Adventures in Bike Trip Planning

 In which Roger and David get together for coffee at a restaurant at Place Ambroise Courtois to further plan for their traditional annual bike ride in France.

As you may remember, before covid, Roger, David, Gerard, and Tom would plan and execute a trip to an area of France where they would spend 5-6 days on their bicycles touring some scenic and interesting area of France.  They have visited such places as the Loire Valley, the Canal de Bourgogne, the Vendee, and the Canal du Midi.  You may also remember that they have all graduated to electric-assist bicycles.  Last year, David bought his own electric-assist bike and did some riding around the Lyon area. 

Various issues within the group prevented them from attempting their usual annual bike trip last year, but this year they decided to re-start the tradition.  Tom lives in Britain, so Roger, Gerard, and David began the planning and preparation of this year’s excursion.  Via emails and face-to-face discussions, they narrowed down the area for the trip to cycling in the Lac Leman [Lake Geneva] – Lac de Bourget - Lac d’Annecy area.  They will take the train, with bikes, from Lyon to near Geneva, then ride between lakes, and at least partially around the last two lakes.

Roger and David met Monday, April 24, at 11:00AM, at the restaurant L’Industrie  near where Roger and Dominique live.  David rode over on his bike, as did Roger, as David intended to do some riding after coffee.  Roger and David locked their bikes to stanchions that the City of Lyon provides for securing bicycles and took a table inside where they could see the bikes.  They laid out a draft itinerary, with potential overnight stops, and distances for each day.  Every few minutes they would glance out at the bikes across the street. 

Exterior of L'Industrie

Interior photo - bikes through window and across street

They had begun to finalize plans and determine what further research was needed, when about 11:30, David noticed that his bike was gone!

Rushing outside, they discovered that David’s lock cable had been neatly cut, with the thief having evidently ridden off.  They were both a bit perturbed, with Roger, who has had bikes stolen in Lyon before, even more upset than David.  They stood around and discussed for a while, and then David decided he might as well head back to the apartment and start looking into getting a new bike.  [Not much benefit to calling the police, as bike thefts are endemic, and David had no hope of retrieving his bike.]

When David arrived back at the apartment, Anna asked where the bike was.  After breaking the news that the bike was gone, and they were out about $1300, David began to research a replacement on Decathlon’s [a major, nationwide, athletic equipment supplier] website.  He found that the same bike was on sale for 100 euros less than he had originally paid.  So, David and Anna headed for Decathlon, about a 10-minute walk away.

And now – the story gets REALLY interesting….