12.24.07

Paris, France

Be sure to view the new video!

I left Montcaret again with a heavy heart.It is always difficult leaving friends and I have become even closer with the crazy family in the vineyards!What a wonderful stay and I did not expect time to fly by so quickly.Most of my days go pretty slowly, but my time with Guy, Sarah and Kepler was just too short.I know that I will see them again though somewhere along the journey of life.I know that I will call them friends for a long time to come.Thank you family for an amazing stay and letting me cook!It was so very nice to take over their kitchen and cook some of my favorites.Last time it was just pork tenderloin and this time it was chili, steak on the grill, mashed potatoes and fresh stir fry veggies!

So I left Montcaret with a heavy heart and a full stomach!I woke up lazily and planned on leaving around 11 or so and then stopping halfway to Paris for the night.Once I got on the road though there was no stopping.I could not bare to be on the road any more and just wanted to be there already so I made a mad dash straight up the motorway.When I left it was raining and my nicely cleaned bike was now dirty again.It was not cold though.After a short rain the sun came out and the drive was rather pleasant.There were not many people on the road either.I was looking forward to a not so half bad ride.

Then I felt something strange going on with the bike.It was as if I was on ice.I stopped and found a very low tire.Keep in mind now that I just spend close to 700 Euros on new tires new everything in Barcelona.Millions of things started going through my mind.What would I do if I had a flat tire?It is Sunday, I told myself I would never travel on Sunday and then it is almost Christmas.Would I have to stop and pull into a train station?I kept stopping of course since my speedometer didn't work so the many times I stopped for fuel I checked the air pressure which was a good 1.5 bars low which is a lot.Halfway flat indeed!NO change in air pressure though after the initial fill up, but the sliding wobbly feeling kept getting a little worse.It certainly was not getting better.I had made it to within 200 miles of Paris and finely realized that my rear tire spokes had somehow gotten really loose so there was a tremendous amount of play in the back tire causing the wobble which was exaggerated at high speeds.I tried with my onboard tool kit to tighten them but there was no giving.I looked around and said well I don't have many options so I pressed on just a little slower and with a lot more prayer!Of course about this time the sun went down.So now I have broken two rules, never travel on Sunday and never travel at night.With the setting of the sun, the weather turned frigid.I was now within 100 miles and there was just no stopping.I put every layer of clothing I had on and put my spare jacket around the handle bars to try and stop some of the wind from chilling my fingers.I stopped at almost every other filling station to warm up.

Now not only was the wobble terrifying, it was dark and I was cold.To add to this plastic visors at night with a little bit of mist and cold are a pain to see through. So now I could barely see or when I did it was reflected car lights causing almost a constant glare.It was either go or be stuck on the roadside Christmas Eve.If I stopped to sleep and got up the next day then I ran the risk of not making it at all to Paris if I finally broke down then.

I finally made it and with great delight I found the hostel with my nose of course much easier than previous cities.I had learned a valuable lesson though in the past; before you arrive in a city to find your way around, go to the bathroom, have a full stomach and a full tank of gas.Because I had been stopping so much this was taken care of and made finding my way much easier.

Along the way on top of the big stuff there are always those little annoyances that compound and make things even more frustrating.Like having to stop at the toll booth and find my wallet beneath six layers of clothing.Of course you have to take your helmet off, gloves off and stop up traffic.I have learned to just relax and I take my time. I feel sorry for the poor b******s that stop behind me in the toll gate!Then off course the jacket I have around the handle bars is working pretty well but if flaps around and I can't quite get it just right.Then the jacket is right, but my hands are pretty much strapped to the handle bars so I can't push down my visor tight enough to stop the cold air getting around my face or wipe the front.Then of course the moment you stop in misty cold weather you are enveloped by a fog!Combine all this with the thought that at any moment your back tire is going to fall off and you are going to go flying across the motorway. It was not too worried about my body though, as I had so many layers of cloths to cushion the blow, but still a chilling thought or wait no the chilling was the wind.

Needless to say this was the worst ride I have had and I was so glad to pull into a locked garage at the hostel and find my bed 10 hours after I had left Montcaret.Now keep in mind mapquest says it is a 6 hour journey.HA!

As bad as it was I am glad I made it and glad to be in Paris.I took my time getting up and didn't make it out on the street until noon.I made a point to not see to many things so as not to ruin the pleasures of sharing new things with Amy when she arrived, but I needed to figure out which church I would go to for midnight mass.I stopped by Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame and decided Sacre Coeur which has a magnificent view of the city.It was interesting to see so many tourists with foreign tongues about.I was surprised to see so many tourists during the holidays.It is even more interesting to see so many tourists swarming these massive churches and gawking at them.I am not quite sure how I feel about it.We will see tonight and I have written about this before, but I really am not impressed with all the massive cathedrals I have seen and visited.I feel as though God gets lost in those huge spaces.So maybe I will find him tonight and my mind will be changed I will be sure to let you know.

Time to cook my chicken, rice and green bean dinner in the hostel kitchen and then off to church!I hit the grocery before a little nap this afternoon so I didn't have to find the one restaurant open on Christmas Eve.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!(I have a video but have not found WIFI to upload yet sorry)