2019 Bike Ride - Day 1: Chemillé to Vendôme

Wind. Lots of it and all day long. A constant wind from the north- northeast, with blustery gusts, according to the weather report, of 50 km/hr. And of course my route today was to the northeast, so I had a headwind throughout the entire day's ride. So it was a slow and tiring ride for my first day, and I was glad to arrive at my destination, Vendôme.

Last year I wrote that it was uncanny how so often just at the time I rode into a town, the church bells chimed the hour. Well here I am, not even an hour into the first day of this year's ride and just as I ride into Les Hermites, the first town I am riding through, the church bells strike midday. Definitely uncanny.

Open fields all around

Here's looking at you...

I'm riding through wide open spaces with wheat and corn fields on either side stretching to the horizon. It's all been harvested and ploughed, ready for the next season. I'm very exposed and as I mentioned the winds are relentless. A small car, a Fiat Panda, passes me. As it passes I can't help noticing that on the passenger seat is a bale of hay. Not the sort of thing you'd be expecting, but perhaps in this region you shouldn't be surprised by this sort of thing.

In Vendôme I'm staying in the Auberge de Jeunesse, the youth hostel. It's a little out of town and in a decidedly seedy neighborhood. Not the sort of area you'd normally be coming to as a tourist. There's abandoned buildings with broken windows and signs saying "danger, asbestos". There's graffiti everywhere, which I have to admit is rather well done and adds a bit of welcome colour to the otherwise drab ambience.

The hostel is actually more than what I would consider a normal youth hostel. True to its name, it's full of young people. But these people are living here on a longer term basis. The place caters for young people who are on work experience assignments and are in vocational training. They are overwhelmingly male and from obviously not privileged backgrounds. I've decided to have dinner here (I am too tired to venture back into town tonight) and it's an interesting experience. The canteen opens at 19:00 and closes again 45 minutes later. When I arrive at 19:15 the place is already mostly full, with many large groups eating together. There's a couple of older people, but I'd say the average age is probably closer to 17 or 18. By 19:30 the place is almost empty again. Clearly people are not here for a leisurely dinner, just to get fed.

I'm sitting at a table by myself and halfway through my meal (three courses plus wine, this might be a canteen but we are in France after all) another older guy, who I've spotted at the cashier with a tray loaded with pieces of bread, joins me. He's from Brittany and is here working with the young people. He's got a strong accent and speaks rapidly and in odd sentences and I can only catch a small fraction of what he's saying; he speaks so quickly, moving around constantly as he talks. He keeps repeating himself and asks me at least three times where I'm from and whether I'm riding a bike. He volunteers that there was a guy here last week with a backpack and a stick and he was walking on the Chemin de Compostelle. He says it like it was a completely new concept to him, which is a little odd given that France is a country where long distance walking "Randonner' is actually a pretty common thing and is quite popular and well established. And this type of hostel is exactly the sort of place you would find walkers.

Tomorrow I'll have breakfast in the same canteen; I suppose it will be a rushed affair as well.

Vendôme - at the Loir with a bit of colour