Saturday 25 August 2018

Three Pedals to heaven..

Wohoo! After three years we met up with our friends from Le Tour Alternatiba and met some more wonderful people in Clermont Ferrand. It is getting hot and the hotter it gets the more important it is to meet people who are actively changing their ways of living and are inspiring others to do so.



https://tour.alternatiba.eu/




“There’s a time to sit down and work at your desk and there’s a time to get up and leave the area where you are comfortable.
That time is now.” Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre





That pirate up there on the big gurt lush wheely wheely thing is part of the local bike workshop Un Guidon dans la Tete in Clermont Ferrand http://www.unguidondanslatete.fr/ who organised a funky Velorution for the arrival of Le Tour with a colourful collection of recycled D.I.Y. crazy bikes.




They must all be children at Un Guidon dans la Tete, imagining different kinds of cities, towns with bicycles, space for people and trees to cool the cities down!




Maybe the people of the village of Miremont are children too! Who else would make such a funny village museum?
A little bit scary, especially as it was coming up to full moon


            

A fun labirynth of coloured he-stones, she-stones and stone-imals! We don't think children are dangerous!



One of our delicious pic nics, yum yum yum.


On the island of the Lac de Vassiviers we visit the Centre International d'Art et du Paysage de Vassivier and spend a beautiful afternoon in the forest.
Quiz: Spot the Goldsworthy. Which one is made by a child? And which is not land art at all?



The Millevache again, more ticks, more cows and not many people. So we are very happy to finally get to the Perigord and meet some like minded souls who invite us to play at the night market.
Mardignac in Ladignac   https://www.facebook.com/lelieudit87/ making Ladignac le Long a fun place to be  https://lelieudit.qsdf.org/
Here we also met a crazy man, a cyclist, maybe a child with very silly dreams and mad plans to cycle to Africa with his home made electric tricycle contraption powered by human beeings. Nous sommes tous les Champions!   http://www.champions.tk/

In Tulle we are hosted by another wonderfull bike workshop: A Bicyclette https://abicyclette-tulle.org/atelier

We get to dance at the Nuits de Nacre, festival de Accordeon, and play our show amongst a wheeze of accordions, fanfares and choirs. We have never performed so fast and loud and sweaty before!
http://www.accordeon.org/                    https://www.facebook.com/NuitsdeNacre/


The Massif Central is a never ending puzzle of hills and seams. Hills and forests and rivers. We are happy to stop for a couple of days in a little place called Nomadways http://nomadways.eu/en/ An interesting, new art project developing fast. Nestled in a little village on the river Dordogne there are opportunities here to make some art, run workshops and be part of a lively house.


Meanwhile at Fons, the giraffe is looking for her glasses she lost. Fons is a beautiful little village just outside Figeac. We play for the local cyclists and their neighbours outside the gite municipal.   https://fons-lot.fr/ressources-locales/hebergementhebergement/

And then in Figeac we are hosted by a beautiful cafe associatif L'Arrosoir   https://www.larrosoir.org/
A little treasure in a equally beautiful, medieval town.

Heading towards Millau we find a weigh bridge. Heyho! So we heyho and weigh our steeds!
Quiz: Who has the heavier bike? Who carries the tent now? And how heavy are we in total - bicycle, load and fully dressed riders? Answers on a postcard  please.


A-ha! We made it! Finally, after three years of erring and erranting we followed up Huberts invitation to be part of this truly wonderful festival du voyage lent Le Festival du Roc Castel!



We listened to flowers with angels, visited paradise... heaven, I'm in heaven...listen to the flower here..

... went to tank up the horse at the motorway service station...

.... cycled around the world on a velo d'appartement http://letourdumonde.org/en/welcome/
and fell in love with everybody at the beautiful festival of Roc Castel!
http://festival-roc-castel.eu/

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