FRANCE
Dedicated to a wonderful Mother Jean Noble 31/5/1929 - 20/8/2007 - may we never take our mothers for granted. - Goodbye Mum
FRANCE
I simply do not possess either the language skills nor the time to quantify this “enigmatic” tribe. So I will not try..
BELGIUM DECEMBER 2007 JANUARY 2008.
Belgium is a relative newcomer to Europe having only been founded in 1830. It occupies a small geographic footprint and a huge population density. We have one farm in Australia “Anna Creek Station” in South Australia, that is bigger than Belgium . The population density of Belgium is 342 per square kilometre (886 per square mile) – one of the highest in Europe, after that of the Netherlands and some “micro” countries such as Monaco Which has the most. The man above, Georges Prosper Remi, better known by his French name "Hergé" – Hergé's adventures of Tin Tin. He is a Belgian icon. Once again we are here to learn. Both of us hope we can give of ourselves and take rich memories from one of Europe's newest nations.
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Friday
21st December 2007.
Approx. k's Average Speed kph
Cycling time Hr. Min Max speed kph Max temp we recorded 1°C
(Stat's too low, carried forward)
We arrived in Lille and got off the train only to witness a scuffle between Police and (one presumes) criminals. PR24's (A type of baton) drawn and automatic rifles at the ready, we waited back for the situation to distance itself from us. Lille, appears a melting pot of race religion and culture. We assembled our bikes and went outside. Lee watched over the bikes whilst I tried to get a ticket south. This was not going to happen, (a) No trains will take our bikes and (b) The start of the holiday season meant no seats. So now we are stuck in Lille. The station staff were VERY helpful and tried everything. We must now look at our options and figure something out. Catchya Later..
Saturday
22st December 2007.
Approx. k's Average Speed kph
Cycling time Hr. Min Max speed kph Max temp we recorded 1°C
(Stat's too low, carried forward)
We remained in Lille to get maps and look for travel options to go SOUTH.. Hiring a tiny van (like a Holden “caddy”) cost $680.00 per week, plus fuel, so would easily cost more than one thousand $$$'s and one way hire is not an option – they make so much money, here they dictate their terms and you either do it their way or no way.. Totally unacceptable. We need to find a place to stay over Christmas, as everything stops here. We may have a spot back in Belgium with people we have never met. We will of course let you know here.
Spent the day sightseeing in Lille, clearly once a beautiful city but now showing signs of stress. Very disconcerting seeing police with “Machine Guns” and heavy padding – I guess there must be good reason for this heavy armament??? Lots of Xmas decorations and music + the subzero temp has its own attractions like this “igloo” that lee went inside.
No
its not a real polar bear :-)
A Huge Ferris wheel in the centre of town was a big attraction it's price was big too :-)
Here's
a pic from our Hotel room – looking at the local railway
station... There is a larger station about half a k away for the fast
trains..
Well
that's about it for today... Tomorrow we leave France for BELGIUM....
Catchya Later.....
RETURN TO FRANCE JANUARY 2008
Thursday
3rd
January
2008. FROM Dendermonde Belgium to Lille FRANCE - Bike/Train then to
Grenoble by car.
Approx.
5k's
Average
Speed 11.7kph
Cycling time 0.0Hr.
23Min Max
speed 14kph
Max
temp we recorded 0°C
Cycled to the railway station in Belgium and boarded a train to Lille France. Here's Lee sitting on her bike in the luggage compartment :-)
We
have booked a car (Renault Kangoo) for pick up Sunday the 6th.
After we arrived in Lille we went to the offices of Europcar.
They
had a car available, on the spot, and asked us if we wanted to take
it? Of course we said yes.
Now
totally unprepared!!! In light snow, we dismantled our bikes in the
car park...
Frozen
fingers, ears nose etc.. and two hours later we were ready to roll..
:-)
We
had booked a “Couch” with a “Jeremy” in
Lille, so after we had driven a hour or two we called him to say, we
would not be taking him up on his offer to stay.. (He
was not due home until after 4pm).
Jeremy's English is a second or third language and we were unable to
communicate what had happened. We SMS'd our hosts in Belgium and they
spoke with him. THANK
YOU very much Jeremy for the kind offer...
We drove until we were just outside Grenoble, where we stayed the night in a third world dive, where, even the toilet would not flush... But at €48.00 ($AUD80.00) per night it was the cheapest we could find. The reason for Grenoble and not direct to Perpignan, was to scale the “Alps” the next day. Catchya Later....
Friday
4th
January 2008. Grenoble to Perpignan by car.
Approx.
k's Average Speed kph Cycling time Hr. Min Max speed kph Max temp we
recorded 1°C (No
Stat's)
Drove from our cold (no heating) third world dive to the beautiful alpine regions of southern France...
Lots
of Pic's, too many to put here.... Lee enjoying the pristine snow
fields....
after
a memorable day we descended to Marseilles France. In peak hour we
picked up the freeway to Perpignan. Driving late into the night to
within 100 Kilometres of Barcelona Spain... we did not find any
hotels open.. We drove back to France and stayed in an overpriced
dump that started with the “pluses” + €20 Euro for
breakfast ($AUD34.00) €10 Euro ($AUD17.00) for internet €12
Euro ($AUD21.00) to garage the car... Sickening greed. We left the
car in the rain, stayed off line and ate a “French Stick”
and pesto in the car park, for our breakfast. Catchya Later...
Saturday
5th January 2008. Hotel to Perpignan by
car.
Approx. k's Average Speed kph Cycling time Hr. Min Max speed
kph Max temp we recorded 1°C (No Stat's)
Called into Perpignan to check out where to drop the car off, booked a fourth world dive... and remained in Perpignan to see the sights in this VERY beautiful part of France.
One VERY negative comment about France and to some extent Belgium as well, is the “graffiti”. Graffiti is simply everywhere, it is an absolute eyesore, Grenoble was destroyed for us by this disgusting mess, it is literally everywhere!!!. Brussels had some wonderful architecture that is ancient to an Australian. It too is/was destroyed with/by Graffiti... Perhaps it is time for the death penalty when these morons are caught... or even worse take money from them and force them to pay, despite any hardship. Maybe I am not harsh enough – perhaps someone has a solution the Governments don't know about.
Or maybe it is just me – I simply do not understand???
Sunday
6th January 2008. Perpignan by car to
Spain.
Approx. k's Average Speed kph Cycling time Hr. Min Max
speed kph Max temp we recorded 1°C (No Stat's)
Woke in our “fourth world dive”, faded curtains and light hanging from a wire... Today we returned the car to it's owner “Europcar”. As we had done no damage to the vehicle, they said as much on the form, we paid only what was agreed.
We
chatted with the nice young lady and eventually after finding out
what our intentions were said “she could help us and we can
help Europcar”. A vehicle was due for “retirement”,
however it was a “Spanish” car stuck in France. WE could
rent at a reduced rate for a cross border one way hire. This needs to
be quantified a little... If you hire in Europe and intend one way
travel... NEVER cross borders with the car. Europe is NOT a cohesive
single entity. It is a fiercely tribal, “union” of
fanatically independent tribes. The penalty for taking a car from one
tribe to another is about $AUD650.00 EXTRA!!! WE were offered a very
cheap 24 hr. rental without border penalties....
We agreed on a price then started the mammoth task of moving our gear from the bigger van to the smaller car.
After several hours at the Europcar depot we were ready to roll.. We were left with 20 hours and 40 minutes to get to Malaga Spain. Better get going..Catchya Later.... in Spain...
SUMMARY FRANCE
We cycled so little in France due to the cold that a “Cycling Summary” is just not possible. We both want to return and explore this country more thoroughly.
During our short stay the problem (for us) that stood out the most, was the difficulty in communicating. This is in stark contrast to the rest of northern Europe, where communication is/was much easier. Belgium in particular has an incredibly large “multilingual” population.
The beauty of French architecture was evident wherever “history” presented itself and of course the Alpine regions are incredibly beautiful. Graffiti south of Denmark becomes increasingly disgraceful... Not sure if France or Belgium is affected the most by this scourge, but, it is very sad to see much of France's (and Belgium's) beautiful historic buildings and landscape reduced to a disgusting graffiti ridden eyesore.
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