{"id":28124,"date":"2015-07-22T19:01:23","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T00:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=28124"},"modified":"2015-07-23T07:12:12","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T12:12:12","slug":"bicycling-in-france-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=28124","title":{"rendered":"Bicycling in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, our husbands have been busy this summer bicycling across Canada (Dad) and training for a full Ironman (Yankee).\u00a0 So, Mom and I thought we would be good wives by entertaining ourselves.\u00a0 And we decided bicycling in France was a great way to keep us busy.\u00a0 Mom has already ridden from the very top of France to the very bottom, and she has done a few week-long bicycling trips there.\u00a0 I have ridden from the Eiffel Tower to Dakar, Senegal (Mom joined me in Spain) and have seen a good bit of the country from the seat of a bicycle.<\/h3>\n

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\"IMG_2110\"<\/h3>\n

This trip was different, though.\u00a0 We did a bike and boat trip which means we spent our nights on a boat and ate breakfast and dinner there.\u00a0 Each morning we left by bike at 9 a.m. with a group of other cyclists and a guide and maneuvered our way to our destination for that day.\u00a0 The boat left around the same time and traveled by way of canals to get to the same destination.\u00a0 One morning our boat passed us while we were taking a break.\u00a0 It was the only time we saw it sailing during the week.<\/h3>\n

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\"8\"<\/h3>\n

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We arrived in Paris on a Friday morning, and it was hot, hot, hot.\u00a0 They had been having temperatures in the high 90’s and low 100’s.\u00a0 We took a train (sans<\/em> air conditioning) to Montargis, a town located a two-hour train ride south of Paris.\u00a0 We hung out in Montargis a day, and welcomed ourselves with a cool glass of rose.\u00a0 Thankfully, our hotel room was air conditioned.\u00a0 Do I sound like a spoiled American?\u00a0 Then on Saturday we boarded the boat which was named the Fleur<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\"French<\/p>\n

The boats that do the European bike and boat trips are mostly former barges that have been converted into passenger boats.\u00a0 Ours had room to sleep 20 (in air conditioning), a nice deck, a dining room and living room.\u00a0 Although snug, there is always plenty of room for everyone to be comfortable.\u00a0 If anyone starts to feel cooped up, they can take a walk in the town where it is docked for the night.<\/h3>\n

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\"Biking<\/h3>\n

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We rode between 30 and 40 miles a day at a slow pace and stopped to visit sights along the way.\u00a0 For instance, on the first day we went to a honey farm and learned all about the production of honey.\u00a0 We even had a tasting and were amazed at the difference in the flavors based on the time of year the honey was collected and the type of flowers it came from.\u00a0 We’re pretty sure those bees stopped at this field full of sun flowers.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\"Bicycling<\/h3>\n

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We visited a sculpture garden, took a behind the scenes tour of a historic city, visited the Babylon School of Art, toured Chateau Fountainbleu, went to street markets, and more.\u00a0 If there was something that we wanted to see or do, then we did.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\"IMG_2072\"<\/p>\n

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A really cool thing that we did was visit an art museum located in this city hall\/library of a town.\u00a0 The towns’ people have always been somewhat artsy, and each artist has been expected to donate one of his\/her paintings to the city hall.\u00a0 Some of the art was quite old.\u00a0 Each person who goes to see the art is asked to leave a donation which goes toward the upkeep and restoration of the collection.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\"Biking<\/p>\n

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The temperatures varied greatly during the day.\u00a0 Since we were in the countryside, a few of the mornings were cool, but it always warmed up. But the sun was shining brightly when we visited Fountainbleu.<\/h3>\n

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\"Biking<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \"IMG_2129\"<\/h3>\n

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We got to enjoy the French foods.\u00a0 Oh la la!<\/h3>\n

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\"9\"<\/h3>\n

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I took a selfie stick<\/a>, and it came in handy.<\/h3>\n

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\"12\"<\/h3>\n

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\"10\"<\/h3>\n

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We loved the bikes on top of this old car.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0On Friday afternoon we all boarded the boat one last time, cleaned up, and sailed into Paris.\u00a0 We toasted our great week with a glass of sparkly.\u00a0 We both headed home the next day so we could get prepared for Haven.\u00a0 We hope you enjoyed the recap of our trip.<\/h3>\n

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Cheers!<\/h3>\n

Affiliate link in post.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, our husbands have been busy this summer bicycling across Canada (Dad) and training for a full Ironman (Yankee).\u00a0 So, Mom and I thought we would be good wives by entertaining ourselves.\u00a0 And we decided bicycling in France was a great way to keep us busy.\u00a0 Mom has already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28124"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28124"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28159,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28124\/revisions\/28159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}