Europe - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 33

trying to find a way out, but I couldn't because of the high fence around the work site.
By chance, a man opened the front door of the Rectory to scold the 'guard dog' who de-
molished a bush near the entrance. I walked up to him and asked him if he could unlock
the gate. With half open eyes, he walked to the gate with me. When he noticed the chain
and lock still tightly fastened around the gate, he looked at me and then my bicycle, and
scratched his dishevelled hair. After a few seconds, he then accused me of jumping over
the gate with my bike. In French I said to him, “That's impossible. My bike is too heavy!”
Helookedatme,thenatthebike,thenatmeagain.Finallyheshookhisheadinconfusion.
He took out a master key ring with at least 40 keys. He found the right one and opened
the gate. I thanked him profusely and bid him farewell. He turned around and continued
to shout at the dog for destroying the bush. I immediately parked my bike in front of the
Cathedral and went in to say a quick prayer of thanks for the safe evening.
I returned to my bike and made my way past the Place du Concorde, the Champs
Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, and eventually to the Eiffel Tower. There, I took some sig-
nature pictures of my bike in the photo and left Paris to go to Versailles. Since I hadn't
eaten anything all day, I popped into a local supermarket (my second favourite place) and
then had a picnic in front of the palace. I toured Versailles before and as many people may
disagree, I found it utterly depressing. The opulence of the palace represented a history of
neglect/abuse of the poor in exchange for the greed of the king. I was quite happy to leave.
It rained quite hard on and off the whole day. I stopped three times because it was
too dangerous to continue. I headed for Ramboilliet and finally made it to Chartres. This
townwasquitebeautifulandseemedunchangedfromtheMedievalPeriodwiththecobble-
stone streets and the cathedral on the hill surrounded by coffee shops. I quickly found the
youth hostel and was fortunate on two counts. Fist, the warden didn't charge me to stay
there and second, I met some really nice people at the hostel Every now and again one
needs to hear some words of encouragement. For me, it was these people at the youth
hostel. One said to me “Bon courage” (Don't give up your courage). It sounded better in
French.
The next morning I went to hear mass at the cathedral. I was quite moved during
theserviceasIreflectedonthepastyearandhowfortunateandblessedIwas.Incidentally,
visiting churches became a daily ritual for me during the tour. Any chance I got, I would
pull over and take a few moments to just sit in silence and be still. I would always end my
visit by giving thanks for the people that I met and for a continued safe journey.
After the mass, I met my hostel friends outside the cathedral as they were having a
coffee. I said good-bye to them one last time and under an overcast sky, I began to cycle.