big news

first major injury goes to shane!!!!!!!we suspect a broken toe or two as he jumped off the top bunk of the bed this morning in his bare feet.they have been taped together as is only solution we have and need to ride over to italy today.will say more about actualy trip later but for now were off!!!!

been a long time

ok so the first flat tyre goes to me.....bottom of some hill in nice at the harbour i leave my bike with shane for like 2 minutes and when i get back the tyre is completely flat and messed up so yay its all ok now after re-learning how to fix a puncture at the hostel(u can tell how many i used to have).
weather wise we unfortunately managed to get wet.....very wet the region has just had the worst downpours of the last year and happened to be when we were both having really bad days so great fun.on thew plus side however the list of people that we are meeting is increasing and they all seem to be quite friendly no matter how weird they are(note:if a french candadian man is in your room dont turn the light on he might be as uncourteous as ours and spread eagle on top of the sheets naked, not a pretty site after a bottle of wine.....)but on a french not i havent actually had a conversation with any french people who werent selling me somthing yet howevere there seems to be an ubundance of french canadians all over the place they are a bit interesting to say the least i mean speaking french one minute the switching back to english the next........so odd.oh a stereotype has been met we met some sweedish girls in sete and one was blonde with big boobies hehe lol.waiting untill italy to find the short stumpy man with a thin moustash throwing a pizza in the air saying"eh tony".
we have met an interesting truck driver though.he has been driving trucks from spain for god only knows how long and now he decided to cycle to turkey.....i mean wtf would u think it?and he smokes but he does keep going......oh and next year he want to do turkey to china??????u do meet some dont you...
oh and if you ever go to nimes stay at the youth hostel as its in the rich part of town out of the way they can keep the bar open untill late and after a few beers and some table tennis in the rain me and shane started our little party piece of makign a couple of roses which turned into a master class for some others and produced free drinks for the both of us as well as conversation with some rather interesting german sisters.(enough said)oh and check out there world map on the wall they have photos of people they liked up on there where they have come from.and of course you know who have made it onto there representing norfolk...booyeah....
the ride itself has become very intersting now as we have left flat ground for the hills of sotuhern france and believe me when i tell you they are hills.but just looking at the mountains a little way off makes me glup hard and thats not just the stale bread in the hostels.
drinking from a bowl has never been something promoted in england its bad manners isnt it???here however if u get a cup or a glass they give you funny looks.....strange isnt it?
and just so i know doesn anybody think that me and shane sound anything like australian because everyone we meet(bar the younger german sister who though we were irish???)seems to think that we are australian and when we tell them we are englishg they become very shocked. is it just me or are people very bad at accents.......
oh new purchase:holey seat!!!!!going to put it on today later when the hostel re-opens and try it out hopefully should be better than the one that i already have.
and on a final note about france the signposts are awful as only after you finally ask all the people in site which way you are/should be going towards the hostel or whatever and you start on what you believe is the right road do you see a sign post.surely they should let us know by sign first and if we really cant see it then we ask but must be just another thing like the bowls of cappucino......oh and abstarctly all condom machines are on the outside walls at pharmacies surely that is more embarressing for the poor sole who just needs the odd one making him/her do it in public so that everyone knows what they are doing rather than the smirking store clerck in england and the nosy old lady giving you scorneful looks as she peers around your shoulder to tut at you ear making sure you know of her disapprovement at the younger generation?????
anyways two rather attractive girls have just sat down next to us both on either side in swim suits so off to do my duty to god and the queen......thats what networking is about right?????
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sete

ok we are here in sete just to the southwest of montpellier on a rest day.and trust me we need it.after finding the canal au midi from direction of a slightly large man in toulouse who said it is the best route and we could do it in 3 days....but dont be mislead by french opptunism the canal although following between the major road and the motorway does have a considerable amount more ground to cover.we ended up doing another 60 mile day to get to a place only 40 miles down the road from us!!!!now do you see what i mean.oh and before this we did manage to meet a couple of australian girls in the room next to us who are living in bath working in private schools as assistants( we cant seem to figure it out but all the girls we meet seem to be linked to the private sector somehow.....daddys credit card ahem.....)they were somewhat interesting with their take on travelling as they had brought a coffee perculator and always had frothy lattes in the morning.......i suppose it beats our hot chocolate in a tent but we think ours is more fun.oh and for them to find out that the hostel doesnt have wifi was such a culture shock as they had brought their laptop with them.....they should see this so hello girls(mr fish is waving).also dont leave a city on a bank holiday nothing is open at all as we found out to our dismay, and for some reason packet pasta just doesnt quite fill you up as much as you would hope it to.....but thznk god for the campsite owner who after telling us to move the tent in case a camper van wanted to come through :& he then redeemed himself by making us some freash bread and strage gingery but not muffins that went down a treat.
note: if you are going to carcassonne to stay in the hostel dont be fooled by the big castle into thinking it would be all historic and that u go up there and its full of shops and food halls.....as well as the hostel and let me tell you on small winding streets bikes with panniers arent that accomodating and whilst on the subject of panniers shane has now broken his one as well...one all but it has been fixed through cunning and learning that knifes should all have safety locks and tie wraps.so no problem lols.oh yeah back to carcassonne in the hostel at night halfway through watching zorro in french the barman/receptionist/allround cool guy came over and enlightend me to the bottle of wine for 4 euros and me being me of course i had to accept the challenge.nearly got all the way through but whilst ending a phone conversation i got a txt from shan telling me that it was mixed dorms i looked drunk and they were hot i hurriedly got off the floor i was leaning against and made my way up to the doorm leaving the half glass that would have marked me as finished therefore robbing me of my sense of drunken achievment.and of course upon arriving finidng that one woman was taken and the other not what i would call attractive my drunk state started to annoy the hell out of shane as apparently i was shouting but i seem to think that talking loudly so that he could hear me on the bottom bunk whilst the lights were still on was perfectly acceptable behaviour for a hostel.there has to be one drunk person so why not fill the gap in the market eh?
however if i had of known that the nextday we would be here i dont think i would have started that bottle.here is reffering to the place that is exactly 81 miles away from carcassonne at 15mph average with laden bikes.thats why we are having a rest day and promising ourselvs that we will never be that stupid again but when its flat make good use of it right???
oh and if u come to sete go to eat at "le grillon" 11euros for a 3 course meal(i had escargo,possion et the largest cheese board in the world brought out and to be told eat what you can being a kendrick i was in there,and yes ant you would of had a field day) and to see on the sign outside "le vin est compris" definately go there pretty much all u can eat in 3 course style with loads of free wine!!!!!!!!
anyway im sensing this is rather long and you shall have dozed off by now so ill return another day.
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ok short one....ish

after the longest train journey i think either of us are ever willing to undertake again and the little child who was like the energiser bunny we are finally in toulouse.next stop is castres.last night was interesting cycling at nigh for the first time on our trip and im sure it wont be the last one either and we actually had drink for the first time as well!!!!!!a few beers and some local brandy that the nice barman gave us free got us well on our way.nice way for him to say goodbye to us i think.and for being stupid enought to do what we are doing...happly discovered that the girls in the room next to us not only speak english but are also australian so we might be going out again tonight but that another story eh?
going back a few days we had another late night rendevous with some rather interesting private school cambridge students both studying french on holiday to get it better.....yeah right there school payed for them cheecky mares.but then we took them both to the top of the eiffel tower(cheesy or what) and then for a stroll down the champs elysses(even better).and then we discovered that the trains had stopped running so we being gentlemen as we are offered to walk them back to their hostel.not realising how far it was so we ourselves had to trapse across paris at god only knows what hour to get back to our own hotel which we wernt even sure would be open at this time.but dont worry it was next to a police station so we felt both secure and intimidated at the same time.were ok so dont worry about it off for our next adventure(finding food and places to stay on a bank holiday weekend in france!!!!)
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apres 60 miles

ok quite alot has happened since we last got on here.firstly and most importantly it isnt snowing anymore.instead its the start of a heatwave!!!first day of cycling we dropped down off a curb and one of my panniers fell off now in normal situations this might seen quite funny to some but in this happening just before we start i was clearly unimpressed with this shoddy craftsmanship.shane was stifflng laughter in the meanwhile as i attached it with bungee cords and duct tape.it is now actually more secure than the other one that isnt held on this way so now i bought another cord to even it up.so safe...first night in the tent it was raining so thats got us ready for anything now.putting it up and taking it down in the rain isnt fun trust us.condensation is a key factor in our tent as well cus we are both so bone idle we bring the tranjera inside for our morning cuppa so it does get a bit well steamy ill say....shane has also managed to already skp a bill in the pizza place on the site we are currently staying at.well done to him my turn next apparently great...yesterday was rather interesting shane did feel a little uncomfortablt when everyon else around us including me was wearing trousers in paris and h was in shorts.he soon found the err in his ways as the wind picked up sharply.
oh and n case anyone does get the chance to listen to it we think we might have been on french radio somehow???some guys came up tp os and were asking us to vote for them in the election because they wante french women to stop being so cold and heat up and become more sexy, here explainaion did take alot longer with alot of more hip girrations and noises.however as one of them had a big microphone and asked us to say "hot boom chiccka wow wa" ino it we did kind of sus tha it was some kind of a wind up.oh well at least we are getting into the spirt of travelling???oh and the title is reffering to the day befor yesterday when we left from fleury sur andelle to paris clocking up 60 miles in the one day much to the moaning of shane at every possible opportunity about him either being hungry tired or cold.my idea for the sweepstake is sounding very appealing and place money on it soon!!!!!and now he is trying to go over his half of the chocolate brownie so im about to kick his ass!!!!!!
oh and a side point shane has also found out that frnch roads are alot bigger than they seem as he ran across to the concorde and found out he was still going after nearly twenty seconds...well done shane.
anyways we have to now cycle through paris during the day oh what fun although shane doesnt think the l'arc de triomphe is a good idea on our bikes.i cant see the problem...if we survive you will hear from us again..
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ps wind up radios are good especially when the french like english music so haha critics!!!!