(Pat and I are disputing this photo but I believe it was taken by myself from an outdoor bistro in Sens. It's in dispute because it was in with photos from Ville Neuf, where the people from L'Ermitage lived. Either way, there will be more to come in the way of photos)Ce'va? Oui, et tu? Ok, well, that is pretty much the extent of my French. Of course there's 'au voir', bien, and mairde but by the time I arrived in France, the people we hung out with spoke pretty good broken English.
Anyway, transportation proved to be somewhat of a problem for us after a couple of weeks. The only people we knew with vehicles were of course the people of L'Ermitage. And getting in touch with them and setting up a day to be transported to Sens was quite difficult as they were always busy with this or that. But we did manage to kidnap the manager, Pierre, a couple of times and get his vehicle so we could run and get much needed supplies for the kids and the house.
On one of those trips, Pat and I decided that it was time we come up with our own sort of transportation which of course turned out to be bikes. A car just wasn't a logical expense at that time as we figured we would only use it for a short time anyway and the one that was lined up, well, that deal fell through for some reason. Money I believe was the big issue.
Sens was about 20 minutes from where we lived, (I may have said it was further in past posts and for that I apologize but as I've said, some details are very foggy. That being one of them I guess.) so we figured that we would have no problem biking to get the littler things that we would need. Of course with the purchase of our $80/each bicycles, we had to buy the child seats with helmets for the back so we could hoist our kids around on those days that we wanted to take a leisurely ride. Done! I was amazed at all the bikers in France, there were almost as many as there were cars and they were crazier than some of the drivers! But after I saw the price of gas, well, I understood.
We got the bikes home and Pat proceeded to put them together with the cheap wrench that was packaged with them and voila! We were in business. All the other minor details are lost on me such as getting air in the tires and such but somehow, we were ready to take a bike trip.
I would have to say that this period in our life was probably the only time that we actually made schedules days ahead of time and stuck to them. We had nothing better to do but sit around and play in the yard and walk in the woods. Nobody worked, we all holed up in that house and made due.
Anyway, a few days after we purchased the bikes, we had decided that we would take a day to go tour Sens, get some photos, pick up a few little things, and show the girls some really cool stuff. So the journey began.
We packed up a back-pack with little snacks and sippee-cups, diapers, camera, and went right around nap time for our younger one thinking that perhaps she would fall asleep on the way. She was momma's girl so I put her on the back of my bike knowing full well that the older one and Pat had that 'adventurous' streak to them and Pat would make her bike ride much more worth while.
We were off. Down the hill, through Marsengy and across a main road onto a back road that led to a trail that followed the Yonne River. What a beautiful trip it was through the woods, it was a dirt trail so of course Pat was baa-haaing over the bumps and our older daughter was in her glee. (they're mountain bikes) So much to take in and thinking that we would venture this way again knowing full well that this is exactly the sort of thing that both Pat and myself love about the outdoors and the country. Peace, beauty, and ruggedness.
Our younger daughter was perfectly quiet and would giggle here and there when I would attempt to go flying over a bump at the pace of an old woman but all the same, she loved it. She never did fall asleep either.
We rode for what seemed like an hour on this trail and came to an area with a bridge over the river, I had to stop to take in the sight, and on the other side of that bridge was Sens. Pat and I were so excited about this day, our first day not being on anyone else's schedule and an opportunity to do what we do best, poke around and ooh and ahh over anything and everything.
We passed the bridge, and entered into Sens. Not having a clue what we should do with all this time we had, we simply rode around for a bit and took in the sites. God, what a beautiful little city that is. Quaint yet larger than life. I cannot do it justice with my words or my memories, just know that it took my breath away.
Finally, we had decided that we would park the bikes and hoof it for awhile. Cobblestone roads, alleys and narrow too. We found an alley to rest our bikes in and guess what, my little darling daughter, the younger one, began to cry. Thinking that she was just upset that the bike ride had come to an end and would be ok, we proceeded to lock up the bikes and shake our legs out, took the girls out of their seats and set them down.
As I write this, I am closing my eyes, shaking my head because of that fateful day and there would be more to follow this with our youngun! Anyway, we set the girls down and our 3 year old was ready to go explore but the 1 1/2 year old, hell no, she stood with her arms up and screamed. At the top of her lungs. She wanted nothing to do with our day of freedom.
All told, Pat and I didn't get to see too much of Sens. We offered up suckers, pastries, juice, whatever we could think of and NOTHING satisfied our little darling. We had maybe an hour and I only got to see that alley, a couple of restaurants, and churches from afar before we decided that we were tired of all the screaming and fighting and all the rude looks. It was time to head home.
I almost cried I was so heartbroken and angry. My frustration was not with my daughter but with the realization that we needed a babysitter, a day to ourselves to spend some time doing what we liked knowing that that just was not going to be. So, we saddled up the bikes while passerbys ogled us and sneered at our daughter. I simply wanted to punch them and tell them to quit staring because she was just tired but of course, refrained.
One last look back as we headed back on the trail from the bridge at the little City of Sens and we were on our way back home. And, as luck would have it, my little girl fell asleep within 10 minutes of the start of the journey back home. It was so tempting to turn back but we didn't because both Pat and I were exhausted and frustrated from the battle that ensued. So we took our time getting back home pretty disappointed with a day that we had been looking forward to for about a month but at least we can say that we got to see Sens...from a distance.
We still have those two bikes in our garage. We only just recently disposed of the baby seats a few years ago as we had our other two children. And of course we still have that daughter. hehe. She proved to make our France experience quite the rollercoaster ride in more ways than just the flight and the bike trip. And to this day is still very moody, headstrong, and smart as a whip. She is now 14, almost 15, a straight A-student, a serious Gopher hockey fan, and has turned into quite a beauty and loves to hear about how she acted at that age. Perhaps it's because not much has changed, it is now in the form of I say it like it is, know-it all fashion.
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