pretend it is june 18

so let's imagine for a minute that I am writing this as we leave Marseille and not in an internet cafe in Florence.

let me start with the ongoing battle between the bike rack and the spoke. it turns out that the racks Graeme and I have were meant for much less weight. Mostly because they wobble side to side if the rack is overloaded. eventually, this motion causes the hook that holds the pannier (side bags) to fly into the spoke of the wheel. consequently the hook gets vaporized or your spoke gets mangled. on the first 10 miles out of town, Graeme had the latter happen. the hook hit his spoke and the spoke shattered.

Ben and I went ahead to a Shell station and tried to ask where a bike shop was. unfortunately, the french word for shop is magazin. which I pronounced like 'magazine' prompting the Shell clerk to send me to a bookstore down the road. eventually, we made it to a Decathalon sporting goods store where G got his repairs for €8 and Ben got a AG2R racing jersey. the French are so into biking that they have 3 aisles of supplies in their version of Sportmart. Brand name stuff too, not the crap you get at a sporting goods store at home. we the problem fixed, we rolled on.

got to La Ciotat and took the train up to Toulon to stay on schedule. some lady was hogging the ticket booth and the machine only accepts smart cards, so we had to hop on the train without a ticket. apparently, this is a 60€ fine if you dont find the conductor immediately. oops. Lucky for us the conductor was too lazy to come find us. the train had a really nice bike area where you hang your bikes vertically to keep them out of the way. clever french.

Toulon was ok. had a fun waiter at dinner and ben learned how to work peel & eat shrimp. we also discovered that he really really likes chocolate mousse. he ate his and most of Graeme's before we made him wipe off his face and leave the cafe. G tried steak tartare. esentially, it is a hamburger with a raw egg and a bunch of spices so you can make your own meal. the capers made it tolerable. someone at home: make a burger with capers and tell me how it is. please cook it though.