Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Bicycle, paniers, tent, all bought

Went shopping this morning. First stop, looking for a touring bike. Lovely young man in the first shop I tried, very patient with my poor French. Bought then and there. He gave me directions to a place to look for a tent: Decathlon is a big French sports chain store. It was about 3km walk, nothing when you have been tramping around as a tourist for a few months. Bought and headed home. Then got horribly lost. But, I also came across a Good Samaritan today. I hadn't even realised I had taken the wrong turning. Then it started raining, and I was carrying some bike paniers and the tent I had just bought. I was already quite drenched when a Good Samaritan stepped up. She stopped her car over the crossing I had just made, looking still confused, and offered me a lift. Turned out she was on her way back to work (after one of these lovely long French lunchhours) and she brought me all the way back into town near by hotel, completely out of her way. Merci, merci.

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on doing so well.I shall be ready to accost the next slightly bewildered foreign tourist I see for you as payback, offering help whether they want it or not!

    We also found the French people fine - very helpful, especially if you had tried a little French. It was the Italians(chauvenistic males) that got my back up. Might have to learn Italian huh?

    You have a real adventure ahead of you now - good luck!

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  2. (that is actually me above)Hope you are taking lots of photos it has sounded so scenic.

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  3. Hi Kiwi, I'm just back from Romania (take a peep at my blog if you have time) and great to catch up with your news! My next stop is Finland next month. Once I have cleared this backlog of exam scripts :-(
    Maalie

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