9 Rue du Gadenet

02600 Soucy, France

9-30-08

Before reporting on our travels and adventures of the past several weeks, I thought that I would start with a description of our home away from home. The three pictures above are of Milton's house in Soucy. The first two are of the main house where we are staying. The third picture is of the guest house across the courtyard. The main house has three bedrooms, large kitchen/eating area, living room, dining room and an adjacent family room off the downstairs bedroom where we are staying. The two houses are situated around a common courtyard in front with something approaching an acre of lawn and gardens in the back. The house is located in a very small French village--maybe 30-40 inhibitants and no commercial establishments of any sort--about 60 km northeast of Paris. The area itself is bicycle-riding heaven. You can head in any direction--not just north, south, east or west, but also any variation thereof, and have a fabulous ride. Farms, open fields, forests, little villages--some of the most scenic countryside we have ever seen or ridden in. One of the reasons we have not been updating the blog recently is that when we returned from our trip last week the weather was great so we took advantage of it and rode three to five hours a day for five of the next six days. The weather has now turned; light rain and colder, so we are trying to catch up and will post several items in the next few days.