April 14
"first Frenchman encountered"
Had a great breakfast at the hotel - as much toast, yogurt, cereal, OJ and fruit as I wanted to eat - and I ate a lot of it. Started out strong, good speed all the way through Remich. HOT DAY... talked with my first Frenchman (on this trip) right across the border near some town that has some old castle ruins (that is really nailing it down I know) for at least 15 minutes about his theories on who will be elected, who is too droigt/gauche (right/left), Euro is bad for French economy.... 600 Euro per month for rent... they should get rid of it, then talked about wages in America and he asked me if I was married.... I said "no" then he said good, then something about a bordello. I found out later that bordelle (sp?) means hell in French. When I told him I had cycled from Trier that day, he asked me if I was taking any marijuana. Maybe he was thinking of steroids. I told him, no, of course not. I had had 3 semesters of college French but not the opportunity to practice. I was good at it and could use the words I knew fluently back then, but at this stage, I could not readily access the vocabulary necessary to form the sentences quickly enough for a conversation. It was very difficult. Though I could understand much of what he was saying.
In Thionville, had a short scare... ended up taking a road on to a peninsula because I thought it might lead to the Mosel Chemin on the other side... luckily there was a bridge after 2 km or so and I asked some boys who were swimming if the other side, which looked like a gravel factory or refinery wasteland, was legit. So I had to carry my fully laden bike up the narrow metal staircase that spanned the river. It luckily worked out and I ended up on the Rue de Metz.... cycling through the towns on the way to Metz was nice. Easy going, I just stayed to the right of the local traffic, which was not that intense.
Camping in the city was not possible because the Camping Municipale was not going to open until May 1, so I had to stay at a hostel. Was a nice place, nobody else was in my room, and I got to chat a bit with a well-endowed girl who worked there, getting up to speed in French again. She could speak English or German so was no problem. I told her I wanted to buy a French-English pocket dictionary and she gave me some directions, I'd have to go in the morning because it was already closed.
At dinner, though, I found I was totally screwed, communications-wise. The waitress could not speak German or English, or any of the other languages I beherrsche (beherrschen comes from Herr - "lord, master" and means "to master, dominate" and is used in the context of controlling people or mastery of a language). She would only speak French and very quickly, at that. So while I could get a pretty good handle on what I was ordering by the menu, any communication with her was very difficult. She made no effort to slow down or use less complex vocabulary. Perhaps if I had encountered her on day 20 of the trip, after having spent two weeks immersed in French, I would not have had these problems.
groceries - 4
hostel - 21.20
mexican flat-bread wrap - 3.50
dinner - 32 (escargot, creme brulee, porcelets, wine)