The plan for the day when this short trip was in its concept stages was to spend the whole day in bed watching tv and movies. The hotel wifi saw an end to that as the chromecast wouldn't work through its security log in and therefore, for the technologically uninitiated, we couldn't beam our movies from the phone to the telly.
While we still had the bikes though we thought we'd go for an explore/picnic and I found a big lake online that seemed to allow swimming. After heading south toward Joue-les-Tours we crossed a small park and helen had a ride on a giant bee, and I had a sit in a giant deck chair. Alongside those was a stupendously long gauntlet of different surfaces enclosed in many low wooden borders, the idea behind it is that you walk bare feet through all of them. We passed it fully shoed.
Getting a little lost on the way to the lake meant we had to climb a stupendously steep hill which Helly did without getting off and pushing. This made me astonishingly proud of her as before all it took was a small incline to force a dismount. Our 3 days cycling in Austria must have given her muscle. The lake came into view after subwaying under a motorway and it was very pretty but we were struck with almost immediate no swimming signs. An info map showed a little man swimming the other side and we went round, through runners and fishers and annoyingly slow pushchair pushers, to find the teeny, tiny, eeny weeny little square of allocated swimming area, fenced off behind sheet metal and bridges. And to top it off it was closed. We sat contemplating swimming anyway but landed quickly and resolutely on the fact that we were both too awkward.
We found some other blue areas on the map and decided to aimless wander toward them in hopes of secluded wild swimming spots. The journey to the first saw us down long and mostly downhill roads through farmland and into sunflower country once more. Wheelfred and Wheelma 2 were faring well and so were we. I asked Helen to take some photos of me riding as I hadn't been able to get any myself. The one time I set a timer up with a plan to capture myself as a sped past, ended when I heard the click before I'd even run back to the bike. Anyway these were her best ones.
The first swimming hole turned out to be a swamp behind a private gate so the next water source was a river even further south. We reached that over a flower laden bridge and sauntered through a lovely little town. We met the river via tiny footpath but had to keep going along before we could see it fully. On the left was a stretch of long grass and it was only when you looked closer could you see dots of red pink and blue from the flowers nestled within.
The entrance to the river was found when I told helly I could see a cycle route (which was to the right) and she took that to mean the bumpy off-road trail to the left. However we ended up on a wide stretch of the river though it looked a little murky for swimming - an opaque pale greenWe had lunch on a fishing pontoon which was naturally cheesy baguettes. A man I thought was warming up to dive in, and if he went swimming it meant we should, was actually just doing exercises on the spot on a pontoon a little further down. we looped back round and continued cycling trying to follow the stream.
After that we found our own little haven, a grassy patch next to the water, shaded by tall trees and quiet that was only rarely broken by trains passing. I loved it there and we lay for ages talking and looking up at the trees together. To fulfil our want for swimming as had been the purpose of that trip, we dipped our feet in the water. It still counts.
When we got back to the hotel it was after endlessly shadeless roads. Helly had perked up after that as she was able to find somewhere that sold cigarettes and to celebrate we went for Ice cream at a 50's american diner in the Two Lions complex. We sat outside in the sun and ordered a beer each. Helen had a cookie sundae and I had a banana split. I was sure that the picture had two bananas one eitherside of the ice cream balls and felt scammed. 'They've only given me one split down the middle...hang on is that why they call it a...' Yeeeeah, you can guess the rest. We were rudely made to pay while we were still eating but it meant we could just walk away after.
The day ended relaxing and watching Doctor Who. Our last night in France together. Awwww.
While we still had the bikes though we thought we'd go for an explore/picnic and I found a big lake online that seemed to allow swimming. After heading south toward Joue-les-Tours we crossed a small park and helen had a ride on a giant bee, and I had a sit in a giant deck chair. Alongside those was a stupendously long gauntlet of different surfaces enclosed in many low wooden borders, the idea behind it is that you walk bare feet through all of them. We passed it fully shoed.
Getting a little lost on the way to the lake meant we had to climb a stupendously steep hill which Helly did without getting off and pushing. This made me astonishingly proud of her as before all it took was a small incline to force a dismount. Our 3 days cycling in Austria must have given her muscle. The lake came into view after subwaying under a motorway and it was very pretty but we were struck with almost immediate no swimming signs. An info map showed a little man swimming the other side and we went round, through runners and fishers and annoyingly slow pushchair pushers, to find the teeny, tiny, eeny weeny little square of allocated swimming area, fenced off behind sheet metal and bridges. And to top it off it was closed. We sat contemplating swimming anyway but landed quickly and resolutely on the fact that we were both too awkward.
We found some other blue areas on the map and decided to aimless wander toward them in hopes of secluded wild swimming spots. The journey to the first saw us down long and mostly downhill roads through farmland and into sunflower country once more. Wheelfred and Wheelma 2 were faring well and so were we. I asked Helen to take some photos of me riding as I hadn't been able to get any myself. The one time I set a timer up with a plan to capture myself as a sped past, ended when I heard the click before I'd even run back to the bike. Anyway these were her best ones.
The first swimming hole turned out to be a swamp behind a private gate so the next water source was a river even further south. We reached that over a flower laden bridge and sauntered through a lovely little town. We met the river via tiny footpath but had to keep going along before we could see it fully. On the left was a stretch of long grass and it was only when you looked closer could you see dots of red pink and blue from the flowers nestled within.
The entrance to the river was found when I told helly I could see a cycle route (which was to the right) and she took that to mean the bumpy off-road trail to the left. However we ended up on a wide stretch of the river though it looked a little murky for swimming - an opaque pale greenWe had lunch on a fishing pontoon which was naturally cheesy baguettes. A man I thought was warming up to dive in, and if he went swimming it meant we should, was actually just doing exercises on the spot on a pontoon a little further down. we looped back round and continued cycling trying to follow the stream.
After that we found our own little haven, a grassy patch next to the water, shaded by tall trees and quiet that was only rarely broken by trains passing. I loved it there and we lay for ages talking and looking up at the trees together. To fulfil our want for swimming as had been the purpose of that trip, we dipped our feet in the water. It still counts.
When we got back to the hotel it was after endlessly shadeless roads. Helly had perked up after that as she was able to find somewhere that sold cigarettes and to celebrate we went for Ice cream at a 50's american diner in the Two Lions complex. We sat outside in the sun and ordered a beer each. Helen had a cookie sundae and I had a banana split. I was sure that the picture had two bananas one eitherside of the ice cream balls and felt scammed. 'They've only given me one split down the middle...hang on is that why they call it a...' Yeeeeah, you can guess the rest. We were rudely made to pay while we were still eating but it meant we could just walk away after.
The day ended relaxing and watching Doctor Who. Our last night in France together. Awwww.
What's happened since Sunday?
ReplyDeleteOi! I took some other pictures of you on your bike that weren't that bad!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I meant to go left down the bumpy trail - I wanted to be by the river.
This made me giggle at my desk (",) xxx