Tournée Vélo Pestaculaire!!

Last weekend was absolute madness. It was time for our bike-circus regional tour!
I wasn't working Friday, so after lessons on Thursday I got everything packed and cycled up to Saint-Etienne.

Friday was overcast, and Pierre and I spent most of it waiting agitatedly for Helder to be ready to leave, (he had some work to hand in at uni before the end of the day). Finally, we set off, 3 bikes and the trailer to get on the train to Saint-Monrond-Les-Bains. Just outside Saint-Etienne. From there we had a target of 20kms to Civens where we attempted our first "show". This turned mainly into street performance - outside a school, a bar, the church etc... Either way it was fairly fun and a good little warm up. When it started to get dark we headed a little way out of the village to find a good spot to set up camp for the night then had a cold dinner and went to bed... It's difficult to stay up with no lights so we were asleep by 11!

The next morning I woke up early and read for a while with Pierre - Helder, who's normally the first to rise, slept soundly right through til 9!! We had planned to meet the rest of the coloc. at the station in Balbigny, 8km away at 10.30 so we couldn't hang about too long... it was a beautiful morning and the terrain was fairly straightforward and we arrived with just a few minutes to wait...

Reunited with the rest of the coloc.!

From Balbigny we had a fairly long day prepared. 30-40km, not much different from Monistrol-Saint-Etienne but we had a trailer to deal with and some less experienced cyclists (I'm not quite sure where I place myself in the ranking but I guess I've cycled a hell of a long way in the last month!) so it took the majority of the day...

Of course it's not just cycling.... we stopped to get food at the market at Balbigny and then again at a small village which I can't remember the name of to have our lunch picnic. Food when you're cycling is simple - Bread, raw veg, fruit, cheese, water. We were fortunate enough to find a drinking water tap and public toilets just across from where we stopped too. :D
Our second stop of the afternoon was completely by chance - Luc spotted and old looking yellow bus parked outside the church so I went up to take a peek; turned out it was a story telling event and the bus was full of young children and their parents. So naturally we took the opportunity to chat to the organisers and they agreed to advertise our show for the kids at the end of the stories. We had about half an hour to chill/manically try to work out what our "show" consisted of before they finished.
Turns out our show is largely improvised, but thanks to a number of great personalities and reasonable competence in juggling, music, poi (for me) they seemed to enjoy it and even invited us in for nibbles and juice at the town hall after. We left on a high - our first public had been a success.

The next stop on the tour was the lac des sapins....
We still had a reasonable way to go, it was beautiful weather and we were in good spirits. Unfortunately that's no defence against technical problems. Ben's bike was pretty rickety and old and the front wheel was pretty much about to explode. Unfortunately, being old the tyre, inner tube and wheel were all glued together which meant the only possible solution was to find a new wheel. Meanwhile, Ben was given a helmet and strict instructions to take it easy.
During the descents, we had a tendency to get pretty spaced out and arriving at the bottom of one, we waited around, gradually regrouping before heading out, chatting to some fellow cyclo-tourists who we happened to come across. But where was Ben?
A search party was sent back and Pierre arrived back... holding a wheel.
Closely followed by Alberto... and... Ben! With his bike still intact!!
He'd got talking to a guy in his garage along the road, who just happened to have a wheel floating about, and even more astoundingly, it was the perfect size. I couldn't believe it!

After stopping in town to get more food (and a couple of drinks) we covered the last few kilometres to the lake... which was stunning.

Here we met Kevin, who suggested we camp next to his van, he joined us for dinner and was our sole public for the "show" that evening.

The evening show was more just everyone messing around and having fun - splendid really.
Luc set up his slackline and I even lit up my poi. ;)

 The following day was stunning. So after a long lazy morning, breakfast and packing up the tents Geraldine gave us a quick yoga session on the tarps and we went over to the "beach", the allocated section of the lake for those thinking of braving the water. I'm a sucker for water - proudly first in! Only Pierre and Helder were the only others brave enough to take the plunge but several others paddled.

We spent a good hour playing with various circus toys and listening to Geraldine playing the flute. I can't think of a better way to spend the weekend.

We finally left the beach to go find a spot to have lunch and it was time to head off in order to get to Roanne in time for the train back to Saint-Etinne, then for me, on to Monistrol.

I don't think I've ever felt so free or wholesome - waking up and going to sleep with the sun, travelling by our own muscle power alone, eating well and washing in a lake... I can't wait for the next one.