Cancon,
exploring cities,
france,
french lifestyle
Bicycling in Lot-et-Garonne
Saturday, January 04, 2014
Staying fit in France. Ha, it almost sounds like an oxymoron right? France: known for bread, cheese, and wine, and I'm suppose to stay fit? Well, I've been through my share of overseas weight gain, and let me tell you if you think the Freshman 15 is bad, the Traveling 25 is worse. My junior year of college I studied abroad in Rome for 6 months, and now that I'm on my second round living in Europe I have learned that you can avoid them all you want, but scales do exist. So here's what Mat and I have been doing on the weekends when we visit his parents, including today.
Go ahead and laugh. Really, because I do every time I put this outfit on. Not only are you required to wear a helmet here, you must wear these bright shiny and overly fashionable vests. To top it all off we sported the highly sexy snow hats as well. We are both pretty dorky by nature, so it's somewhat enjoyable.
Okay let's start the route. Being that Lot-et-Garonne is the countryside, the roads are small, winding, and somewhat dangerous, but it's SO MUCH FUN, and so frickin' hard. There's always a time where one of us is too tired, and being that we're equally as stubborn we refuse to say it until one of us turns around and sees the other walking the bike up the hill. Regardless though, it's unlike any workout I've ever done before. I grew up in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey and both towns were more like cliché suburbia not the countryside, so this is a beyond beautiful bike ride for me. Also--I don't recommend riding while taking an iPhone video.
This right here is in Cancon, where all of the Koki nut trees are (shockingly this tiny little village is the second biggest producer of hazelnuts in the world). We lucked out a lot today. The weather this morning was perfect. You'll see in the pictures though that as we went along the clouds got viscously darker, and dork and dorkette got caught in the rain. I'm sure we weren't the only ones, there are so many people here that ride bikes. It's not exactly the Tour de France, but I'd say it's great practice. Then again, I'm no Lance Armstrong so I don't know (maybe he wouldn't either, ha).
This is something that gets me every time. If you look straight back toward the hill you'll see a house. Now although we're in real life Farmville, the homes here aren't that far apart. This person, however, has tried his or her hardest to be absolutely away from any sort of civilization. I'm sure Mat would be perfectly content leaving me here when I PMS.
For whatever reason the grass on the route to Beaugas looks like Ireland. I'm thinking they're either using holy water, or their bill is astronomical. I haven't biked this in the summer, but I can only imagine what it would look like. Anyone who is touring the area couldn't choose a better thing to do than ride a bike around here. Sitting in a car just won't do it justice. It's not just the view it's the smells, the breeze, and the exhilarating feeling when you speed down the steep hills. I really love it. It might be the first time in my life that working out doesn't feel like work.
As I near the end of my route I leave you with my favorite house in Cancon. This my friends, is what I call the Mustache Maison. The more you look at it the funnier it gets.
