Bonjour mes amis....Damaged bikes - 1
Fixed bikes- 1
Croissants eaten- 2
Decent coffee- 0 .... ( lets say the coffee is SHIT in France )
Good red wine- 3
Successful attempts at conversation in French - 3
Nutella consumption - 0
Pain aux chocolats- 0
Its that time again, excited and terrified to get Epic camp underway. Currently in Biarritz, which is a beautiful town on the Atlantic coast in the Pays-Basque region so its a fusion of Spanish and French cultures. And lots of surfers.
Travel was uneventful from NZ; scored 4 seats to myself from Singapore- Paris and managed 7-8 hrs of sleep. Luggage and the Em's bars arrived safely so after trying to navigate the maze that is Charles de Gaulle airport, found a place to leave the luggage and then found the Ibis hotel who rent rooms by the hour so was able to get a lie down and a shower, followed by a trip to M+S food ( yayyy), extorted 8Euros for a coffee then pick up luggage and check in for my flight to Biarritz.
Arrived in Biarritz at 5.30 pm, picked up the luggage - weird, everything in the bike bag seems to be moving around, hmmmm..... oh well. Taxi to hotel by airport, short evening walk in the sun then crash out for 12 hours which seemed to have nailed the jet lag.
Aaaaaaargh no kettle in my room.....******. Run gear on and a jog into town to have a look around, find coffee, take photos etc etc. Brekky then back the uphill to the hotel, righto - better get this bike built up.
As soon as I opened the bag and saw that my front forks had been lifted off the skewers of the internal bag frame I knew that what would be in store at the rear would be worse..... yes, derailleur hanger snapped off, chain stays scratched ....FUCK.FUCK. Air France...WTF?!!!!
And guess what I had ordered from the bike shop in Ch Ch but forgot to go pick it up as was too busy....
Slight meltdown later than once together got a taxi to Culture Velo in Anglet and Pete, fellow camper met me there ( thank you so much !! I def needed a bit of moral support ). Amazingly helpful staff, they ordered me 2 new hangers from a website called SOShanger and said bike should be ready by the following day. Phew......
Cut to chase - bike ready Friday afternoon, working perfectly.Morning spent watching bags for John and Peter as they test swam/ran our aquathon course for Day 1. I chose to turn a blind eye to the the large shore break ( my nemesis....see prev posts circa 2012 from Maui...!). Will worry bout that on Sunday morning....
Quick supermarket trip in search of fresh veggies to eat, John set up the maps on my new Garmin 1030 altho I am still not super confident that I won't get lost. Wee spin on the bike and then out for dinner with a few of the campers.
#1 goal for this was to arrive healthy ( compared to 2016) which I have managed, got sick 2 weeks ago instead. #2 goal is always to enjoy it and go through each day with a great attitude.
#3 Get the pink jersey.........which won't be a problem as I'm the only girl competing in the camp which I hadn't been aware of. Rose amongst the thorns eh ?!!
Right, enough waffle....promise these will be more interesting as camp progresses. Time for a pre breakfast spin with a few others.......then try exert some discipline at the breakfast buffet..
A bientôt........
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