Sid and Doris Bonkers and their Epic Journeys
"Everybody is normal until you get to know them"
More variations on Spotto – The Song of the Magic Goop – Lions on Gateposts – Calories in an e-battery – Not That Chicken Song – The French Neutron Bomb – The Revenge of the Wombles 1. More variations on Spotto. I think I may have mentioned some of these before, but boat-o continues to be a firm favourite, especially…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris stop in Le Cholet to visit the textile and loom museum. When we got into this deserted ‘hotel on the bypass for commercial travellers and empty in August’ Madame asked asked us where we had come from. Neither of us could remember as La Chataigneraie is just another nowheresville. And so is this. See here…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris outwit French shopkeeping and create a fine new song. Learning from previous French shutness Sid went into a supermarket in Rochefort to buy sandwiches and apple pie. A wise precaution as every shop we passed was shut, with a variety of excuses. At one point we were standing outside a Proxi Marche (closed because…
Read moreFrom time to time we take pictures of bicycles but it’s not always easy to weave them into the narrative of the blog, so I thought I would collect them here. As with the things-made-from-tyres post, the latest pics will be at the top and the date will always be the last date of posting. Latest is a very simple…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris idle away a day walking around the town, seeing the docks and writing. Every afternoon Sid and Doris shower, do laundry, drink, write, eat, plan a route, book a hotel and sleep. One of the best things about our holidays is breaking that routine, fun as it has been. We get up later, lingering over…
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This is an important concept for a touring cyclist, and even more important for the TC’s eager blog audience.
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris take another ferry to visit Rochefort, the naval centre in the time of Louis XIV. In the night it rained – but not on us, ha ha – and we set off into a cool misty morning on the shadowy forest roads. The vines are behind us for now. We take back roads up to…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris visit the submarine pens and eventually cycle past Medoc chateaux and Pauillac port on the Gironde.We continued down the river, past the elegant stone houses now much further from the bank than when they were built. The river is big. Say what you like about the french, they do a good river. And with it…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris visit Chateau Roquetaillade on their way to Bordeaux, a very fine city. Musing on whether we were still being Epic enough we felt that we were not doing and seeing the things, and in danger of turning this into a Delivery Ride. So we set out for Bordeaux (which is not short of Things)…
Read moreFor quite a long time in the middle of the trip we didn’t need to think about other cyclists, because there weren’t any. But now we are in the richer (and dare I observe, flatter) areas of southern France, the numbers are starting to build up. They come in the following categories:– Men (always) in full club kit whooshing past…
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