...After a long absence...

... of almost ten years, Micro is back on the work trail. Well, not quite the same as in 2000, but we've moved house since then. Normally the route from home to the nearest-but-one station goes up a big hill then down another, so not really praticable on a three-speed folder. So, decided to go to a station a little further down the same line, but on a route which circumvents the big hill. Four kilometres distance, roughly. Then it's a train almost direct to Saint-Lazare, before two trains out to the station closest to the office. Except of course the two day strike which had forced me to work at home Wednesday & Thursday this week had gone into a third day on the last leg of the journey. So I stayed on the train to Versailles & cycled between the two stations there, nominally a twenty minute walk but cycled it in seven or eight minutes. Got overtaken by a guy on a Brompton for my pains.
No Versailles crossing on the return leg, trains synchronised perfectly and at Saint-Lazare waited for the direct non-stop train to my station. Even made it home in time before the bread shop shut !

*** Hundred miles for the year ***

Cresswell gets a run out in the country

The weather forecast for the Easter weekend was not particularly suitable for cycling, the "big bike" stayed at home in the garage whilst the family packed the car for a long (three day) weekend in the country, in the Eure-et-Loir département just south of the cathedral city of Chartres. There was just enough room amidst the bags & kids toys for the Micro, folded of course.

Saturday and Sunday were lousy, not the best time to venture out on two wheels. Monday, however, dawned sunny but fresh, so the lure of the open road took over and Micro was duly unfolded. In total Micro did just over twenty kilometers, absolutely nothing to report, behaved perfectly, no creaking seatpost, no punctures, the tyres stayed put on the rims and all was well in the world. Only one thing marred the whole exercise; set off without a real digital camera, so the following picture was taken with a JVC camcorder in photo mode, so indifferent quality.

In the Beauce, near the village of Illiers Combray, made famous by Marcel Proust