Day: May 8, 2006

We were surprised by coolness this morning: just barely 10° Celsius and a gray sky.  Serge is heading for Tokyo but the wind blows toward Paris.  It will be a confrontation the entire day.  Serge hasn’t said a word, he took his Walkman at the beginning of the afternoon just before going into a slump at the 50th kilometer: “I don’t feel well.”  Serge sat down for three minutes before starting again, walking.  Thomas gave his 2 sugar cubes with mint alcohol, which was just the pick-me-up he needed.

We didn’t pass a single village until the end of the stage.  Camp was set up in an agricultural school complex, and we relaxed in a class room.  After eating, Serge agreed to having his toes disinfected by Laure.  The left foot is perfectly OK but the right one is in a sorry state: an infection between the 3rd and 4th toe and his whitlow (perhaps a wart) on the 4th toe which hurts a lot.  The bandage applied this morning did no good at all.  These are the small pains which Serge gets used to, or at least he lives with them.

Our daily routine:

Right now Serge gets up at 7H15.  Everyone has breakfast then Serge gets ready while the fine team folds up the tents, straightens up, does the breakfast dishes and puts away the camping materials.

At 8H00 everyone is ready.

The four-wheel drive follows Serge all day with 2 or 3 people on bord, almost always Ludo and Daniel and sometimes Thomas or François.

The camper follows for a good part of the day (until about the 50th kilometer) then goes with Liu and Rémy to set up camp.

We make our Internet connection once a day, at the end of the morning.

Serge arrives between 18H00 and 19H00 and immediately takes his shower.  The tents are put up once we have studied the direction of the wind and the position of the vehicles, to optimize protection and to ensure as much comfort as possible for the night.  Often our meal is ready when Serge arrives and we eat around 19H15, in a very convivial atmosphere.  Serge reads his messages, either before or after dinner and this evening he was delighted with the soccer results sent by Ben, who will go back to school tomorrow, after six weeks of well-justified absence.

At 20H00, the band of 4 take out the cards for a game, while Daniel sits at his desk to write his log and Serge gets his well earned rest.