That was how the trip started – ironically. As most people know, I’ve been struggling with significant insomnia for >1 year, so go figure that I would sleep through my alarm the day I really needed to get up…. was having a fabulous, deep sleep and then I’m woken by Etienne with a cup of coffee who tells me we have 15 minutes before the taxi arrives! Tachycardia…. And the supreme irony was being woken by my “Sorry I’m late, I overslept” son…..
Hmmm. What does that say, the fact that I slept really well the first night on holiday???
Well, entry one records that we got to our destination, St. Malo – through pretty much every mode of transport but pedalling. Fourteen hours, two planes with a layover in Montreal,
With a lack of anything but watery beer at the lounge in Montreal, we settle on wine
six hours on two trains with no layover and a mad dash with the bike boxes to catch a second several platforms away (of course that involved stairs up and over the tracks so finding an “ascenceur” and cramming into it was a must, these are definite afterthoughts in France), then a cab (ten minutes that became twenty as the bridge was up)…
TG we had acquired a SIM card at the airport as all the waiting ones had been scooped up by the time we got out, and so we had to phone for one. Filed in my memories now are the big eyes and the “oh my” of the cab driver in St. Malo when he arrived and saw our bike boxes, hauling those beasts up the stairs to the upper floor of the TGV amongst the melee of everyone trying to get on and off (most everyone quite good natured and helped push mine up), the train conductor’s “Oh My” as she regarded us on the slow train in the extra space between carriages (breath hold as I got ready to be ejected but she just carried on). Arrival at our hotel in the old city yielded a hotel which was “mignon” in the best of old European ways where things are cupboard sized, and the smallest “ascenceur” I’ve ever seen. There is some kind of convention/conference going on in St. Malo so they were unable to accomodate us in the usual hotel the bike company uses – this one has location for it, not a whole lot else – cardboard for walls, but the bed was absolutely delightful to behold…. We had a fabulous meal, diving directly into the regional favourites of mussels, frites and beer, and crepes. The house merlot, I have to say, was better than most of the Okanogan ones I’ve been trying lately…
And so to a well deserved horizontal experience….. accompanied by earplugs, of course. Etienne will be bruised tomorrow on his left side, as I had to keep elbowing him on the train to prevent him falling asleep – at his request – trying to adjust to local time quickly, deadly to fall asleep in the afternoon and in any case we didn’t want to miss our stop…..
