Lovely day it was too. Not too hot, but plenty of sunshine, and a very pleasant purpose built cycle path along the track of an old railway between Belleville and Beaujeu. The piste was only 11km in a flat, straight line, so midway along we branched out on a slightly more ambitious circuit round the base of Mont Brouilly. Another 16km, with a couple of short but reasonably stiff climbs. With a delectable picnic to start, all in all a not-too strenous and highly enjoyable day with about 35km of exersize.
Back at the car, my propensity for leaving things behind reared its ugly head. I couldn't find my treasured Chuuk hat. Tragedy. Going back through the events of the day, I decided I'd left it on the picnic table three hours earlier. No chance it would still be there. But it was. Lucky me.On the way home, forgotten item two became evident. Stop for petrol, get out credit cards to pay, and discover French bank card missing. Fortunately (doubly so, because la bienheureuse had left her purse at home), I had enough cash to pay for the petrol. Only thing to fret about was where I'd left my card. More backtracking took us back to the bike shop. After driving straight there, I was somewhat relieved to find the card had been safely put in a drawer until I returned to retrieve it. Lucky me. Doubly lucky because the shop is closed this week, and we're off to Blighty for 2 weeks on Friday.
Sunday was recovery day, from the stress and the not-so strenuous exersize. In the evening I was back in my element, watching football. Yes, the French season has already started, and started the same way as the last seven. Comfortable, if not overly impressive 3-0 win for OL over a Toulouse side which seems likely to be among the favourites for relegation. And next weekend the real football starts...
