This coffee tastes as good as it looks.
The weather is looking up; blue sky without any threatening clouds. Fingers crossed.
I was changing the dressing on my foot at the campsite entrance this morning when a French chap struck up conversation. He had watched me pack my tent and chattels together and load them onto the bike. He was impressed with the meticulous nature of my efforts. I explained the logic of getting the bike balanced and he contrasted that with what he has to do in preparation for moving to the next site in his camper van which could be summed up as ‘throw everything in the back’. We went on to have a remarkably wide-ranging discussion about languages (his wife was an English teacher and he himself spoke Breton; he even gave me a demonstration), political centralisation in France and the UK, the up-coming cycling event in Verdun (involving 12,000 cyclists of which he was one), his career as an insurance man and how it took him to the six corners of France (remember this is l’Hexagon), his travels around the UK, especially Scotland, his daughter’s time spent working in Bournemouth and Edinburgh and, of course, my own trip to Italy. He asked my age and he told me that it was the perfect time in life to do such a thing. So, all you thirty somethings sat on your sofas at home getting ready for a dose of Jeremy Kyle; time to get off your back sides and do something adventurous. So says my new mate at the campsite.
This morning I’m in no rush. If I get to Sarrebourg today, great. If I have to stop before, so be it. I don’t have to be in Strasbourg before Thursday evening so I have time on my hands. Yesterday, between rain showers I saw the ‘French’ north west of the town. This morning I want to see the ‘Ville Allemande’ towards the east and the south which is handy as that’s the direction I need to head in. Of particular interest, although closed today, is the futuristic new Pompidou Centre; expect that to be the next picture to appear on here.
Just had the second coffee so I now feel like a proper cyclist; drugged up to the eyeballs.