Heather Bikes

Only one month in and already a recurring theme in my blog?

Well, it all started with some overpriced chinese food.

I started riding late because it had rained the night before and so it took a while for my tent to dry out.  I was feeling good and really liked seeing some of the same things that I had seen on my first bike trip 3 years ago.

I came into St-Raphaël around noon and stopped to have some Chinese food.  I should have walked right back out when I saw that the dumplings were 80 cents each, but I was hungry and hadn’t had Chinese food on the trip yet.

By the time I was leaving St. Tropez, around 3, I was feeling sick to my stomach.  I laid down on some grass but still didn’t feel better and decided to keep going to find a campground for the night.  The tourist bureau had told me that there were a lot of campgrounds towards Ramatuelle, so I headed in that direction.  I told myself I would stop at the first campsite I saw.

The first one I saw was ‘Camping a la ferme’ (on the farm), off a side road.  I took it, but didn’t know how far in it was.  After maybe 1.5 kilometers of riding without seeing any signs for camping, I turned around, cursing out the ‘camping a la ferme’ for not putting up signs like only my mom could have taught me how.

I kept riding, and was really feeling sick by this point.  I thought of all the places I would rather be, if only I was feeling healthy.  The only things that came to my mind –

‘prison?’ ‘NO!’ and

‘work? ‘NO!’

‘ok, well I guess I’m not feeling THAT bad, I can do this!’

A little farther up the road, I took a turn for a campground.  I rode until I saw a parking lot for the beach and a restaurant.  I dumped my bike in the sand and sat down on the porch.  The naked people playing ping-pong did not help my stomach feel better at all. 

The waitress came over and was really worried when she saw me.  She must have thought I had heat stroke and told someone else to bring me a wet towel.  They draped it over my head, but I kept saying it was my stomach.  Finally I had to go lie down in the sand, and after a few minutes I threw up.  I felt immediately better and after a couple minutes, decided to go try to find that camping. 

There weren’t any signs for it, so I walked along the beach.  It was really hard to push my bike through the sand and I was feeling really weak.

I finally found the reception area and went in to ask for a place to stay with my tent.  The woman at the desk said it was impossible because they only had bungalows for 130 euros a night.  I put my head down on the counter and started crying.  I told her that I had been sick on the beach, that I was completely exhausted and had thought that my day was finally over.  She apologized, and gave me a map for another campground.  I went back outside, but when I saw that my bike had fallen over, I just sat down on the ground and cried.

She came out soon after and said that they could let me stay in one of the bungalows for 20 euros a night since I was sick and on my bike.  I was so grateful.  A man came out to show me where to stay.  He led me to some bungalows, and then said that I could set up my tent inbetween two of them.  ‘If security bothers you, just tell them that the reception says its ok.’  I didn’t have the strenght to argue.  He left and I laid down on one of the bungalow’s porches, too weak to try to set up my tent.

One of the other women who was working at the desk drove up in a golf cart and said that they were going to let me stay in the bungalow.  She let me in and I was so grateful to get to sleep inside, in a real bed, with a shower, a refridgerator, and a toilet with a seat!!!  What luxury, indeed!

 

I got sick one more time that night and was feeling pretty bad. 

I bought a bunch of drinks, grateful to have the refridgerator.

The next morning, I was still feeling really weak and was rehearsing in my head how to ask, in french, if I could stay another day.  I went back to the reception, and Angela, the woman who I had spoken with the night before, asked me if I was feeling better.  I said I was, but was still feeling weak.  Maybe you should stay another day, she said.  I was sooooo happy.  I went back and slept most of the day.

I woke up today and was feeling a lot better.  I definitely needed to stay there for 2 nights and was so lucky to have found people who were so nice and accomodating.

Pamee is going to kill me for these tan lines!!!

One of the women who works there, Patricia, is coming to New York in December for Christmas and asked that I email her some addresses of Bed and Breakfasts for her and her family.  I can’t think of any myself, so if any of you know of a nice place to stay in New York, I would really like to help her out.