European Bike Trip

European Bike Trip, Page 1B


Met British cyclist outside Condor Shop [Jeff was an especially
 avid bicycle "hardware" freak- had to see this shop. He built my bicycle-
 from a Reynolds 531 frame tube kit and Campy and Dura-Ace parts, and ran a
 bike shop of sorts from his parents' house in Plymouth, MN and 
an uncles' house in Mankato, MN
 while in college. He also raced bikes, and got me into it, after I won a race
 of non-racers at the Great Northern Rally in Wisconsin. We had both ridden
 several tours together including a three week trek around Lake Michigan from
 Mpls. But that's another story.] The British cyclist was going to travel by
 cycle to Greece for his first tour, and wanted advice. Got his address (Chris
 Collins). All drivers have been courteous. France is obviously bike crazy.
 Three bike shops in small town of Montreil (Peugeot, Motobecane and a Co-op)
 French bread and wine are cheap; nothing else is, so far.
     English pubs were good ( Brian and I tried one thoroughly- room
temperature English beers are good.) Treacle Tarts, Sultana w/ tapioca
are good desserts.
     French coffee is strong, excellent. Stand-up toilets are challenging.
 [and stinky]
     Flight over sat across aisle from three Minneapolitans. Got address of
 Irving Hultengan from Diane Gilbert. Diane works in property tax office in
 Henn. Govt. Center. Irving lives in Copenhagen. Tomorrow on to Paris! *Ah,
 Paris!*

[Text From postcard to same three folks]
Howdy and Bon Jour!
Ah, two sunny days in gay Paris. Unreal, beautiful, fascinating, etc. London
was fantastic, but it pales in comparison. People here are not as friendly,
however, because they're sick of tourists. People in the countryside, and
other travellers have been extraordinarily nice to us.


 Food is great, wine is
cheap and good, [this was not entirely accurate- the cheap wine in the region
was olive wine, and was barely tolerable, as I recall], drivers are courteous-
very much more so than in the U.S., both in England and France. The French are
a very polite people, though not as relaxed in Paris. We had rain every day
until yesterday, which was our first full day in Paris, and today promises to
be perfect. The Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, etc. Love, Tom- too much to
say, not enough time or space. [all written quite small to fit an average
sized card. "Vue panarique aerie'nne Champs-Elyse'es - Arc De Triomphe" ]
[My journal failed to mention what we saw in France! (Pictures documented
this, however.)

Fishing

 We saw the beautiful cathedral in Amiens. Waiting for the
train to Paris in Amiens, a girl approached us in the terminal and asked if we
were Americans. She was an exchange student from Minneapolis (her parents
moved there while she was in France!) She invited us to her "exchange parents"
house for coffee, since we had a couple of hours (?) until the train. We
accepted. We had already checked our bikes in as luggage (as was necessary in
France- in England you put them on a special car youself, which had an
attendant- this turned out to be a better arrangement) Anyway, her "parents"
house was a very nice one, albeit surrounded by a high wall. We had coffee
(strong) in an interior courtyard/backyard.
At some point we said we had to go, and her father said, "oh you have
time, I'll drive you back to the station." When we did leave (in his nice
Mercedes) we found out just how many convoluted one-way streets there were
in Amiens. But we did make it, just barely.

We decided to stay in a campground near downtown Paris.
It was a olive grove, run as a campground by the Paris Bicycle
Club. We were prepared for rain, which we had seen a lot of
at that point, but our visit in Paris was blessed with good weather.

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