Day 2: Boubiers

August 11, 2024

We left Charles de Gaulle airport with Ian, passing the iconic Concorde supersonic air liner. We understand it was fast but not very comfortable. The Airbus that took us from Seattle today was fine, even if slower than Concorde.

The road "home" to Boubiers winds through countryside and is not super fast. We much appreciated Ian's willingness to come and get us (and others) who get to stay at the BnB.

Ian has, in his stellar way, been working on our bikes while we were away. This included receiving and installing new tubes and tires. But I caused a brief flurry when I discovered Dodie's rear tire to be flat. It turned out Ian had been awaiting my word on how much pressure to put, and so it never did get inflated. We all forgot this, and so ripped out the tube to look for a leak. This was ok, because we had long planned to have a review session on just how to do this. Pulling those rear wheels is kind of tricky with the Nexus hub.

Ian investigates my spurious flat tire claim.

While Dodie explodes our stuff in the apartment.

One of the things that Ian had figured out when we were last here, is that the Magura rim brakes will resist proper adjustment when a little plastic "donut" that is part of the clamp holding the cylinder to the rim becomes old and worn. Somehow he found a source of replacement donuts, and installed these on Dodie's bike. Installing them on my bike was foreseen as a fun activity for the two of us, had Dodie and I only arrived a week ago as planned. But now - was there time and energy?

Yes! You can never be too tired to rip apart a hydraulic bike brake!

These are not Olympic rings, but worn out "donuts".

Another fun activity we had planned was the bleeding of the brakes on my bike (Ian had already done Dodie's). Ian's judgement was that given the risk of wrecking a brake (such as by stripping a plastic screw) we should give it a miss. Our schedule is very tight, and we can not be driving around Paris looking for anyway non-existent parts. I accepted Ian's judgement, but I guess he could see my poorly disguised disappointment. A little later he came along and asked "Do you really want to work on that brake?" Well, yeah! was my instant reply.

You need to insert a syringe in the handle.

It's a bit like a medical operation. In fact Magura calls their brake fluid "Royal Blood". The plastic jar of red fluid is not Royal Blood, which of course is blue. This time we used Shimano.

The fluid coming out of the system is not clean until in this case it is a nice red. That in the photo is still dirty.

There was still time for a dip in the pool that Ian made. Uniquely, it is constructed of wood (even the below water part).

Ian came to talk about breakfast for us tomorrow, and this led me to ask whether all the breakfasts he had made for us last time were an effort to keep us alive, or whether they were "part of the deal". We loved Ian's answer: The deal is that he is going to help his guests in any way he can with what they need. If we need breakfast, then yes, it's part of the deal!

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Sue PriceSo glad you made it! We wondered if the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics might be an issue and we might see you on the stage with Tom Cruise!!
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3 months ago

Carolyn van HoeveWhat an absolute star Ian is !
So glad you made it and wishing you luck with the trains today!
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3 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Sue PriceWe avoided Paris, and Tom Cruise, but will cycle by the venue today.
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3 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Carolyn van HoeveIan is the best! Keeping fingers crossed for the trains.
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3 months ago

Greg StrangeHi, I'm curious how you got your bikes to Ian in the first place. Sounds like they were there when you arrived.
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4 weeks ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Greg StrangeWe rode to Ian at the end of our last trip, and he stored the bikes for three months. At the end of this trip we will similarly stash the bikes in Valencia, and again return in three months.
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4 weeks ago

Greg StrangeTo Steve Miller/GrampiesNice! So you have bikes permanently in Europe, that makes it easy. We did a trip a year and a half ago from Saint Malo to Séte. We boxed and flew with the bikes, which worked out okay, but was a little stressful and took a day to get the bikes assembled, partly because the hotel didn't have space we could use until afternoon of the next day. I've recently discovered Ian's B&B and figure if we do another France trip (likely) we'd start there. He and his place sound great.
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4 weeks ago