisa
through the Autocom and every so often all I heard
was….”Wheeee, wheee” as she pushed
her 650GS through tighter and tighter bends at speed
and enjoyed the empty roads. Not for the first time
on this trip I realised how proud I was of my wife
and how well she’d done through the 16 countries
to date. God knows how we finally got into Lourdes
(Opps! Shouldn’t say that should I?) But the
road was unmarked and got very narrow before finally
broadening onto one of the main streets as we entered
the town. Opting to stay in the smaller town centre
campsite, it was ideal and only a 5 min walk from
the main area. Arriving at a ‘normal time’
we headed straight for the town centre and were
almost immediately overwhelmed by the ‘religion
on sale’. Shop upon shop upon shop selling
everything from candles to crucifixes to little
plastic bottles in the shape of the ‘Virgin
Mary with Child’ for you to collect your healing
water in. Religious icons and trinkets of every
description are here for your buying pleasure. We’d
gone without food for too long and so plonked ourselves
down at one of the town centres Bistro’s where
we were served overpriced and poorly cooked grub
for the tourist. A little ‘down in the mouth’
but with hunger pangs subsiding we headed back to
the tent and formulated our plan for the late afternoon
and evening. Our return in the late afternoon saw
Lourdes transformed. The excitement in the air was
tangible and the trinket shops which earlier seemed
gordy now seemed appropriate even necessary as people
on the way to the Cathedral Basilique du Rosaire
shopped for mementos. Making our way down to the
Cathedral and noting almost as many wheelchair users
as able bodied we strolled down the main promenade
towards the Cathedral doors only to be staggered
by the artistry and splendour of the interior. The
inner Cathedral area is undergoing complete renovation
with 5.5 million Euros already spent they are half
way through but the work is pain staking and what
has been finished is quite incredible. Of the many
fine building we have been lucky enough to see around
the world these mosaics and design here is one of
our favourites and is worthy of any visit for the
religiously inclined or not on this merit alone.
For more information on the area why not visit www.lourdes-france.com
or call the office de tourisme on 0033 562 4277
40. A little weary we headed back up the hill and
once again were in need of grub. With our expectations
low we popped into one of the smaller restaurants
at the Cathedral end of the high street only to
be surprised and delighted at great home cooked
French cuisine at prices that didn’t damage
the budget. As we ate we watched what must have
been several hundred people all with small candles
gently make their way down to the cathedral. A little
tired but curious we followed suit. The candlelight
Mass and procession was getting underway. Thousands
of Pilgrims from all over the World, including several
hundred from the Dublin diocese were setting a scene
fit for a fairytale. The atmosphere was joyous but
respectful as thousands of candles lit every balcony,
alcove and staircase as well as covering the complete
promenade. A sea of moving light that no camera
could really do justice to and all very much in
contrast to our earlier impression of Lourdes. Quite
simply magical- the evening was one to be remembered.
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