After our two days of wet, windy wending our way eastwards, we had the luxury of spending Sunday with our hosts Pierre and Bea at their lovely farmhouse and gite. It had rained much of the night but the morning dawned dry and clear. After a leisurely breakfast Pierre drove us into Caen to visit the Memorial Museum of WWII, an impressive and well thought out presentation as to how 1914/18 set the stage for WWII. No heroics, but just sober assessment of not just the fighting, but more difficult issues such as the business of collaboration with the enemy, resistance movements, etc. No glorification. And it didn’t end there, as there was a gallery devoted to the Normandy Landings, as one might expect, and also about what happened after 1945. It rang so true especially considering our apparent headlong plunge into war once again, this time with Syria. “When will they ever learn?” as the song goes….

Pierre picked us up and brought us back for a late lunch of lovely homemade soup, bread and cheese. Then we hosed down our bikes with a jetwash to remove the mud. dried them and oiled them ready for the road tomorrow. A rest followed, then supper and bed – tomorrow, back on the road!

Monday 23 November – sunshine filtered through a heavy mist onto the frost-touched grass. A fine day! Breakfasted packed and on the road before 09.00, pedalling into cold misty countryside, but at least it was dry! Crossed the River Orne and headed more or less east, weaving around various country roads to make sure we did not get on to any of the busy main roads.As we were on the Plain of Caen, the hills were not quite as steep and the valleys were more gentle, which made for very pleasant cycling. Even by midday we were still spending some of our time in freezing mist, then emerging into sunny patches. One of the nicest stretches was after a 1-2km ride up a hill then through a beautifully managed woodland of sweet chestnut, oak, beech and other deciduous trees where a huge buzzard lazily flapped its way ahead of me, then perched on a branch to get a better look at me; deciding I was inedible, it then drifted off into the woods! Arrived into the town of Lisieaux at 15.30, checked into our AirBnB which was in a fourth storey 1960s apartment – luxury of luxuries, we each had our own bedroom with a double bed (which explained why it was the most expensive of the B+Bs). Set out to explore the town, including visiting the relatively new (20thC?) Basilica with an impressive dome and attractive modern frescoes adorning the walls. Lit a candle for peace. Shopped for provender then returned to our billet for home-made supper of bread, cheese, pastries and wine. Continue reading Sunshine Supermen! →

Oliver of Tonic Attack not only very generously sponsored us but also provided a load of sachets of wheatgrass juice to fuel us across France.

I must admit when Ewan first distributed them in Saltash I was a little sceptical. I had been expecting a bottle to have a swig from periodically, but these are little sachets each containing 33ml to be taken one per day. Continue reading The joys of wheatgrass →

After a day’s respite France continues to throw its plus mauvais temps at us in an attempt to thwart our attempts to reach Paris, but we will not be daunted.

Today started with spitting when I went out in the pre dawn to fetch the breakfast croissants, by the time we left it was light rain which progressed to heavy drizzle with a biting Southwesterly before easing to a mere mizzle by mid afternoon.

Continue reading Rainy day, dream away… →

Our host today not far from Paris, Francois, is an audio-visual tele cameraman – Roger was ecstatic! He went with his wife and a friend on a trip to the Jungle in Calais. He showed us the video he had made, as yet unedited, hand-held, point and shoot – heart-rending, no matter how often you have seen similar footage. Many of the people he spontaneously interviewed were from the UK – proud of them – saying some spot-on things. Here’s to the Merton ladies and the fantastic work they are doing on behalf of us North Devonians who are disgusted with the way in which our government is behaving. He took a short video clip with interviews of us  – too big for here but we’ll find a way somehow later to show the world!

Having trouble downloading photos – let’s try – here we are with his wife Laurence outside their beautiful home – we were so lucky to find them – excellent people. Nope!

A good day today – one more to go and we’ll meet Our Molly tomorrow night – the approach and ‘entry’ into Paris is going to be BUSY! Gonna have to have our wits about us.

This Blog post comes to you courtesy Ewan’s genius i-phone connection (no wifi here).

At Greens COP21 reports given to and interesting discussion with both Sweedish and Luxembourg green government ministers. Both, Isabella Lovin and Carole Dieschbourg very interested in hearing about the messages of the report. Also Tine Heyse Environment Alderman from zGhent who have a very forward looking city carbon reduction policies

Also, of course Molly and Jean Lambert and other countries MEPs

After all the rain, hail, wind, frozen fingers and feet, our last day`s ride into Paris was wonderful! Our amazing AirB+B hosts, Francois and Laurence, after feeding us royally the night before, and furnishing us with a hot coffee and splendid chunk of real chocolate to fortify body and spirit, launched us on the final leg of the journey. As a free-lance tv camera person, Francois filmed short clip of our departure which should appear in some media site somewhere; and then off we went! It was a beautiful bright morning with a rime of frost on the grass as we pedalled through gently undulating countryside for the final 35 miles to Paris. The only negative experience was some wally driving a badly-tuned diesel car that emitted clouds of black smoke in our faces as he cut us up. Wove our way through the outskirts and then, suddenly, as we arrived in St Cloud, we caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower – magnifique!

Cycled across the Pont St Cloud, stopping for quick lunch of mushroom soup, bread and a coffee before heading through the city, mostly on designated cycle lanes, sometimes shared with buses(!) and finally arrived at our AirB+B in the 18th arrondisement, handily located next to the Riquet Metro station. The B+B consisted of what was originally a one-bedroom apartment on the third floor which now contained one triple-bunk, two double-bunk beds and two sofasd that could be made up into beds. Very snug! Oh, and one toilet, one bathroom and a compact kitchen. Basic, but enoough for our needs and the other inmates, whoops, sorry, residents seemed very good-natured and kind.

After settling in and showering, we headed off to meet Molly Scot-Cato, MEP, who treated us to supper before we all moved on to the evening`s ClimÀrt event, put on by the Federation of European Greens. The talks and poetry were all in French so I got the gist but not the detail; however, the music, provided by African father and son playing gourds strung with many strings, was amazingly beautiful. The captain of the Tara expedition (an aluminium-hulled sailing vessel which has spent the last two years sailing the oceans and monitoring the impacts of climate chage; and had sailed across the North Pole!) also gave a brief talk. A lovely welcome to Paris.

Despite all one might hear, although Paris if full of soldiers, everywhere; although the air is full of sirens and the streets full of police cars and motor bikes, basically it’s a city brim-full of people just doing what people do in cities. Problem is, since all the Green groups and NGOs have given copious details of all they intend to do, it was easy for the authorities to insist that everything is cancelled – which is what happened to the bike cavalcade today –  and because I s’pose (unfortunately) we/they have to respond appropriately and responsibly, they just said ‘no go’ and we had to formally call a stop to everything – gutted!

However, Euan and I, anarchists that we are, nonetheless cycled all the way to the hitherto meeting place at the Eiffel Tower and staged our own mini-2-man demo – caused a sensation as you can imagine for the thousands who gravitate there anyway everyday. Daft!

Went to a multi-faith service at Notre Dame tonight and afterwards met up with the whole admin department of 350.org in a lovely brasserie by the Pompidou Centre – all beautiful, young and super-switched-on. It is so energising to be made aware of just how many of the cream of Europe’s young intellectuals are beavering away for change. It makes sense: they need a planet to live in – the one that we baby-boomers have all but destroyed.

Hopefully, there will be more to report tomorrow. Another try for a fun photo: if it don’t upload, s.th is wrong. Here goes: [nope!]

As everyone knows, after the dreadful events of two weeks ago, all mass demonstrations had been banned in Paris, which was a bit of a setback as that meant that there were Climate Rallies taking place in major cities all around the world – except Paris, where the Climate talks are about to start!

Well, fortunately, that was not totally true, as there has been the virtual rally in the Place de la Republique, where thousands of shoes (including donations from Pope Francis and Ban Ki Moon) were placed to represent the people who would have been there had the authorities allowed. And there was the human chain which had been agreed by the authorities along the Boulevard Voltaire here at noon today (Sunday 29 November).

So Ricky and I (the two surviving Climate Vision cyclists) travelled the Metro to Charonne Station and on emerging to street level found several hundred already getting in line. As midday approached, more and more emerged and joined in until there must have been 5-10 thousand people strung out along the boulevard. Ricky and I found ourselves alongside Jenny Jones (Green Party representative in the House of Lords), Christine Milne (former leader of the Australian Green Party) and a number of Green MEP staff. It was all incredibly positive, and peaceful. It was just good to be with so many people of determination and goodwill. And there was not a single policeman or soldier in sight. After an hour and a half, the human chain gently melted away.

Apparently, some people went on to the Place de la Republique to gather where, unfortunately a small number of people bent on provocation also went. And so followed a confrontation with the police who were a little too diligent in trying to stop the action – all too predictably, people were attacked, tear gas fired and around 200 people arrested. All we knew about it was when we were travelling back from the human chain, our Metro train did not stop at Republique Station and, as we passed through, I could see a couple of dozen armed police on the platform and people being held back from the platform. Unfortunately the media, ever-attentive for a dramatic story to tell, will doubtless focus on the violent few and ignore the peaceful many. Nevertheless, they can never take away the abiding memory of all those wonderfully motivated people.

One other extraordinary experience was when Ricky and I, reaching the end of the human chain along Boulevard Voltaire, found ourselves in front of the Cafe Voltaire, where one of the attacks took place two weeks ago. Along with the other people who were paying their respects, I found a white poppy in my pocket and was able to place that with the flowers and candles. And to offer a prayer for peace.