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After a 41km easy ride in "peleton" we arrived in Poitiers. We are staying with the Brothers of St. Dominic. The is a very large Monistary with a long corridor for pelgrims.
Yesterday we heard something of the other side of the coin of some "pelgrims". The owner of our group residence talked about so called pelgrims reserving a room and even evening diner and then not showing up or even calling. She wondered out loud if these were pelgrims in the true sence of the word. She mentioned people from a country to the north of Belgium as often being guilty! We sometimes had the feeling that despite the expectation there is not always a distiction made between pelgrims and vacationers in many cases.
After 12 days we also are feeling in the "flow" We rise at 6:30, prepare our bagage and often our bike, then eat and start. Early on the road we pick up our lunch, fruit and extra water. We have a morning banana stop and a lunch stop. Then depending on the weather and the surroundings we ride on and get to were we need to be around 4pm. For those uninformed we only had the first two nights reserved and the following days we only started to call ahead around noon. So we had some nervous moments. Now after a week we have a better idea of our daily capacity and have two days reserved ahead. Once in Spain we expect no problems.
Another point do the day: Americans think that French are unfriendly and do not like foreigners. We have to say that our trip has proven this idea to be completely unfounded. Everyplace we have been people were friendly and even excited to see us. If you go to Paris you might limit yourself to metro or bus. Try seeing Paris by bike. It is a completly different view. We now suggest try seeing France by bike. It is a completely different view that changes every day.
Nevertheless at the level of accomodation we are using most still do not speak English and this American does not speak French. So that idea has been substantiated.
Even in this short ride we were hungry but had not stopped because there were no stores open. We then thought to eat some grapes found along the way. But we had heard so many stories of the poor grape harvest that we did not dare to take even one grape. The old farmers say that the harvest is always poor in a leap year that has an extra full moon.
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