Paris

My ride to the hostel was another wet one, with a fine mist that felt so oceanic that I couldn't help break into a few sea shanties along the way. Maybe I'm taking the weather in stride, or just starting to go nuts. The hostel that I found online wasn't there, so I took a rest day at a cheep hotel with shopping and a Chinese buffet nearby that I put to good use. I made some changes to the bike, and went to the local supermarket which was a in interesting experience of comparison. I made reservations for Paris, and did other research for my stay.

After my rest I was off to a campsite in Monereau, a cool old village with many old architectural features preserved. The GPS put me on some crazy roads again, so I was glad to meetup and ride with a local who showed me most of the way to Monereau on nice biking roads. We talked and shared stories for the twenty some odd miles before he turned home. He had interest in distance touring, hopefully I was able to encourage him.

The next day my GPS finally died. I had tried to keep it dry by wrapping it in a clear plastic bag while the rain came down on my handlebars, but I suppose I didn't do enough. I tired hitting it with a hairdryer, but that only worked temporarily. The GPS had become my primary navigation tool, with cellular maps as a first backup. Without the GPS I would have had to do of turn by turn (and block by block) checking of my cell phone for directions into a complicated foreign city. This may have been OK if more rain wasn't forcasted. Faced with certainty of getting lost in the rain, and perhaps doing more rain damage or dangerous roads, I finally punted and took the train. I didn't regret the decision as the diagonal rain fell across the blurry landscape. The bike was free to board as complete, with perhaps the hardest part lifting the loaded bike over the train’s few steps. I was able to find the hostel and store things away promptly.

I spent the next four nights (three days) in Paris. I saw I Germany win the world cup at the hostel, then went to see Notre Dame the next morning. My first day whole day was also Bastille Day, which equivalent to the French independence day, and included many special events and activities. There was a military parade which I only caught part of, an army demonstration involving helicopters and vehicle movements, and finally a free concert and fireworks display at the Eiffel Tower. This was one of the coolest parts of the trip so far, and I am glad I was able to time it properly. The national Symphony setup from the base of the tower, and played some familiar songs, like Star Wars and “ride of the valkyries” to the extended lawn of thousands of people. The fireworks were launched in sequence from the tower itself, and made for a pretty good show along with musical and lights display.

The next day was unfortunately spent GPS shopping where I did shell out a pretty penny for a newer, bike specific unit that will work much better then the one I was using from the year 2000. My last day I spent at the Louvre, which was really quite an experience, but was limited by my knowledge of French. I think museums of Berlin did a much better job with multilingual features, but I was still able to enjoy the exhibits, see artifacts like the Code of Hamimurabi, the Mona Lisa, Greek and Egyptian artifacts, and many others. It really is a big place, and I was getting tired of walking all day.

On the subject of walking, I've done a ton of walking all over the city, probably on the order or 10 miles a day, and it would be a lie to say I'm well rested, but at least I felt like I spent my time here well. Although France has some great things to see, there really is something to be said for the French attitudes. There are more cafes and restaurants then you can count, but I also found more uptight pretentious attitudes that made me want to hit people over the head with a day old baguette. Also frustrating, I only found two real “bars” per say, which became a real problem when I was looking for a spot to watch the world cup (Germans may die of thirst). Smoking is somewhat common, and woman are quite cold, so I can be honest to say that I'm ready to leave tomorrow morning. Maybe the city of love has rubbed this single guy the wrong way, but this is probably the first city that I don't want to comeback to, at least right away. I'm looking forward to firing up the new GPS, hitting the last few sites, and rolling north tomorrow towards the UK.