A day of joy

Nothing about today went in any particular way better than normal, and there were things that went wrong, but Liv and I both agreed at the end of the day that it was a great one. During the rainstorm yesterday, I spent some time in one of the campground's big eating tents with a family of five who had started in Budapest almost four months ago and were going to finish when they are arrived in two weeks further down the river. Three kids aged 5, 7, and 10 and even the five-year-old was riding some of it solo, and other times with his bike connected to dad. The 7 and 10 year Olds had ridden the entire thing.  They don't go far every day, maybe only 20 miles, but they were all having fun with their bikes festooned with pin wheels and such. Mom still seemed cheerful, and dad was positively stoked with the whole experience. His exuberance in broken English and French and my broken French were adequate to explain to each other how much we had in common. The sense of community with all the different cyclists coming in over the afternoon and spreading everything out to dry, followed by everyone getting up this morning and packing up and rolling out in whatever Direction they were headed was a great thing -

As we were leaving the town with the campground, Liv remembered that it was market day and so I had a great conversation with a nearly deaf pedestrian which resulted in our finally locating it. Just amazing. Olive vendors-

Dried fruit people-

And then the cheese trucks-

Alex and I had a blast buying cheese at the first one from a kid who was so kind in his speed of speech and choices of words. Made me feel competent...

We grabbed a quick baguette on our way out of town, just as emergency reserves, and headed off for our last day on the Loire before turning up the canal towards Paris.

That turned out to be a lucky purchase, as we were unable to find an open boulangerie for almost 20 miles! Certain tragedy was finally avoided when we found an open one, and we're finally able to settle in for a simple lunch-

Followed by a simple dessert-

Which is two perfectly formed meringue half spheres with a layer of fudge between which is then dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. I am sure the have a name for it. 

A few more miles came and went, Lyle and I swapped bicycles, and then as the kids rode off into the distance, things got a little confusing on the GPS.

The Thin Red Line is what Liv and I rode as we couldn't get a clear idea of the route through town and as we were wondering where our kids were. It ended up taking us three miles to chase them down over hill and dale and gravel and everything else.  By the time I flagged down a couple biking the other way to ask if they had seen two kids on a tandem, I was probably a little wild-eyed, and they assured me that they were only a kilometer or two ahead and then did the same for Liv when they passed her later. I was just concerned that we had left them back in that town and we're getting further in front and all the other things that parents worry about when they lose their kids on a bicycle in a foreign country. 

After our reunion, we finally got to the canal, which goes above the Loire-

We will spend a short week now riding along this canal back to Paris.

In case it is not abundantly clear, there is nothing in this world that I would rather be doing then riding bikes with my family through France. I am the luckiest father/ husband/ dude out there.

-Dave