Tuesday - Stage 15

John was up early in anticipation of his ride.
Met Roger, and headed off. Roger has a very nice full Carbon Eddy Mercx bike that was personally provided by Eddy.
John became a little concerned initially when they were doing 39kmh into a headwind.
All that cheese, bread, and wine was taking its toll. But it turns out the entire ride was not that hard.
Even all the hills around the area weren’t that tough. The scenery was truly amazing. Words can’t describe how impressive it was.
John couldn’t wipe the smile off his face when he returned. He couldn’t remember the last time he rode with a former Paris-Roubaix winner.

Meanwhile Rel, went for a walk and even had people coming up to her asking for directions. She obviously has that ‘french chic’ thing happening.

Once home, we got ready for our session at Paulo’s. Roger and his wife collected us. Roger kindly gave John an Eddy Mercx cap and socks.
Pailo has a room filled with cycling memorabilia. Signed jerseys from different eras. Maillot Jaunes, King of the mountains, Sprinter’s jerseys, Pink Giro jerseys, World Championships, National Champions, in addition to framed and signed photos of riders from different eras. John did not want to leave.
And again we were plied with more Beaujolais red. Paulo gave Narelle a ‘cycling edition’ bottle of Beaujolais red that he made.

Note the large grin on John’s face.

The last 24 hours has just been amazing meeting these people. They are truly hospitable and went out of their way to engage us, despite their limited English.
We know at times they were talking about the Tour, but we couldn’t quite understand anything.
Our stay in Beaujolias has just been amazing and another unexpected highlight in our travels.

And now we are off to Troyes. Apparently not the place of wooden horses.

We chose not to go the motorway. The N road will be slower and more scenic. We were rewarded with amazing scenery of farmlands, forests, running streams, and just stunning vistas.

Once in Troyes, we chose to stay in the carpark of a series of outlet shopping stores. Now we couldn’t wipe the smile off Narelle’s face. She only has 10 metres to walk to the shops in the morning.

After dinner, we walked to the local Maccas for dessert (all of 400m).
As it was late, everything John was asking for unavailable. Once he confessed to not knowing French, the young lady serving him suddenly spoke English. Life was much easier then. At one point the young lady stared at John and with a smile on her face asked ‘You have one brown eye and one green eye?’. For those who know John well, they will know that his eyes do look very different in certain light. For those that didn’t already know this, you will just have to look more closely next time. John just told the young lady that it was something to do with being Australian.

Narelle is looking forward to the shopping the next day.

This will be our second last night in our campervan.