My return to Paris by train was greatly facilitated by Eddy and Ria. While it is often relatively easy to travel with your bike by train within one European country, international train travel is often on high-speed TGV-like trains that have  much stricter rules regarding bikes, and often forbid assembled bikes altogether.  I'd been exploring options for getting from Geel back to Paris with Vivien George when Eddy offered to drive us to Lille, France, just over the Belgium border. He and Ria had to attend an informational meeting for an upcoming trip to Norway, and he offered to drop me in Lille, where I could easily get a regional TER train that accepted bikes without reservation - in both senses of the word.

The train trip itself was fairly uneventful - there was a connection in Amiens where I boarded a train to Calais, but I realized my error in time. My brain was in a bit of a fog due to front brake concerns  - I’d tested it in Amiens and the brake had  again lost ~90% of its braking power. I called Suzanne from Amiens to give her a heads up that I might need to cancel. We were both quite disappointed, and not yet ready to abandon our plans, deciding  to wait and see if my Paris bike shop could address the problem. 

On arriving at Gare du Nord, I headed straight for L'Hirondelle bike shop - it was late on a Saturday afternoon, but they took a quick look and fit me in for a brake pad and fluid replacement. I returned at seven and everything seemed to be fine, although they recommended a new disc rotor and pads for both wheels. I was extremely grateful and quite elated - as was Suzanne when I gave her the news. Fingers crossed that there are no more problems. 

I have one day to transition from the Belgium trip and get ready for the Black Forest. It’s a shorter turn-around than usual this summer, but nothing a touring cyclist can’t handle