Bike ride in the country-side and Fontainebleau

19th April  4pm local time.
I'm lying out in the back yard on the trampoline in the hot sun. It must be mid 20's still, was a bit warmer an hour or so ago, delicious. I gather it isn't quite like this at home, sorry about that, but I'm luxuriating in warmth.

Had a quiet couple of days, today we went to the charity shop and got some crockery and cutlery etc for our campervan. 12 euro for 6 dinner plates, 6 bread and butter plates, 4 bowls, 3 glasses, 4 knife, fork, spoon sets and some teaspoons, 3 serving dishes, 2 large bowls, a sheet, a blanket and a duvet. Not bad I say, and all in good nick. We haven't got our campervan yet, understandably need the money to go through first, but we are hoping that should be imminent. We have insurance all signed up, so we just need to wait for the money to go through and then we can have the van. The log book will take a few more days but we can go away and come back when that is ready before heading off into the sunset.
It isn't that it isn't pleasant here, far from it, Jackie and Nick are very warm and accommodating hosts but I feel uncomfortable being here for so long, in their faces, and also unable to do much without their help.
Yesterday I took it upon myself to go for a long bike ride in the morning while everyone else was getting organised. It was awesome. I took a map (just the general idea, not a road map as such) and just headed off. The map was accurate enough to give me "commune" names, and road numbers so I had a rough idea of where I was and where I was headed. I started at Milly and biked south-west to Oncy-sur-Ecole (2.8km) mainly past little houses, semi-suburban. Then a further 4.7km south to Tousson another quiet, sleepy little rural village surrounded by ploughed fields, green wheat/oat fields and more yellow paddocks.

Fields near Tusson.

A tree with a bad haircut. They prune very severely here
but the grown trees do look good, if somewhat severe.

From Tusson I headed due east 8.8kms through more agricultural land and then later, towards Acheres-la-Foret, forest. There were some reasonable climbs through-out the ride, none particularly steep, but some long and tiring. From Acheres-la-foret I turned due north and biked through forest along the D64 which is a reasonably narrow dual carriage way which for quite some distance shadows the A6 E15 which is a six lane motorway racing towards Paris. At times the 2 crossed, either us under or over the other. Though very close, at times (about 50 metres) apart, the trees of the forest separating the two roads made the bike ride feel quite rural/foresty and very pleasant. It was a 7.8km ascent to Arbonne-la-foret before the final 8.1 km home.

32.2 kms in all, a very rewarding excursion indeed. Good for the soul.

More scenes
from the bike ride.

In the afternoon we all went over to Fontainebleau a few villages away, the nearest place for a swim.The pool has been re-decorated, it is pretty simple considering the number of people it serves as mostof the community pools around have been closed due to old age and the expense of up-keep. The girls, and Jackie and Elena had a lovely swim while Di and I sat and watched from a great distance (on-lookers have a designated space but down one end of the complex so we couldn't see most of what was going on. I went for a quick stroll around the town and looked at grand homes. I missed the Chateau though, we will have to go another time while we wait for our van's log book.

Hilary at the pool, you must wear a cap (everyone).

A selection of Fontainebleau houses.