Day 2 – aka an epic

So, putting together a bike is just the reverse of taking it apart, right? Sigh.

Let’s start with the lovely breakfast, dampened only by a bit of rain, then we set off for our specific tasks – Karen to acquire laundry soap and a couple of other necessities,  plus lunch, and do some laundry, and Etienne to retrieve the bikes from the “beasts” (my new name for the bike boxes) and resurrect them.  Karen enjoyed poking around town, going to the “maison de pain”, the “Maison de beurre” (also host to a wide range of local cheeses) and of course the patisserie…. It was market day, which I completely missed, but was happy to have found the carrefour as the streets are the originals described in the book “All the Light you cannot see”, twisting, winding and with no logical layout.  Finding a place that did takeout coffee was the most challenging, but the worker in the dark garage was eventually administered a medicinal dose and I withdrew fairly quickly as the curses were getting more frequent at that point.  Laundry was much less interactive….

Like socks in the dryer vortex, it seemed there were a couple of bolts and washers that disappeared somewhere over the Atlantic. There were no extra chain links (someone, um, Etienne, forgot to pack them – [Étienne would like to note that in fact, we agreed that he would never remember them without a reminder from mother!]) and at the end of a fairly grueling four hours my bike was still not rideable (apart from the chain, the brakes were not functioning properly).   Hmmmm. We’d had several trips back and forth to the hotel to get things, the garage being several buildings away – then suddenly we couldn’t get into the hotel for a much needed piece of equipment.

Okay…..– well not okay actually, as apparently the front door lock was malfunctioning and the owner, who wasn’t there and had to be called (once more TG for the phone) couldn’t get in either – call to lock technicians, waste of 3/4 hr so that when we decided we needed to get to the bike shop, it was in the midst of rush hour traffic.  That’s when I discovered that during that time period obtaining a taxi was pretty dicey, as apparently most reserve ahead during these hours – let alone get one big enough to transport my bike.  Eventually, I found  a company that didn’t immediately say “we don’t have anything big enough” (we knew they did) and was on my way – time ticking towards store closure – somehow or other, Etienne managed to ride his bike across town without a GPS and was busy getting other odd parts when I eventually showed up.  Kudos to him, the newer part of town is also confusing.  The bike shop, one of a chain started by Bernard Hinault’s son Alex, wasn’t super helpful – they took one look at the malfunctioning brakes and said “don’t know that system” without making any effort to understand it…. Eventually Etienne was able to figure it out, borrowed a few essential tools to fix it and we were on our way back home at high speed, now being very tight on time to meet with the guy coming for orientation at 6 p.m. in the lobby…..  Glad the brakes were working again….No pressure or stress in this holiday!!!

And of course, the bridge was up again in the harbour…..

So back to orientation at the hotel lobby, GPS system received, and the “beasts”  were removed to be reconnected with on the last day.  I’m happy to have respite for a bit from dragging them around.

Another nice creperie for dinner, with lovely local cider after trying four or five others – lots of closed restaurants in this town.  Time for a quick walk around the ramparts (discovered “Quebec House” there) before crashing.  Tomorrow we actually get to start riding….