Pushing on to Paris

Today was to be a relatively short and simple day, and with a lack of campgrounds in the Paris suburbs, we aimed to come indoors to a b&b. 

We are a little brazen by now,  and so when we see chairs and a table being stored away, we are those American tourists who calmly are walking through the campground with furniture. We do always put it back.

As today signals the end of the camping, Liv spent the night dreaming of giving away our camp kitchen, but we finally convinced her to limit herself to just throwing away our shattered dish pan, which she took to with a trifle too much glee.

As today is bastille day here, there was great concern about our ability to procure a reasonable second breakfast with everything closed. So, after a grueling 1.1 miles and nearly 10 minutes of riding,  we pulled over and got to it.

We were stunned to find that this boulangerie had an empty slot for something we hadn't seen before, a pain 3 chocolate. I asked if there were more in back and was assured that they would be out of the oven in only 2 minutes. While we were on a grueling schedule, we opted to throw it all to the wind and we stood aside to wait.

Their chausson aux pommes was also quite good,  although deemed slightly too sweet due to the sugared glaze. He only ate two.  The 3choco buns were hot from the oven with an almost pudding consistency chocolate blend in the center. Pretty amazing. 

The riding along the seine was occasionally pleasant, but also oftentimes gravel or single-track. Some fresh tar was located too.

We met some Canadians going the other direction a few days back who were whinging about the roughness and narrowness of the route, but we just expected it was their inexperience that caused them issues. 

Once we got that flat repaired, we got to deal with barriers designed to keep nearly everyone out-

And towards the end Lyle got to take his bike a little further to the extreme. 

We arrived at our simple home stay-

And our lovely hosts explained that we could use any of the rooms on the second floor. We have opted for two different rooms, one for the kids, another for us, because the chandelier in the room for 4 was constantly tangling itself up in Lyle...

Our hosts are wonderful, offering cold waters and explaining at length about how all Americans need a king sized bed? After several swings at this discussion in French, it seems that someone from Santa Barbara once stayed here, and was loudly displeased with a queen bed and a mattress that was insufficiently thick. Once we got across the concept of 3 weeks of tent camping and our complete satisfaction with the rooms, she finally understood. Hopefully we will help make Americans appear less like buffoons. 

A simple supper of burger type things and salad, and we will get ready for our final push. Hilly with rain is the plan, which seems to be how we finish these things.

-Dave