Yesterday we stopped in Arcis sur Aube in the Champage Ardennes region, riding through a string of little villages with half timbered cottages and farm buildings.
Rural France isn’t the place to set off without a good stash of food in your panniers. So two days running now we’ve done just that and ridden four hours before finding anywhere open. Being a big bloke and riding a big heavy bicycle you burn through the calories. I really struggle when I’m low on food, and poor old Robin got the grumpy side of me yesterday (wrong really, especially as was offering some Nuttella to see us through). Anyway, we happened upon a mushroom festival just in the nick of time that offered some food relief and a little entertainment with a powerpoint mushroom slide show.
When we planned this little adventure I hadn’t considered the shorter days of September and October being a problem. But after riding five hours or so and stopping once or twice the daylight left to set up camp, shower, eat and then do a print run starts to run a little short. So a few times I’ve found the light going and finishing the print in semi darkness.
Yesterday in Arcis sur Aube we tried a new strategy. We got up early and tried printing as it got light (rather than as it gets dark). It meant that the Dutch on the campsite got the odd sight of a bloke with a printing press on a bicycle in action as they went for showers. ‘Shpecial’ was the word one or two used of the bike in print mode. I encountered a new problem that the water based ink, got a bit wet and watered down in the dampness of the morning, and the oil based ink was a bit blobby in the cold. Still, we persevered and printed a card by Louise Cunningham, an illustrator friend from Centrespace in Bristol. Very nice it is too and the postcards will be winging their way courtesy of La Poste today.
Here are a few images struggling with the light. Also Robin and I riding around the huge cycle path circling Lac Der-Chantecoq yesterday a nice 15km part of the day.
Comments