Aug 18/19 - BBC World news

somehow I lost a day. My blog was out of synch. Does it matter ? Not much more happened yesterday beyond that already blogged-about.

We do get English-speaking TV here ... BBC world news. There's nothing wrong with BBC World News, but it does repeat itself. Do I want to know about Anne Hathaway in a new movie ? It was interesting the first time, curious the second time, mind numbing the third time ... but it goes on !

I went for a ride by myself, just riding wherever, out past Versailles and then at 15.something kms, hitting "return to start" and heading back. it's great not having to worry about getting lost. I ended my ride with a train behind me, picking up a few riders who had no idea how to get back, all thankful that someone would know the way.

Hamid had set out from Shab's cousin's house, heading for the Novotel. I'd sent him an email that we were late getting up and wouldn't catch him, but as it happened, we were driving down the road from the hotel and there he was. It had taken him two hours to get here with all the construction and he decided to leave his bike and take the train back. We followed his GPS and took the better part of an hour to do the 15 minute drive to the train station ... no wonder he was getting lost ! Being late for lunch, we ended up back at the Novotel and had a great lunch -- steak tartare, patates frites (Sara reminded me that they're not called French Fries in France), salad and Heineken (for me), Rose wine for Sandy. I know that there should be an accent on Rose ...

Renato and Bob are coming over to meet us for dinner. I'm not sure where we'll go but we'd like to get away from the hotel. I also need to find an ATM somewhere.

Today was supposed to have been our day to go to Versailles, but that didn't happen. We did not get up until 9:30, barely making the 10am close of the breakfast buffet. Tomorrow I have the bike check at 11am then who knows what later on ... Sunday is the ride start, but not until 9pm. Time is flying by, as I expected it would.

------

Talk about adventures -- we were supposed to meet Bob & Renato for dinner so we headed downstairs just before 6pm. The lobby was crowded and all chairs were taken, so we sat just to the side in the lobby bar, soon joined by Peter Dusel and his SAG friend Marcia. We chatted until about 6:30, at which point Peter went upstairs for a shower. Marcia followed as well, but then came back down and sat with us. Close to 7pm I went upstairs, wondering what had happened and wanting to check the Facebook entry to see where the disconnect had happened.

I sent an email to Bob and Renato, once I saw that the FB entry talked about getting together for dinner "tomorrow", but the entry was made yesterday. I responded today, assuming that they were suggesting today for the get-together, but somehow we'd gotten mixed up.

Sandy wasn't keen on going into town, but I prevailed. I didn't want to eat at the Novotel again. We found our way downtown St. Quentin en Yvelines, circled around and around, getting stuck in little streets in the university, got out of there and ended up parking on the main drag. We walked down the road and found the hotel where Hamid will be staying tomorrow ... then I saw that Bob had responded with his blackberry that they were back at their place and would meet us. Long story short, they drove downtown, found us at the Hotel Mercure and we walked up the road and found another group of Ontario Cyclists -- Henk, Vaune, Fred -- others from Ontario + others from England ... sat down with them and had an excellent dinner.

Bob, Renato & Matthew had been at the hotel, had not seen us in the lobby, had knocked on several doors etc. etc. -- had arrived on their bikes ... and had then ridden to their rental house.

Getting back to the hotel was even more of an adventure. In the dark all the landmarks had disappeared, of course, and the NAV in the car was useless. It had Guyancourt -- the town where the hotel is located -- but not the street. Around and around, finally heading towards Versailles on the highway, recognizing where I'd biked, heading back and then finding the hotel. Now that I think of it, Guyancourt, which is a fairly sizable town, only had a dozen streets listed. I give up ... I'll carry the bike Garmin the next time. It's got an up-to-date database.

Anyway ... Onward we go !