Well, I was going to do some travel updates, but its taken half an hour just to download the photos from my phone, most of which now need resizing, and many just deleting as they are repeats from when you cant see the screen well enough to be sure the photo is any good, so you take one or two more just in case…
But I have been planning to mention some of the characters we have met on this trip – mostly due to the appearance of Thor – quite an icebreaker, not just the God of Thunder!
In Millau we met a German couple, who didn’t speak English, so for the second time my first proper conversation in France was in German! They had a trailer with 2 covered motorbikes on it, and he made a beeline for Thor. Turned out one of the bikes was also a Harley, and the other his friend’s Ducati. Somewhat ironic as we were due to travel to and around Corsica with our friends on their Ducati.
He took some photos and we chatted, mainly about bikes and where we had been on them. The next day the cover was off his bike as he was about to move on – it was an open trailer so ironically you have to take the protective cover off unless its very well secured. B went over to look.
The bike was amazing, totally covered in metal skulls and bones – all, he said, from the Harley range. The wing mirrors were clutched in bone hands, the tank covered in small skulls and even the headlamp bulb was a skull – yes we do have photos, I will add some when B sends it to me when we are back home.
At the wedding we met a NATO affiliated French submarine commander and his wife, an English teacher. Lovely couple, very interesting company, and put on our table as they speak English and that helps B.
In Corsica we met a locally famous artist Fanfan Silvani – he was so taken with Thor that he asked us to sit and have a drink and a chat with him. His mate turned up and told us he thought Triumphs were much better – so you cant please everyone! Fanfan declared Thor to be a work of art – he was in love!
In Sommieres a very scruffy couple stopped and the guy got out his iPad to photograph Thor. We were across the road at a table in a roadside café. We watched him look around and then ask the café owner if he knew who owned the bike. He came over. Another Harley owner, this time with a bike customised with all old parts. Apparently everyone photographs his bike, but this was the first time he photographed someone else’s.
At the market in Sommieres we met Serge, a guy living in Beaulieu – not ours, the one nearby! He also has a house in Aveyron, not far from Millau. Half an hour later my little notebook I bought on the Corsica ferry was full of names of places to visit next time we stop there – brilliant. This man had been sent to London as a child to stay with a family and learn English – he wasn’t happy about it at the time but now likes to practice his English. One day in Carnaby Street he bought a military style coat and wore it – a policeman told him to take it off as it was current Beefeaters uniform!
In the Alsace we met a man in a restaurant on his 87th birthday. We congratulated him and he came over and bought us a drink (raspberry rocket fuel) and told us all about having worked at Rolls Royce in Crewe in the 60s. Made our day, and we hope his too.