Vive La France!

There are some magnificent things about France, and one of them is the local boulangerie. Assuming that you can find one open in August, when most of France seems to disappear, and I am guessing to the south of France. But if you can find one open, there is nothing more heavenly than a warm croissant or pain au chocolat. Part of the pleasure is indeed queueing, as the queue assures you that nothing remains on the shelf for more than 30 minutes before being replaced by the toiling bakers that you can see in the rooms beyond.

The queue also gives you the chance to observe the French- from the young professional in a relative hurry, to the old couple who are arguing over whether to have a long thin baguette or a short fat baguette. So sitting on a traffic bollard, eating our goodies we enjoyed 5 minutes of butter fuelled bliss.

Much of the route today was along canals - so not much more level than this. We stopped overnight in a not very busy municipal campsite where shock horror we had a choice of pitches. Sadly the pitch that we though was ideal turned out to be the shadiest and dampest spot possible, and we woke in the morning to a posse of slugs and snails having a race. Learning point - use the compass that I have to make sure that you get the morning sun ( Thanks James!)

On leaving the campsite, we then followed what has become our standard ritual - find a boulangerie and then a supermarket. Odd, we thought, for a Tuesday - not much happening around here. Arrive at supermarket. Even odder, completely ferme! Que que ce passe? Thinking that we must have missed some disaster and the rest of France had fled somewhere, I googled 15th August. The answer - Assumption day, and therefore a national holiday. Passing through Strasbourg all that we could find open was a tiny corner shop, where at least we could grab a baguette and an unfeasibly large Babybel ( note to self - never again. Didn’t think cheese could actually be that tasteless)

A slight problem of canal side metalled paths is that tree roots over time can make it a somewhat bumpy experience, and for those of us suffering from an uncomortable derriere ( not me), a fair degree or discomfort. Both of the tourers are fitted with slightly retro Brooks saddles, and whilst mine has moulded happily to my rear end shape, this hasnt happened yet for Sian.

So we ended up in a pretty little campsite by a lake in Gambsheim, but only with emergency couscous and soup. This was a true emergency, so we broke into another present from Sian’s colleagues - some astronaut food. This was freeze dried neapolitan ice cream, and whilst hardly cold, was sweet and quite creamy. Very welcome for flagging morale.

This is our emergency soup o porridge. Not to be recommended to anyone with functional taste buds

A somewhat grimaced "yum yum. I love Assumption day in France."

My reading of the information sign is that in about 1939 the French decided that there were not enough picnic spots, and corrected the situation by building a whole series of them along the German border. Sian making full use of one of them here.

"Smile, don't grimace". Mission failed

This is a "Tentsile" (geddit?). Advantages on the web site are not getting wet. Disadvantages are having to find three jolly strong trees at 120 degrees to your desired pitch. Hmmm.

Strasbourg cathedral that we passed on the way through. From a distance it looks like a rocket ready for take off. I was going to add "apparently", but in fact it's true!