Our Airbnb last night worked out great. We slept in a bed in the loft. The stairs to the loft were so steep! We both were worried that one of us was going to fall down them in the middle of the night walking to the bathroom. Gratefully, we made it! In the morning we realized there was a hide-a-bed that may have been a safer and more comfortable option.

We couldn’t check into our next Airbnb until 4 PM, and so we lingered until about 10:30 to try to make the timing work. We walked to a bakery close by and got 2 chocolate pastries (deux pains au chocolate). This time we got a picture of the bike maneuver involved to get the bike out of the place where it was stored. I’ll post it below. You kinda have to be there to appreciate it though.

Today involved more roads and fewer dedicated bike paths. Gratefully the roads were not busy, and the drivers were generally courteous and would slow down. It feels very different than our ride in Iceland.

Speaking of Iceland, Natalie’s old ankle injury from that trip has flared up again. We hope some time and ibuprofen will take care of it.

Most of our days so far have been quite hot. Today finally was less hot, cloudy, and sometimes rainy. 

Natalie has been speaking French a lot more in this trip for some reason. Tonight may have been the most so far. See below.

As I planned Airbnb for this trip, there were two nights where I really struggled to find a place to stay. Tonight was one of them. Eventually, I kind of gave up and took the option of staying in something that resembles a wooden tent. It had good reviews on Airbnb, and since we were only going to stay one night, we decided to try it. It is literally right on the trail. It’s kind of like a huge barrel. I can lean out the front door and give somebody a high five who’s riding by if I tried. In addition to not having a lot of housing options here, there were no food options. We either had to eat a couple hours early or figure out something at this Airbnb, which doesn’t have a kitchen. Thinking in advance, I brought a backpacking meal from the United States for this night specifically. I had arranged with the Airbnb host to get some boiling water from her.

The accommodation had a place to store bikes, but our bike is not a normal bike, and its nose was sticking out the door. The Airbnb host’s husband was coming home from work soon and she indicated he would help us figure it out. He came over to look at it and we started talking. And we kept talking. We pulled up the barrel porch chairs and probably talked for one or two hours. The conversation started with the host and her husband, and soon grew to include two of  their three adult children. We even added a few of their friends who were walking the trail at one point. Natalie was in her element speaking French and everyone was talking and laughing. I generally didn’t know what was going on, but loved watching the expressions on everyone’s faces. Natalie would occasionally let me in on the conversation, as would the host’s husband who spoke some English, but I mostly liked observing them. And sometimes they would have part of the conversation in English.

Eventually, we needed to start our camp food, so we handed them a nalgene bottle and ask them to fill it up with boiling water. In about 10 minutes our host came back with our bottle, filled with boiling water, and a large platter filled with breads, jams, yogurt, and meats. Seriously, it was one of the nicest meals we have had so far. We try to eat mostly vegan and generally vegetarian, but it felt right to eat what they had brought us, so we enjoyed our dinner and ended up not making our camp food. About a half hour after dinner, the two adult children showed up with warm chocolate lava cakes, whipped cream, and some other kind of cream to dip them in. It was so kind and generous of them.

I just went out to check on the bike and saw that the host has had stapled a big tarp across the entire entrance to the bike storage, sealing our bike in from the rain that is hitting us now (and it is supposed to rain all night).

In some crazy way, we went from our planned hardship night to luxury. Our dinner was outstanding, and even though our little cabin is very small, the bed is the most comfortable yet. And the rain has cooled everything down so that we actually will be sleeping under blankets tonight. We are grateful.

It looks like tomorrow we may be riding in the rain almost all day.

I’ll try to add more photos later.