A-Fair in Vannes

Finally we’re heading out into the country today. Paris in the heat and crowds can be too much.

We picked up some croissants/bread and went to the apt to get ready to go. Eth and Maddie were up and had made bfast already. I uploaded some blog entries, while April yelled at me to get ready to catch our train. After all the fuss we got out of there at 10:00 just like we planned. Then as usual we got lost on the bike ride to the Gare Montparnesse, where our train was to leave at 11:00 for Vannes. Not much traffic but the map we had was terrible , left Eth/maddie the good one. So we ended up south of the station and heading south until we asked someone. She said it was behind us in the opposite direction, of course I didn’t believe her, but April made me go the way she said, and sure enough there it was. This seems like a continuation of our C2C walk last year. Often lost.

So the monitors finally list the track for our train, it’s a mad dash down the platform, we had reserved spots on the TGV for our bikes, there are only 2 reserved spots, otherwise you must have your bike in a bag and slide it into the regular spots for luggage. So we ask one train guy, he mutters some indecipherable French (at least to my ears), ask a second guy, and show him we paid for the reserved slot, he says there are no reserved slots, I’m starting to heat up now, cause there is clearly no more room on the regular luggage compartments, so I had a little chat with PEM, then finally a low-level guy comes off the train and the one guy refers me to him, he speaks a tiny bit of English and does know where to put our bikes. It turns out that on our car there were 4 sideway seats that folded up and then we could put our bikes there. And there were instructions right above the seats, but we hadn’t seen them cause people had luggage on those seats. Anyway problem nicely solved.

The ride was easy, but it poured much of the time. Now it had been so hot in Paris that we said the hell with our neoprene booties, which are super important in the rain, and I even ditched my raincoat, too heavy. But we do have our regular riding coats, which are water-resistant. April also has a super light raincoat that Eth just had to buy before our Norway trip. He wore it once then sweated too much in it.

So we got to Vannes, rode into town, and wonder of wonders they were having a big fair. There aren’t many people who like a local fair more than the Tiger. She charges around loving everything, and always wanting to go over here or there and look at more stuff. I usually just want to find the food section. Vannes is a fantastic old town. Beautiful medieval town center, huge walls for defense around the twon center. And then the only thing the Tiger likes more than a fair, is a fair with a parade! And sure enough there’s going to be a big parade, with all sorts of local costumes/music. Holy shit we hit the jackpot. April stays true to form and whenever she hears some music wants to rush over to see the parade but she can’t get a good view cause there’s too many people. Finally she gets a great spot where the parade is heading and gets right in the front row. Happy as a pig in shit. We wait, and wait, and wait. Finally hear the music coming our way. Parade is pretty good. She’s taking pictures but then can’t watch well enough so she makes me take pictures. Finally it winds down and we can eat. But it was early, like 6:00 and the full menu wasn’t ready yet, so the restaurant wasn’t great, but it was sustenance.

Then we headed back to our romantic B+B to pursue whatever came up!! ha-ha

Cold and windy that night, Needed a down comforter. Brittany seems really cool.