dance day 67

So I finallly took my bike out and biked 10 kilometers to Bezons and back.  The bike is great and a welcomed change from a velib or my husband's grandmother's old bike and handles everything terrible Paris roads and traffic could throw at me.  Still trucks are scary.  Biking next to the seine, awesome.

It took me an hour to get to Bezons by bike which is the same amount of time ratp.fr told me it would take to get there by public transport. I'm pretty sure I could do it in half since I had husband with me, who was jogging. 

It's been a while since I used biking as a mode of transport.  I had forgotten about sharing the road with cars or sometimes sidewalks with pedestrians when I deemed the road a little too dangerous.  Unforch bike paths are not that commmon if you want to get from point A to point B. Finding my way around wasn't that easy (forch husband served as a GPS). 

Then there are areas you have no choice but to push the bike or even carrying it.  For now I'm not carrying any supplies except water and a fanny pack.

Finding a place to park the bike seemed easier than finding a place to park a car though I did not try as I am quite aware it's easier to steal a 15 kilo bike than a 1,302 kilo car even with the best lock.

Also my bum was a bit sore after 2 hours and 20 kms.  Def some things to think about for paris-london.

dance day 66

So I found this to be an interesting covid indicator (deaths per million):



Funny how I don't hear much about Belgium in the media.

dance day 65

So starting today France will impose a fine of 135 euros if you are over the age of 11 and you don't wear a mask in pubic closed environements.

day 63, 64

So after finishing Cycling home from Siberia (Rob's account of his journey, he and Alastair split up mid-Japan) I got it in my head that I'd like to ride a bike from Paris to London.  I had been talking about it for a while and this weekend we went to check out some bikes.  Instead of heading straight to the main sports chains we went to a boutique bike shop.  We wore our masks, the vendors did not. One of the employees was even smoking inside, it was that kind of operation. 

When we told the guy we wanted to do Paris London he showed us what we needed but the price tag was high around 3 grand. He proceeded to show us something cheaper on their computer but they were out of stock and wouldn't get anything before the end of August (apparently biking is in high demand during covid). Still we were talking something that would cost around one grand.  And here I thought biking was a poor man's way of getting around. 

Not sure if he had been setting is up or if he had just thought of it but he then took us upstairs to their bike repair shop and showed us a used 2018 model that would fit our needs for 450.

I took it.  Paris London, here I come.  

dance day 62

So we stumbled onto rue de Biot, an otherwise small calm street made lively as its restaurants spilt out onto the street to allow normally terraseless restaraunts to have outdoor seating.

It's hard balance, protecting people from covid  and protecting people from an economic depression.  Compromise right? 

dance day 61

So the French president announced on the 14th of July that the "R" ratio (virus reproduction rate) has risen above one in France.  That's bad news.  To combat this he plans to make masks mandatory in all enclosed public spaces.

Details to come. 

dance day 57-60

So this weekend was a long one due to Bastille Day.  Normally the 14th is full of festivities but this year because of covid we stayed low-key and took advantage of the unusually beautiful weather in Normandy to sit around all day eating and drinking while basking in the long summer sun.  From time to time we would change venues from a typical normand house dating back to the 16th century with one hectare of land for the kids to run around in whilst shooting refreshing water at each other from water pistols to the beach, low tide with warm atlantic water reflecting a turquoise blue from the clear blue sky.