Europe - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 36

I passed under the effigy and eventually made it into Angouleme. At the youth
hostel, I was directed to a bicycle shop called Cycles 16. I stripped the bike and left my
panniers at the hostel. I arrived just before closing and explained to the owner my predic-
ament and that I did not have a lot of money. Philippe was tremendously kind. He looked
at my rim and trued it. He replaced the spokes with thicker ones and gave me several extra
ones for the road. He became angry that the bike shop in England sold me cheap spokes.
Also, he showed me how to easily remove the free-wheel. He replaced the chain and gave
mepointersonhowtopreserveitslife.Heonlychargedmeforthepartswithoutanylabour
costs. His wife, Veronique, and child came into the shop and he introduced me to them and
we chatted well past closing time. I was invited to stay with them but since I had already
paid for my bed at the hostel, I declined. In hindsight, I should have retrieved my things
fromthehostelandstayedwiththem.Needlesstosay,theirkindnessfilledmewithjoyand
I slept soundly.
Before I left the city, I stopped by the bicycle shop and asked Philippe's shop as-
sistant Marquet to shorten the chain a bit for it was dragging. He also gave me some sage
advice: never cycle with the chain on the small chain wheel (near the pedals) and small
chain ring in the back (or large ring to large ring) because it will reduce the chain's life
expectancy significantly. In all honesty, I never paid attention to this. Perhaps this was the
reason why the original chain was 'dead' after my U.K. tour.
I also took Marquet's advice and decided not to cycle into Bordeaux (which I did
in 1989) but instead to zigzag to Duras. So, I took the D939 to Rochebean Court then the
D708 to Riberac, Montpon, and St. Foy-la. It was a smart decision for the traffic was prac-
tically non-existent and the views of the farmland were quite picturesque.
In St. Foy-la, I stopped for lunch and shared my lunch of bread and cheese with a
homeless man. We sat on a bench and started to chat for about an hour. I bid adieu and
made resumed my cycling to Duras. When I arrived, I looked for accommodation. First I
tried finding a youth hostel but couldn't find one. Next, I then went to all the little hotels
buttheywerefull.Finally,Imetacoupleofolderladieswhoweretakingastrollandasked
them if there was a hotel or pension that I could stay at. They told me there were two Eng-
lish women who ran a Bed & Breakfast near the barbershop. So off I went and quickly
found the place. I knocked on the door and Dee and Claire Francis answered. They were
surprised that they were mentioned as a B&B location, for they never did a B&B in the
first place. However, they still invited me in for a coffee. We started to chat and as the time
passed they offered me their settee to sleep on. They cooked dinner and after they went
to bed, I watched an Oakland vs. Cleveland baseball game on satellite TV until 1 am (in
France!)