Landed yesterday at noon in Lyon, and to my great relief the luggage conveyor spit my bicycle out fifteen minutes later, undamaged by all the shuttling about. I had the Michael Scott of the TSA help me in Portland; after sharing with him all my anxieties about the bike getting through inspection okay, he rushed up to me minutes after I surrendered my prize with a worried look and said, "We lost your bike. Just kidding! But it did get a little messed up through inspection. Kidding again!" Pretty much set the tone for my anxiety level for the flights. Really, that guy was hysterical.
Funny too how quickly one can become supertitious when feeling out of control. I'm sure all the luggage arrived and none of the flight arrangements got messed up only because I held my breath properly the entire time.
I need a warmup ride and my host Genenviéve suggested Vienne, a well-restored Roman town. I'm staying in a lovely 16th century chateau with hand-built stone walls, massive two-foot support beams control-burned and hand-hewn from single timbers, a clay tile roof, beautiful grounds.... In the US this might qualify as one of the oldest buildings in the country, definitely listed in the National Historic Register. Here, it's a pup, just a private residence not worth a mention. I love Europe.
If this or future posts don't come through right, I blame the perplexing French keyboard, which was designed, I believe, to hide the correct keys from all good-hearted people. Honestly, why would they stick the Q where the A is supposed to be; there's no way the French language uses Q more than A. And is a question mark really used more often than the letter C? I haven't even found the delete key yet and I'm afraid to keep looking.
