I went mountain biking with some people from MEETin. Hooo-ee. I need to be in a lot better shape before I try that again! But it was fun. I took my bike on the RER out to Saint-Rémy-Lès-Chevreuse [note: there is indeed an accent grave on "Lès," and "Chevreuse," sadly, does not mean 'hairy'), and met up with three other people. We started by going up a hill to an old château. I say "going" and not "biking" because I wasn't biking the whole way.
Bc (the woman I biked back with on the last bike trip) had a gear problem on an incline and fell off and got a nasty brushburn on her knee. Also, my front brake turned out to need some help because one of the thingies (technical term!) was hitting the wheel. Actually, I need a general brake tune-up, but Bc and one of the other people got things working.
Then there was a lot of going downhill... trickier than it sounds, and strangely focusing. Leaves and mud don't help. We were on everything from paved roads/bike paths to yucky yucky mud that I couldn't ride through.
In general, I was the last one getting to the tops of hills... though I wasn't the only person getting off and walking. I am also not real graceful in dealing with my bike. I did fall or get tripped up a number of times. It was okay, though, and everyone was really nice. :)
It was beautiful out there... the trees' colors are peaking, and we biked through some pretty villages, some with roses in the gardens still, even though it's almost November. We passed between fields on bumpety roads, and couldn't figure out what was in the fields. We saw cows, horses, goats, magpies, cats, and large (10+ people) groups of mountain bikers. Towards the end of the afternoon, we even had sun.
Good time. After a drink, though, when the three other people went out again, I decided to go back to Paris. No sense pushing it when you're tired. Anyway, my copy of Antonia Fraser's latest book, Love and Louis XIV, came in the mail so I got to read it on the train. I should put in a link to that but you can just google it; I'm tired. Antonia Fraser is my very favoritest historian.
Okay, babbling now. Tired. Bisous (kisses) to everyone.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
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1 comment:
That sounds lovely too! And not nearly as muddy or as strenuous.
How's the pottery going?
I was reminded by reading the jacket of the Antonia Fraser book that she is married to Harold Pinter. How weird is that?
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