6am Just getting light, not too bad sleep had. Get up, strip off, go for skinny dip before anybody wakes up. Wow this is the life, this is what I had imagined the adventure would be like. The mist slowly rises from the river and the trees and I truly am in heaven. Needless to say I don't get away very quickly. I make a few videos just in case this is my best camp site and head back to Maron. I deliberately go past the old ladies house but nobody is about. The love-in with nature ends there. A steep long hill out of Maron towards Nancy has me sweating bucket loads before I'm even a quarter of the way up. Other cyclists pass me going the other way doing about 50mph. Although hard work, it's not the hardest so I thank my stars for that. As I enter Nancy the streets are wide and hot as the sun beats down. I'm not really in the mood for a big place after my beautiful river rendezvous and head into the old town and stop at the T.I. Here I meet a retired Glaswegian who is cycling down to Leon from Luxembourg. He warns me to take care in the heat and for once the warning goes in. Today is the first day I've put lotion on without feeling the burn first. A quick whizz round the fancy Nancy square and a bit of a sit in the shade whilst checking the map. Then off to Luneville. On the way out of town I take a wrong turn and whilst trying to get back on track I come across the Maison de Velo. An exhibition is on and I go and take a look. It's kind of a bicycle information centre with a few old bikes and a repair station. A friendly man greets me and takes me to see the exhibition of three times Tour de France Yellow Jersey winner Bernard Hinault. It's fascinating looking at the photos of the tour in the 50's. Spare tyres over their shoulders and swapping bottles of wine on the way round. When I tell the guy about my adventure he is very interested and disappears into an office. When he returns he gives me a green cap, keyring, ankle strap thing and best of all a Maison de Velo puncture outfit. The glue in mine has leaked so that is perfect. I had to buy a hat a few days ago because of the sun but I don't know if it will stay on at 50mph. He tells me the guy in the exhibition lives in Luneville. Off I go most excited by my stroke of good luck but as I reach the town of St Nicholas only 5km or so out of town the sun begins to hurt. Just before entering the town I see a Pharmacy display that says 42 degrees. It must be broken. I stop and take a photo. Two council workers watering flowers see me and I ask if its correct. They say yes its very hot. It's in the sun. The next sign I see is in the shade and says 33 degrees. Either way, it's hot. I find shade on the steps of the impressive cathedral that is crammed in between the houses of St Nic. A quick sandwich and half a tub of Nutella later and my load is now a bit lighter. Still hot though. I take it easy to Luneville. I don't see the Tour De France winner but I do have a very small strawberry beer in recognition of the lovely lady at the bar. If you ask for water and you get a yes and a smile that's really nice. If you get cold water that's a bonus. But when she asks if you would like some ice in it, well. That deserves a "formidable!". I sit in view of the chateau and sample the Grimbergen Rouge. Perfect in this weather. Then I head off in search of wifi so I can speak to Maddy on her birthday. I ask someone directions to a Mcdonalds and they point the way. They wish me good luck with my journey. Five minutes later I find the McDs. Six minutes later the man giving directions arrives. He says he is very interested in my journey (I hadn't even got onto the Thomas Stevens bit) and asks where I am staying tonight. I point to my tent and he offers me a bed and a shower at his house. Absolutely I say, but first he has to check with the wife. After much conflabbing on the phone he apologizes and explains it's not possible. I would have loved the experience but I'm not worried about the bed or shower. I think he is genuinely more disappointed than I am. I appreciate the offer and off he goes long faced. I tried to upload a video for Maddy's birthday and after all my planning it went wrong. Then Maddy's internet stopped working and I couldn't get hold of her on her birthday. This sent me off into one of my downwards spirals. Off I went cursing the hot day and went looking for somewhere to camp, but the fences were everywhere and nothing was happening. I ended up on a service road next to a motorway about 10km in the wrong direction. Back to town I trudged feeling really down and miserable. This is the first time I've had the blues since the trip began. If I'm lucky some other event will happen and snap me out of it, if not I'll end up lingering and thinking rubbish over and over. I can't really put into words the dark cloud that follows me round when I'm like this. I can never write it down at the time and the miserableness gets lost after that. I know it needs getting out of my system but how?? As I search without a clue for the road out of town a sign pointing to a campsite appears. I don't know if I want to but I'm knackered and can't face getting lost again. It's about 9:30pm now and virtually dark. I follow the sign and it goes through a side gate. It's a tiny well kept site and only one tent. The rest are camper vans, and only about 6 of those. I admit defeat. Deflated, tired and depressed I go about putting up my tent, pumping up my mattress and sorting out my stuff. Only when I've done all this do I have a nice warm shower and the blues slowly start to float away. I was quite happy to go in the woods tonight but the legs had worn out. I think it was at this stage that I realised that I just cant do 50 miles a day with full luggage on £1 a day, not the food part. I eat my noodles and drink my (now obligatory) emergency beer and lay back on my mattress in the open air. I enjoyed the challenge and could probably do it where I could speak the language and bat my eye lashes but it's too hard for my out of shape body to do the miles when it's really real. Hitchhiking yes, I now reckon I could do it. But not cycling. As I sit contemplating this I hear some classical music in the background, quite loud. The campsite backs on to a chateau that is visible from the town square. They seem to have some sort of performance on. The usual classical hits dance in the air as I sip on my beer and the status quo is once again realised. Music in the air, beer in hand and all gadgets on charge in the toilet. Sorted.
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