August 12, 2024
I'm bushwacking through rural France, having visited my dear friend Jessica in Confolens and now pedaling north to meet the mister in Orleans. The navigation app I'm using, Mapy.cz, puts me on farm roads and cycling paths far from the madding crowds. So my days are spent amidst sunflowers and hay, punctuated by the occasional medieval town or hillside castle.
The temps are soaring into the 100s, and most French hotels lack air conditioning, so I'm deploying the techniques I mastered when I accidentally checked into an unairconditioned hostel in the middle of a heat wave in Spain: climb into the shower every hour and then sit directly beneath a fan. The water evaporating off my body cools me somewhat.
Sleeping indoors is adding up, and I wish I could camp more to defray costs. But mama needs to recover after a hot day of cycling. I paid extra tonight for a hotel room that claims to have a/c. But for the first time for me in France, my hotel is the embodiment of giving up (see photo of early 80s bathroom tiles), and the a/c likewise lacks ambition.
So many castles, so little climate control.
Distance: 55.22 miles
Total: 5,343 miles
Comments