Gien again.

Last night there was a band on next to the river. They were a French reggae band. They were pretty good but I think they may have been lip syncing. The parts in English were all about burning things down.

I've noticed a lot of French kids swear in English I don't know if they know what they're saying, but they swear like truck drivers at each other. It's strange because nobody bats an eyelid. I also find it really weird when I go into shops and they are playing music with heaps of swearing. Or when the play land at maccas has Dre 2001 playing.

I met a French bloke last night who was camped just down from me. For some reason I was calling him Richard but that's not his name. I have his real name written down somewhere. Anyway, Richard had a tightrope that he had brought on his bike trip, so after the French reggae we slung it up between 2 trees and did some tight rope walking. Richard was pretty good. I wasn't. I was using him for balance and I think at one point I was at a 45 degree angle with all my weight on him, pretending that I can walk a tightrope.

I woke up this morning and was feeling quite under the weather. It was raining so the feeling was literal as well as figurative. The train was too expensive and too long, so I'm going to ride to Dijon and get a train from there instead. Going  to. Not have. I slept most of the day.

I went into the town in the afternoon. There was a bike race on. They'd closed off the streets and we're doing laps on a circuit past the castle. I found a spot on a cobblestoned corner at the bottom of the hill the castle sits on. Couldn't think of a better spot to see someone come a buster, but nobody did. It was cool listening to the tyres squeal around the corner and seeing the cyclists try to invertase as the came on to the straight.

Tonight I chatted with a German couple from Stuttgart. They have travelled a lot and gave me some good tips for places to see and how to go to Russia. They said the Trans Siberian is super cheap. Cheaper than I thought. They said around 250 euros to Beijing. They've also offered me a place to stay if I get to Stuttgart. I've been offered a few places to stay but I might actually take them up on this one.

I plan on getting up early tomorrow and putting in a big day. 3 nights in one place is not going to get me back to Australia. For the next week I want to ride every day.