Postcards from France

Last year I told John I'd write a couple of articles under the banner Postcards from France but he seemed to think that might be a bit spicy - too bad - we're back in France and it's what you're getting anyway.

If you're riding a bike in France and the traffic light turns red then ride around the cars to the light because there's a 5 meter zone for bicycles at the front and you get your own traffic light low on the pole so you don't get a crick in your neck looking up at the big one. Stops bikes getting stuck between cars all over the place and cars will actually move over to make it easy for you to get to the front!

In urban areas the postman delivers your mail on an official yellow LaPoste electric bike which is really cool. Good way for the postman to stay in shape too,

On the French roads there are two highway signs that may cause you some confusion "Toutes  Directions" and "Autres Directions" which basically translate as "Somewhere" and "Elsewhere". Ask anyone and they will tell you clearly what is meant but don't ask anyone else or the clarity will fade. These signs have been a source of much amusement for natives and tourists alike and many differing opinions have been published. Unfortunately GPS navigation systems have made them meaningless - as if they weren't already - but fear not they still exist and remain a great conversation starter. Or, you can talk to your cars' navigation system but it's not as much fun. 

Au-revoir

Allan Broadribb 

Check out my favorite ride in France 

or my cycling blog Two Tired Tales

Sears Craftsman Homes

Time check - it's 100 years ago, 1923. The biggest community in the area, Leesburg (pop: 2500), next Wildwood (pop: 800). Other communities like Lady Lake, Fruitland Park, Oxford and Weirsdale were smaller but all had railroad depots and a post office.

People also had Sears catalogues to order stuff shipped by post or rail. Probably not as quick as Amazon but interestingly, in addition to run of the mill household items, you could also buy your house from Sears (pow! - take that Amazon) in kit form and it would arrive on a railroad flat car complete with assembly instructions (shades of Ikea).

Craftsman Homes in Coleman and Wildwood

The Sears Craftsman Ready-Cut House package, first offered about 1912, included plans, specifications, and detailed assembly instructions, along with pre-cut and factory-fitted lumber which was stamped with the Sears name and numbered on the ends to correspond to the floor plans. One order included everything - nails and screws, paint and roof shingles, windows and doors, woodwork, staircases, mantelpieces and even the kitchen sink. Sears also provided finance making it easy for over 75000 American families to buy a home.

A popular small home you could buy for less than $1,000 was "The Crafton" Like The Villages they gave their many designs different names.

As you ride your bike around the older areas of our local communities it is easy to recognize Sears Craftsman homes if they haven't been overly modified. The architecture is typified by a front porch with a roof supported by heavy wooden tapered columns on brick piers.

Tour de France - go see it.

So, a few years ago in France - 2018 to be precise - we're in Tain l'Hermitage. I lean my bike against the wall of the bike store across the street from our apartment and wander in to borrow a pump. Coming out I see a wiry old (probably my age!) guy looking at my bike, he's seen the "I support Lance Armstrong" sticker and says he kinda liked him too. I tell him I'm thinking of riding Alpe d'Huez and Croix de Fer for a 3,000m day. He said that would be hard but the toughest climb he'd ever had was the Col de la Bonnette in the Tour. "In the Tour?", I say. He tells me he rode in the TDF twice in the 1970's which was before teams had luxury buses and only the stars stayed in hotels while the rest showered and slept on cots in school gyms. I enjoy our chat, return the pump and the store owner tells me the guy still rides and like me they enjoy his stories. I haven't seen him since, wish I could remember his name, I'd like to hear more and maybe he'd ride with me.

Well the Tour is on TV right now if you want to see the race. But there's so much more that you won't see.

YOU WON'T SEE THE CARAVAN

It is one of the biggest parts of the Tour. Before every stage the caravan of sponsors floats will drive the course from start to finish. On a long stage it'll stretch more than 10 kilometers and by the end of the Tour they'll have thrown over 15 million items to the roadside fans - hats, t-shirts, musettes, key chains, cakes, water, candy, you name it. I still wear my Festina hat from 2015 while riding.

YOU WON'T SEE THE TEAMS ARRIVE FOR THE START

This'll happen after the caravan has passed. The start town center is closed off. There's tent studios set up for the media, journalists with their cameras and vans, a band thumping out music, souvenir stands, food trucks and thousands of fans but no riders. Then close to a mile of 22 team buses each followed by 6 cars covered with bicycles will arrive. Amazingly the buses are parked so the public can see the riders sign in and prepare for the days racing. Many riders will stop for selfies with fans on their way to the start area - so cool.

Jocelyne and I were fortunate enough to see the Tour in 2015 and it was fantastic. We went with Pyrenees Multisport. Ian and Julie Wright, two Brits, will transport you to and from Toulouse airport and you'll stay in their large house where they'll serve you cyclist sized meals for breakfast and supper every day. You'll have seven days of great cycling in the Pyrenees and experience the Tour de France. It'll cost you about $1600 including a carbon bike - just take your clothes and Garmin.

IF YOU DON'T GO YOU WON'T STAND ON A MOUNTAIN eating hamburgers and hotdogs and know that the riders are coming because you can hear and see the helicopters below you!

Of course there are other tours you can take. I'm not paid to promote Pyrenees Multisport and they have had no input or knowledge of this article. It's just one reasonably priced option which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Coffee - my not so humble opinion

Club rides are great. I love destinations like cemeteries and gas stations or sometimes a nice tree to pee behind and a bottle of Gatorade. Well maybe it's not that bad but compared to a decent cup of coffee and a comfortable chair it's first runner up.

So here is my non comprehensive list of places I enjoy stopping for coffee which does not include gas stations or franchises like Starbucks, Panera Bread or Dunkin.

The Garden at B D Beans

Best Coffee House - B D Beans in Belleview. Sandwiched between a gas station and KFC this would be on my list of places least likely to survive providing it hadn't been there for nearly 25 years. An independent coffee shop in an old house where the coffee is good, the service is excellent, and you can sit outside in the garden at a table which even has a table cloth. But not just coffee, plenty of pastries and breakfast too.

Nephew Jacques in a comfortable chair at Sawgrass Grove

Most Comfortable Coffee - Golden Hills Coffee Roasters at Sawgrass Grove on Meggison Road. A decent latte and a really comfortable chair outside that I wouldn't be allowed to sit on at home in my cycling gear!

Best club ride coffee - The Standard Coffee Lounge in Brownwood has good coffee and a huge patio area with tables and chairs ideal for larger groups where not everyone is buying. Great for an end of ride social.

On a Sunnyside ride try Leesburg Library Coffee shop. It's Starbucks based and serves decent coffee. The best part is the Durand Garden across Main Street where there are tables and chairs and fountains to deaden traffic noise for a zen moment. Simply a pleasant relaxing spot.

Lunch at Coffee n' Cream - had a beer this time!

Micanopy - If you tour out of town from time to time then I'd recommend Coffee n' Cream in Micanopy for coffee and a light lunch. Pretty basic until you chat to the owner who was born and raised there and told me her parents never let her go "downtown" on the weekends because of the fights in the local saloon! An interesting town to visit, it's where they made the movie Doc Hollywood.

Latte art at Axum in Winter Garden

Winter Garden - convenient for riding in the Clermont Hills - has the second best coffee in Florida at the Axum Coffee Shop and the best latte art I've seen. Ask for a ceramic cup to see the latte art - they'll try to serve you coffee in a disposable cup when they're busy but tell them you rode 50 miles for their coffee and you'll get a real cup. Personally I try to avoid drinking good coffee out of a cardboard cup - yes I'm a coffee snob.

Mazzaro's Italian Market in St. Petersburg makes the best coffee I know of. I've bought their beans and made it at home but it's just not the same. Perhaps it's their coffee bar next to the pastry counter. The pâtissier told me they had 60 different pastries on the counter but he can make about 150, so you have to go back - a few times. Unfortunately it's not a good place to go on a bike as there is no secure place for it - and you'd need to leave it because what started as a small corner store has now expanded into an Italian theme park - perhaps I exaggerate.

Coffee at Home - I have a Breville Barista Espresso machine. I buy my roasted espresso beans wholesale from the Caracolillo Coffee Mill in Tampa. Fresh roasted delivered overnight and still much cheaper than anything decent you can buy locally. If you're in their area stop by and smell the beans roasting - aaaah! This family business founded by Anastasio Fernandez, a Spanish immigrant, has been roasting beans since 1936. Ask for a quick tour and you'll be shown their grandfathers original roasting machines still being used. And the aroma of freshly roasting coffee beans is to live for.

Please note, I have not received a board appointment or shares in any of these businesses nor even a free coffee as compensation for their mention in this article. It's just my not so humble opinion.

Eureka Lock

It's early April and Ken Nevers and I are riding up to Eureka to see if we can find the Eureka lock which had been constructed in the late 60s before Nixon shut down the Cross Florida Barge Canal construction in 1971. We started at the Silver Springs parking lot and made our way north to Anthony to see what we could of Jumbolair, the flying community where John Travolta lives and used to park his Boeing 707. Well, we saw an impressive gate and there being no bell to ring, not much else. I'll phone ahead next time.

We ride through, Anthony, then Ft McCoy then through Eureka to its 60 foot high, half mile long bridge over the Oklawaha river which was supposed to fill the non existent lake below. Just after the bridge we hang a right u-turn along the old road back to Eureka. Now we're on the bottom of the lake passing under the bridge where we see wooden barriers high on the support columns to protect them from the barges. We don't see a lock but a massive pier sructure indicates it is close by.

I look around and see a locked gate and Ken wheeling his bike through a gap to one side. Clearly the gate is there to prevent automobile access not bicycles. Soon after we see a sign that "trespassers may be reprimanded". Facing a reprimand we continue to ride up a winding gravel trail and see the lock gates and finally the lock. Wow - it's huge - not the Grand Canyon but nevertheless, here in the middle of nowhere - oops - I mean Florida, is the Eureka lock, complete except for water, a huge concrete structure with no purpose. Quite amazing!

It had crossed my mind if the canal had been completed it could have been used as a recreational waterway but it's clearly too expensive to operate and maintain such a huge structure for recreational purposes.

Over to the east of the lock is the dam and a spillway which would have controlled the level of the lake. The west end of the dam was never completed and it is where the Ocklawaha river continues to flow and is popular with anglers and canoers.

We determined this to be an outstanding ride then hopped on our bikes and rode back to Silver Springs.

Click here for Strava route information 

Allan Broadribb