Excited for another adventure, I decided on touring France for two weeks, solo camping along the way. Arriving at 6:30 am 7 time zones ahead of Quito made assembling my bike a challenge. Although I had been expecting many curveballs during the trip, I was hoping to make it away from the airport before dealing with my first one. The airline baggage team did their best to ruin my borrowed bike; a critical pannier rack bolt shook loose and found its way out of the many newly formed holes in the bike box. Thanks to Josh’s (the bike owner) legendary organizational skills there was an extra bolt in the spare parts bag and I overcame my first trip challenge. The bike was fine and I was on my way.

Challenge two was met not far from the airport. The train connecting the airport to the train station shut down one station early because a suspicious piece of luggage was found on the train. This resulted with me having to pedal on the main road adjacent to one of the runways to get to the train station. I might as well have been riding my bike around Newark Airport on the Garden State Parkway. Several merging ramps, elevated roadways, and a tunnel later I made it to the train terminal. With my ticket to Nantes purchased I merely had to pass four hours having a snack or two, paying astronomical money exchange rates because my bank card wasn’t working, and basking in the funkiness that happens to a body when it travels internationally.

Arriving at my train, I was informed my bike was not welcome, even though I told the ticket agent I had one. A very helpful SNCF employee assisted me in transferring my ticket to a bike friendly train three hours later. My bike would need a ticket too. Although the train station was nice, seven hours there was enough. I was ready to get out of the city.

An ice cold tallboy and broken air conditioning helped me sleep most of the three hour ride to Nantes. Nantes is what you would expect a rural, but larger, French town to be like; old and and contemporary buildings mixed together; cafe and pub lined angular alleys; and the bike-friendliest atmosphere ever. Having an hour to the 9 pm sunset provided me with enough time to ask for directions to the camping area, find it, and buy some provisions along the way. Josh was right, a bottle of wine does fit in the water bottle cage. After finding perhaps the nicest campground I’d ever seen I spent the early evening setting up my tent and enjoying some local Vionier and a Camanbert and ham sandwich on baguette. The shower facilities were like nothing I’d ever seen and private shower rooms and sinks specially designed to wash clothes in were just what I needed.

More bumps are expected along the way but I’m here and I cant wait to dig in and put in some miles.