#224 Ibrahim Ferrer

Some time ago we went to watch Ibrahim Ferrer (he of the Buena Vista Social Club) playing at the Palau Musica in Barcelona shortly before he died.

Last night, in Denia, we saw a concert "Homage to Ibrahim Ferrer" . Very good, very Cubano - Ibrahim's son and daughter were in the group so it was the real deal.

¡Azucar!

#223 2 Films

The Triplets of Belleville is a full length cartoon, telling the story of how a mother trains her son to ride the Tour de France. However, during the race he is kidnapped and taken to New York to be a slave cyclist in a gambling den. The mother follows him across the Atlantic and with the help of three showbiz sisters . . . . . . . . . It's quite good.

In Bruges is the story of two killers sent to Belgium to cool-off after a botched job. They hole-up in Bruges and meet a lot of bizarre people, most of whom come to a bloody end. It's v good.

#222 We're right in the Gîte

We have moved to Castelnau Montratier in the Lot and are staying in a tiny gite deep in the woods at the end of this little lane. It's very peaceful :-)

#221 Reunion Round-up

Although it's only a regional paper, the Ouest France prints more copies then the French national dailies, like Le Monde or L'Equipe. They devoted a page to reporting the bike race and our reunion (see #216). Titling the report "Same Place, Same Hour - 45 Years Later".

#220 En France

We are back in France after 10 days in England.
































Bought some very nice wine; a strong red Gigondas and a cool clean white Pouilly-Fumé but were asked, not to excrete it here, but to use the public WC. d'accord!















This post is #220 (sounds familiar. . . . . . . )

#219 Ing-Er-Lan

We left France for England having found flights with Ryanair, Nantes - Bournemouth and back for free (but 50€ taxes).

Had a drive around Poole Harbour and then crossed to Studland Beach by chain ferry.

In England there are notices telling you what to may or mayn't do, even when and where to take your clothes off. Fortunately, due to the inclement weather, we avoided having to gaze at unclothed people - can you imagine the shrinkage? . . . . . . . brrrr.

Later, sampled the local speciality, Dorset Cream Tea (tea, scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream).

#218 Guérande

We are in Guérande in France for a week, today it is raining and 19c
Back home in Denia it is 40c !

Guérande is an ancient walled town, enclosed by its ramparts, covered in cobbles, free underground parking and is très pittoresque

#217 The Greens

By chance we have some friends who live very near Guérande, Lorraine & Kevin and their kids Sebastian & Nichole. They moved to France a few years ago and are rebuilding a gîte out in the wilds. When I was the patron of a société in England Lorraine was my french speaking bras doit.

We went round for cous-cous and a sing-song.

#216 Reunion

Here I am having a big breakfast and scanning the Ouest France newspaper to find a pic and story about my search to recreate the photo taken in 1963.

It's a small world, they found the girl who gave the flowers all those years ago. In fact, she was still living nearby. We then posed for the press, as you see below.

Mission accomplished!






















Here we all are 45 years later :-)

#215 France

My ride from Spain to Guérande in France to attend a reunion with two old mates at a bike race we rode 45 years ago.

















Thursday 19
Drove from Denia to Huesca, just outside Zaragoza stopped for a coffee and a plate of bread and cheese, 3€ - don't suppose it will be *that* cheap when I get to France :-(

At Huesca caught a funny little one carriage train to Canfranc in the Pyrenees.















Friday 20th Canfranc to Amou 121km
First 8k up to the top of the mountain and suffered oxygen debt on the way so walked for 200m, must be the thin air, have to ask Brett Sutton if this qualifies as altitude training! Then recovered enough to ride over the top at the Col du Somport and into France.














Spent most of the rest of the day wizzing downhill,stopped for a coffee then arrived at a nice village hotel in Amou.















Saturday Amou to Le Barp 141km
Rode along some very straight roads for longer than I wanted to as all the hotels seemed to be closed. Ended up at v poncy place, overpriced grub and dead mosquitos stuck to the bedroom wall (wouldn't go there again).















Sunday Le Barp to Jonzac 126km
Interesting day, rode round the west side of Bordeaux to catch a ferry at Lamarque en Medoc. As the next ferry was in 2 hours time had a glass of beer and big plate of mussels and chips in riverside restaurant.

In 1961 I raced in Lamarque and won a couple of bottles of very nice wine, which was my introduction to claret (before that I used to drink menthol flavoured lemonade). I imagine it was good wine, the bottles were covered in dust and crap from the wine cellar but had no labels, so I never knew exactly what they were (except nice).

















The ferry crossed the river Garonne and docked in Blaye. I continued riding very slowly as a result of scoffing the mussels and beer, and a headwind and a rough road and it was all uphill. Arrived at stage town, Mirabeau, only to find all the hotels fermé except for the Chateau de Mirabeau which had a room for €300 (this did include breakfast). Urgent phone calls back to Spain and in a joint family operation they found me a hotel in Jonzac 20k down the road.

Monday Jonzac to St Mande sur Bredoire 87km
Quite a tough day's riding. Headwind etc but pleased to arrive at St Mande sur Bredoire home of the Hobsons, Richard and Dorte and their boys Oliver and Oscar.



















Richard was a triathlete back in the days - and they now run holiday gites in this part of the Charent Maritime. That evening I cooked my speciality Tarragon Chicken for everyone and stayed in the presidential suite.















Next day was a Jour de Repose, so did nothing.

Wednesday St Mande sur Bredoire to Cholet 145km
Long day, over 7 hours riding, but arrived right on time for my appointment at the town hall. Denia and Cholet are twin towns and I had a letter to deliver from our Mayor for the Cholet Mayor. Met up with Sally, who arrived by car with the letter, we had a convivial meeting with "Premier Adjoint au Marie Geraldine Delorme", gave our compliments and retired to a little hotel an an excellent Thai dinner.



















Thursday Cholet to Guerande 85km.
I *intended* to ride all the way but took an easier option and cut off 60km by taking a lift to Nantes and riding from there. Passing through St Nazaire I was met by an entourage from the local club US Guérandaise Ciclisme and escorted the last 20k at the same time a photographer from Ouest France (Jean-Luc Merlet- thanks for the pic below) was snapping away for tomorrow's edition.

#214 Escombros y Sardinas

You might think that a plate of Escombros (menu's English translation
rubble . . . . ?) would be a bit outré for Wednesday lunch.

In fact the Escombros, (little bits of fried cuttle fish) were delicious!
As were the sardines :-)

# 213 Protein for Breakfast

Almond Flour Pancakes

Quick to make - Not many carbs - Tastes nice.
















Ingredients:
1 egg
1 tablespoon of sour cream
1 tablespoon of water
4 tablespoons of ground almonds
half teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Method:
Mix all together and spoon onto a hot(ish) buttered frying pan.
Fry (makes three small pancakes)
Flip (carefully) after a few minutes, then serve after a few more minutes.
I added some strawberries and cranberries but if you want the real Atkins diet deal just add butter :-)

#212 Eng. Lit.

I can thoroughly recommend The Way We Wore by Robert Elms. It's an account of the writer's infatuation with the clothes, music and style of his youth. He's younger than me but near enough to to spark a memory of wearing Italian shoes and smoking French fags down the Coffee-Bar. Odd that the book cover is crap . . . . .

On the other hand, a good record cover usually has well designed music. And I don't have to fret about my feminine side to appreciate the show music from Porgy & Bess - its by Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass - so that's all right.

Nothing to do with fags, Providing You Don't Kiss Me by Duncan Hamilton is a biography about the infamous football manager, Brian Clough. I used to follow his teams, especially Nottingham Forest just because he was so outrageous. Sometimes he was a nice man - but not always.

I've extended my World Music collection with Made in Dakar by Orchestra Baobab. Only trouble is it's the . . . . . (counts records) . . . . fifth Orchestra Baobab cd in my collection, I wonder if it would be better to have only one cd (or make a compilation, I suppose).

I like Manu Chao in the same way but once you've enjoyed one cd you've enjoyed them all - or am I being insensitive to their subtle musical nuances . . . . .

#211 Crossword, Smoshword

Yeaaaa!

Finished the Saturday version of The Times crossword (that's the extra hard one, don't you know) Thought I was stumped with a couple of clues not answered, but picked up the paper this morning and the last two just popped in :-)

Obviously have far too much free time.

#210 Two Bikes

This one is my new singlespeed.
I built it from some old bits (and some new).
That one is my old "low-pro" triathlon bike.
Tom and I have converted it to a fixie.
He's riding it up and down Las Ramblas at this very moment ;-)

#209 Odd Socks

This is a warning to those considering on-line shopping for socks.

I recently took up a special offer from Rapha for 3 for the price of 2 pairs of merino wool socks. These are special because the inside ankle area of the right sock is reinforced to withstand dirt and chain abrasion (it says here) as opposed to the left, which is not.

Anyway, I received the 3 pairs. My first pair is ok as you see from the pic but the second pair is made up of two lefts and the third pair is two rights - no wonder they were discounted. . . . . . . .

#208 Watched Read Listened

Watched a Pedro Amodóvar film Habla con Ella about two women in a coma (not the same coma - they had one each) which wasn't quite as gruesome as some of Almodóvar's other films. I suppose Volver wasn't that gruesome either, although it was a story about a corpse but Matador was really, really, hide-behind-the-sofa horrific.

Read a biography about French Tour de France winner Louison Bobet and enjoyed it so much I bought another book by the same author (actually Louison's brother Jean). You would think watching a film or reading a book in a different language would be a chore but these two books were ok, probably because the subject, cycle racing in the sixties, was so familiar.

Then after seeing a tv documentary about Amy Winehouse went straight out and got hold of her Back to Black cd and made a compilation of modernish soul music with Duffy and Al Green and stuff like this:

1. Valerie - Mark Ronson & Amy Winehouse
2. Wishin' and Hopin' - Dusty Springfield
3. Stick With Me Baby - Robert Plant & Alison Krause
4. Warwick Avenue - Duffy
5. That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
6. Let's Stay Together - Al Green
7. My Ever Changing Moods - Style Council
8. Me & Mr. Jones - Amy Winehouse
9. Walk On By - Dionne Warwick
10. Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
11. Mercy - Duffy
12. Love Is A Losing Game - Amy Winehouse
    
13. You're The Best Thing - Style Council
14. Funny How Time Slips Away - Al Green & Lyle Lovett
15. None Of Us Are Free - Solomon Burke