In Senlis

June 4, 2022

Catching up

We went for a ride today, and we’ll get to that. First though let’s go back for a look at last night’s dinner and our home for these two nights. We ate at La Bohème, a stylish modern place which brands itself as an Auberge d’Aujourd’hui, whatever that means - a contemporary inn?

In any case, it was a terrific meal - interesting artistic decor, attentive service, great food. One of the best dining experiences of the tour.

in La Bohème. I liked the artwork, including this one with all the toucans. Our server, Caroline, told us that it’s just wallpaper, the same pattern used in the rooms upstairs.

We both had the same entree: beetroot velouté. Excellent.

We both had the same main as well: filet de bar, also excellent.

Would we care for dessert, Caroline asks? Oui, bien sur!

So that was dinner. Let’s look at our lodging too, a dramatic contrast to that matchbox of a room back in Paris. We’re staying in Castel Ecosaisses, which feels like an actual small chateau. The information in the room says that Eugene Viollet-Le-Duc (1814-1879) was the architect of the modern parts of the house, built to blend in with the remaining parts from the 13th century. It’s a spacious, elegant space, on the top floor with views overlooking the countryside and the ruins of a neighboring church. In the morning and evening, with the windows open we hear the incessant cooing of wood pigeons.

The bedroom. Immense - we could fit four of our rooms from our Paris hotel into here.

Same window, from the outside looking in.

And, an update on the sorry saga of the lost Pendleton shirt. It’s been found! Susan checked in at our Thai restaurant yesterday and found that it wasn’t there - and the owner claims to remember that I was wearing it when we left the restaurant. Which makes sense. I could never quite believe that none of the five of us (the owner, her son, and us three) would have noticed we were leaving it behind.

So sleuth Carpenter starts putting clues together, noting that I allegedly had it on when leaving the restaurant but wasn’t wearing it in the selfie the three of us posed for in front of our hotel. Hmm, thinks madam detective, and contacts the hotel. They have it! The theory is that I set it down on the sidewalk to take the selfie, and then we all just walked away and left it there.

So, it’s still in existence in the accessible world. We’ll have further updates once we have a plan for a vagabond/shirt reunion.Bohème

Today’s Ride

So this post already has a lot of heft to it and we haven’t even gotten to the today’s ride yet. Tough. It’s our blog, we’ll do as we wish with it. If your fingers are tired of scrolling through photos, take a break and come back, or call it a day and check back tomorrow. Or you could at least just watch the video and call it good.

Video sound track: Just the Two of Us, By Grover Washington, Jr.

At least we can save you some time by skipping some narrative. Here’s the brief sketch of the day: just an out and back east of town, great weather, no drama. As usual with out and backs, I quickly fell behind Rachael while stopping to take photos here and there, and didn’t see her again until she was coming back at me. Same old, same old.

RideWithGPS classifies this road as paved for some reason.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Banon.

An interesting wreck. It’s particularly interesting to zoom in on the ruined tile roof, I think.

The big work of the day lies ahead, crossing that low saddle to the right.I’m not expecting a summit sign at the top, but we’ll see.

Nope, I didn’t think there’d be a summit sign up here. This will have to do.

That’s not the whole of the day, because tonight’s dinner was memorable also. This feels like a good place to stop for the day though,so we’ll save that story for tomorrow.

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Ride stats today: 43 miles, 1,400’; for the tour: 2,374 miles, 113,600’

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 2,402 miles (3,866 km)

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