July 28, 2013
Today, Sunday, the Caunes-Minervois Cycling Club has arranged to meet a club in La Redorte, where the road turns towards Béziers, for an especially long ride through the area east of Caunes. Start time is 7:00 a.m. I just make it.
Last night Bob Thorp replaced my Shimano pedals with the original Look brand which with Jean Lacroix lent me the bicycle. I need a break from trying to ride with cleats, and the shifter is giving me problems: I can manage several speeds as long as I stick with one of the three sprockets, but if I move out of that one, the drive chain falls off. After the fall caused yesterday by not disengaging the left cleat, I had the drive chain fall off, too. Just my luck, Bob and Annabelle were driving by, and picked me up on the outskirts of Villegly. Otherwise it would have been 9 kilometers on foot in the midday sun to Caunes.
That afternoon I went to FunSport, the best bicycle store in the area. They have a used bicycle depot at 18 avenue Jean Monnet, which the GPS led me to without one wrong turn, a first. The bicycles available range from bicycles selling at 2000 Euros to 200. However, I am small relative to the size of most riders, so there was only one bicycle with dropped handlebars in my size. It has Shimano brand shifters and brakes in the handles, a much easier bicycle to ride, even with cleats. It would set me back 390 Euros, a considerable sum, although relative to the price of comparable new bicycles, not a large sum. Still, having only one bicycle to choose from might not be the best way to invest in a new bicycle. Maybe I can manage on a borrowed bicycle for the remainder of my stay.
Returning home in the late afternoon, I tried to address a mechanical issue: the washing machine, which had been running perfectly, has become stuck on the rinse cycle. Friday, David Martinez, a local plumber whose family started a plumbing business here thirty years ago, came by to look at the upstairs shower head, which had stopped sending out streams of water no matter what I did to try to get it to work. The problem was a cracked internal tube inside the cable connecting the showerhead to the faucet in the wall.
When David, who is half-Spanish, half-French, arrived, I was in the middle of doing laundry in anticipation of the visit of an English guest Sunday evening. To install the new fixture, he asked me to turn off the machine. From that moment on, the machine has not worked. Yesterday Bob told me how to unlock the top-loading machine's lid so I could pull out the wet clothes; after that, I bailed water for about a half hour. Hoping the problem was a too-large load, I tried washing a small one before leaving for a break in Carcassonne. Nonetheless, on my return, I found the machine again, stuck on the rinse cycle. That pretty much sums up my Saturday. David will be here Monday at 11:00 a.m.
I might have to pick out a new washing machine for my hosts, who are certainly entitled to a working washer upon their return next year. At least the breakdown has happened while I still have enough time to order and take delivery of a new machine, if necessary. One thing to consider if I do, is that stores are closed in the afternoon, and not open after 12:30 p.m. on Sundays. Indeed, some (like FunSport) close Sunday and Monday. Time is of the essence is a relative concept here.
With the annoying prospect of the machine being unrepairable on my mind, I join the cycling club and follow along. Within minutes, my mind unwinds: the big sky and rolling hills, the vines all around me are so beautiful to me. There was heavy rain last night, but the morning is dry and cool, with the wind light. Or should I say winds. Everyone is an expert on the winds, and they are a frequent topic of conversation: the marin, the tramontane, the mistral and the "grec".
Jeannot tells me that the marin is blowing today. If the wind is blowing from the west, he says, one ought to stay to the right on the road; if east, on the left, to minimize the thrust of gusts. Il faut se proteger (You have to protect yourself), he tells me.
We reach the soccer stadium at La Redorte in short order. There is a sign-up sheet and a 2 Euro fee, which covers a map of the route, espresso and breakfast pastries without limit. Introductions are made all around. Someone comes to find me and takes me to meet an older woman with short blond hair and blue eyes, seated at the registration desk. I assume she is French, that there is something I filled out incorrectly on my registration form. She looks at me, I say Bon jour and she says nothing.
"Je vous comprends. Parlez-moi, s'il vous plait." I try again.
She stares back: she is English. The assembled have a good laugh, and then I chat with the woman, who is thinking of buying a house here with her daughter. She is volunteering to help with the ride registration and collection of 2 Euros. After a few minutes of chat, it is time to ride. The group rides to a designated point, then Jeannot and I ride back, as the meet course is strenuous, and Jeannot prefers to do his 50 kilometers on the flats. Pedaling along, at one point, I try to use the shifter again, to see whether there is a knack I need to get. Unfortunately, the drive chain falls off again. I lose Jeannot for several minutes, while I stop and re-engage the drive chain.
I have all I can do to catch up with Jeannot, whose age does not keep him from rising from the bicycle seat and pedaling vigorously when he has to take a hill, or pedaling furiously if he wants to lead. When I am side by side with him he asks me,
Am I going too fast for you?
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