"Champagne Supernova"

 (Oasis)





A hill of champagne grape vines



Well I was pretty sorry for myself about Braucourt and when I awoke the next morning the tent was billowing in the wind, This meant that I wouldn’t be packing the tent wet = good, the day would be cooler = good……oh but it is blowing from the south and so that meant 72 miles into a headwind = Grumpy (definitely not Happy, Sleepy, Dozy, Doc, Bashful or Sneezy)! However I was into Champagne country now and the vines suddenly replaced the maize. How wonderfully neat they all are, so well tethered and so manicured. I was on the bike for over 7 hours before I pulled into Marcenay and you may wonder how you keep yourself from going doo lally. Well there is always the next 100m descent to look forward to, worry about whether you have enough water, thinking where you can buy a map, calculating what time you’ll finish, trying to edge up that average speed, thinking about the wife and kids and what they would be doing at that point in time and a few tunes off my BlackBerry and so it was that the tour’s first tune was Morrissey opining about a “shyness that is criminally vulgar”….I’d put together some of my favourites and amongst the guilty pleasures was “37 Horses” by The Osmonds….I feel better have now got that dark secret off my chest. As my daughter had told me when she rang through the previous night that Marcenay was run by Dirk. When I got to Marcenay I didn't meet the aforementioned Dutchman until the next morning and then by chance! I could have used the site overnight and also not paid for that can of lager that was in the Reception fridge....