Glad to hear you are meeting up with Michael. We met him a few years ago when we were in Nates and had a lovely time with him including a rather frustrating time trying to repair a picture of mine in a bike with hub gears - not easy. Give him our best wishes
You are covering so much ground we already have so am enjoying it all over again
Keep safe
Tricia and Ken

Proof that I am absolutely clueless about this stuff!

Probikeshop= Rosetta Stone!

Probikeshop wonderfully offer their site in six languages, and it seems quite native, rather than machine translated!

Anyway, according to this new "highest authority available", you are quite right. "Pannier" is a purely English word, meaning something like the Ortlieb Sport Roller. One the other hand in French, "panier" for bikes is a (usually front) basket, good for your daily "pain", while the Sport Roller would be a "sacoche". "Sacoche" however also includes stuff like fanny packs on Probikeshop, making it inaccurate in cycling terms.

p.s. For the record, as one passes through the various countries, an English "pannier" is a German "radtache" and a Spanish "alforja" (although "alforja" is really a "saddlebag", and probably also fits on your Spanish horse -my head hurts!)

It should read basket.

Pannier / panier is a "faux ami", a false friend. The two words mean different things in English and French. I have lived in France for more than 20 years and have made this mistake more than once.

Pannier = "sacoche"
https://www.probikeshop.fr/accessoires/bagagerie-sacoches-c322.html

Backet = "panier"
https://www.probikeshop.fr/accessoires/bagagerie-paniers-c10758.html

See wikipedia definition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_(unit)

You just say "knots".
Not per hour.

Do you remember the judge in Miracle on 34th Street who consulted the "highest authority available" on whether there is a Santa Claus? Well I have consulted the highest authority available on sacoche - Decathlon!

And yes, Decathlon calls all their panniers "sacoches"! When they use panier, it's for a mesh bicycle basket. And goodness me, there is only one "n" in panier. Hell with it, they will always be panniers to us!

I find "bonjour" to be a devilish word. There seems to be an infinite number of ways to pronounce it, depending on the person and region. I think the one rule is that there is no "n" in it, and probably no "r". That does not leave it many letters! "Beau-joue" might be the most common.

A variant of this game is deciphering what oncoming cyclists are saying to you, country by country, and then daring to pronounce whatever it is!

While we would know what you mean if you said sacoche, we can not recall anyone in France ever calling a bicycle pannier a sacoche. I think maybe to be a sacoche it would need to have a carrying strap.

The World War events, recalled so clearly in Normandy and Belgium, still have enormous emotional impact for visitors and locals. We agree completely with your take on it.

I am not an expert with Coleman.

Yes, we will visit a Decathlon on our rest day, Thursday. The problem we've encountered is that if you find Coleman fuel, it comes in a large (and heavy!) can. I might also try some field maintenance on the stove, if I feel confident enough not to lose any parts or otherwise render the stove inoperable. It worked fine this morning. Maybe yesterday was just a fluke.

In the United States, higher grade fuel may actually have more additives, so it's not recommended for this stove. Here in France, it could be different.

Hi,
You get gasoline (essence) in a gas station. A quincaillerie or hardware store has hardware, but not usually paint, cleaning supplies, or other non-hardware items. A grand surface (big box store) like Castorama or Leroy Merlin , to name but two, might have a suitable fuel, but I doubt it. Try à Décathlon sporting goods store, they have camping stoves and fuel, maybe even something like Coleman.
Cheers,
Keith