August 15, 2011
Ken saves the day: My Hero!!
The minor problem of Ascension Day has turned into a major one. All shops are shut today. Chloe, our hostess, however thinks that the bike rental place in Saumur may be able to sell us a tire. Ken has set out on his bike in the hope they will. We have however decided to stay here for another night. Had a lovely conversation in my mauvaise Francaise over breakfast and although they are actually complet tonight she is managing to put us in another room (I hope not the cave with the bikes)
About an hour later Chloe came to my room. Decathalon was in fact ouvert despite it being a fete. We both had phones so I rang Ken. He seemed to be riding in more and more frantic circles in Samur trying to find the bike rental place - attempts to ask directions are not working well as he has less French than me. Never mind a new direction, find Decathalon, I give him the address but he has no pen to write it down. Quarter of an hour later another frantic phone call, we both have maps so with the dreadful cell phone reception we work out a route. Ten minutes later another phone call. Eureka, he has found it and sounds considerably more buoyant. Five minutes later another call, he has bought two tires and a pump. Do we need anything else? A pity I forget to tell him I have lost my drink bottle.
On his return withj his precious trophy we gave the bikes a really good going over and found what must have been the cause of the tire problem. During our expensive bike overhaul Mark had replaced my back brake pads set them up so they were touching the back tire, no wonder a tear appeared in the side wall.
The rest of the day was very pleasant. We rode back to Gennes to attempt to get something to eat. Being Ascension day nearly everything was shut but we managed to find a open Boulangerie where we bought yummy looking things for both lunch and dinner, croissants and baguettes with different types of cheese and ham melted on them, apple cakes and almond croissants. Ken was particularly pleased to find that the bar sold bottles of wine from the region and we bought a bottle of red Anjou Appellation Controle made from Cab Franc he thinks so we will drink that with our meal. The bar had no food at all for sale so we bought a beer and ate some of our food from the Boulangerie watching the locals coming to a screaming halt in their cars and rushing in to stock up on cigarettes. Although there is pleasantly no smoking inside the 'no smoking' message has certainly not got through. Outside spaces tend to be thick with smoke and last night at Le Cave people were up and down rushing out of the restaurant to the outside tunnel for a fag - its air was thick when we came out.
Most of the distance travelled was Ken's frantic dash to Samur.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 343 km (213 miles)
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