Good moaning, we are in lickdown ear in the sauce of Franz

2 Weeks BC we were on top of the world, sporting a jolly pair of knees looking forward to cycling to Italy - not over these mountains,
the other ones the way the Elephants went and to start cycling and doing shows again soon!

The last live entertainement, the last time amongst people having fun and being close to each other was at Limoux carneval, the longest carneval in the world that usually carries on until the end of march.
Sad clowns and happy, joyous spanish dancers still allowed across the border....
 


These guys from the Antilles had a wicked groove going on!
Shaking Groov Antilles       https://www.shakinggroov.com/

And the Venetians were there too! We hope to see them in Italy, maybe this year, definitely next year!! Carneval for sure! We'll do everything we can to celebrate carneval in 2021, participating, dancing , hugging and being joyful!

 
               
The Limoux museum of masks had a little exhibition of carneval masks.

These carneval masks of Noah's animals were already in quarantine, behind glass!
Let's hope they get released into the wild carneval in 2021!
We'll be there, dancing with the camel and the bear!
Cie l'Arche de Noé       https://compagniearchedenoe.pagesperso-orange.fr/Accueil.htm
 


We had our first few gigs lined up and we were very much looking forward to being on the road again, meeting lots of people, having fun, playing, making people laugh..... and then the lockdown!

Cancelled:
Le Patchwork café in Foix, the 21st of  March, part of a Swaporama freeshop style market in front of the cafe...
https://www.facebook.com/events/patchwork-caf%C3%A9-coop%C3%A9ratif/gratiferia/1059237957749890/

Postponed:
La Roue Libre de Thau in Sete   https://www.larouelibredethau.org/ 
was going to be on April the 3rd at the Fablab Ephemere, fablab open doors day.

It has now been postponed to the 15th of Mai, t.b.c.. Yes please!! We're crossing our fingers and toes.. there is a little glimmer of light and hope that things get back to some kind of normal again by then!
https://www.lapalanquee.org/event/fablab-ephemere/

Cancelled, maybe postponed:
Our show in Beziers with le collectif Nabuchodonosor in collaboration with the cafe associatif Barnabu and Velociutat Beziers who organised us a show in the cute little square outside the cafe Barnabu for Saturday the 4th  April
https://www.facebook.com/collectif.nabucho/
http://velociutatbeziers.blogspot.com/


That was our last contact with the outside world before we came down the mountain,
left a little snowman at the top and said good bye to the Chemin de la Liberté 
 https://www.chemindelaliberte.fr/
 
  
Fortunately we have found a magnificent old bakery to see out the lockdown. Thanks to our wonderful, cycling warmshower heroes and new friends Alex and Margot who welcomed us into their home Le Moulin d'Eoux.
If you want to get away from it all, as and when you can, we highly recommend this beautiful place in the south of France...
https://lemoulin.nl/
 


We've been amusing ourselves cutting trees, helping a bit here and there, cleaning old ovens, painting doors, cutting grass and having fun working on our new show (Jonny Jeegante and the Putabenshi) and following Holly Stoppits and Robyn Hambrooks Clown Workouts
https://www.facebook.com/groups/219905246053173/?fref=nf
 


Trying to go to the shop as little as possible. So we're experimenting with wild food, foraging for plants and finding recipes. So far we're eating mainly nettles and knotweed and hunting for oranges now that the spanish orange man at the market can't come over the border anymore.
 

We'll sign off with the words of the Spider Woman:

"Remember always to walk in the pollen path of peace and of blessing.
Be still within yourselves, and know that the trail is beautiful.
Whenever you are in danger walk carefully and quietly.
Your feet will be blessed with pollen and your hands will be blessed with pollen.
Let your mind and voices go forward on the pollen path
It's the pollen from all kinds of beautiful plants.
The wind blows the pollen along the trail and you travel on it.
It is everywhere.Your body is holy when you travel on that trail.
If you take no heed of these things then it affects your life, you get sick and everything is of no use.

The Pollen Path leads to the restoration of harmony and beauty. You can find it anytime you want it: "You can see it and travel on it and that's all you need to know."

From the book by Margaret Schevill 

The Pollen Path: A Collection of Navajo Myths

Vive les Radis! Vive la Biere! Vive la Velorution!

And so we arrived in la Sarthe one hot summers day. First a beautiful forest, la Forêt de Bercé.
It was very hot indeed and the cool refreshing forest was the only place to be! Amongst our friends the trees!

 
 
Our friends in the village were also fun! The super, friendly, full of atmosphere cafe associatif
La Brass Vie de Jupilles hosted us. The heart of the village.
https://vlap.fr/labrassviedejupilles/
We stayed a while, visited La Maison Bleue, where Sammy was threshing rye. Just enough to last him through the winter. A bowl of delicious power food!
https://fr-fr.facebook.com/maisonbleue72/



And there in the woods we met a puppeteer, who sculpts the marionettes for his Le Petit Théâtre des Mains from the bois de Bercé.

BUT NOT THIS ONE! This one was made by the wild children...





C'est par là ! This way to Teloche! We have been invited, to play our show, let's go!
Spontaneous gig No.1 at La Pince a Velo, Sarthes first and only Cafe Velo! With Olivier, a real cyclist super lovely man who cleaned our filthy bikes, gave us new chains and set us free to continue our périple.
https://lapinceavelo.eatbu.com/?lang=fr
This must have been the sweatiest gig of the year! We thought nobody would turn up because of the heat... but they did! And it was absolutely brilliant!

 


Finally sensible signage, made by cyclists for cyclists! Hurray!




An unexpected interlude at our friends farm Radis&Co.
http://radis.et.compagnie.free.fr/



We arrived to stay the weekend and do our show at the local super mini market of Montflours organised by Anim’Montflours. Because of torrential rain we played the official opening of the Archipel, the new home of the Brasserie Associative de Montflours - BAM.
http://biero.free.fr/brass.php?n=7
This must have easily been the wettest gig of the year.
But we was under the Archipel and everybody came running towards us in the rain.
Well well, because of a grande appendicite we ended up staying a month. And how lucky we was to be struck by a stroke of luck here amongst wonderful people who were all going on holiday and let us use their luxury pads to get Kevins digestive system back in order.
Ready for the next show! Ready for Le Bruit qui Court, a super, mini, friendly festival back at the farm.
Vive les Radis! Vive la BAM! Vive Montflours!



Whoa! bicycle bunting!

And then, a month late, but actually just in time for the end of the holidays, we arrived in the legendary village of Langouët, Commune écologique bretonne, where the mayor is fighting for less pesticides and is inspiring the nation!
We had a great time with the lovely people of the Cafe La Cambuse and were very glad we had finally made it! https://www.assolacambuse.org/ 

And there comes another invitation. A volunteer from the council at St.Sulpice La Forest is asking us to come and play at the Forum des Associations. Voila! On y va! Spontaneous gig No 2. 
Thank you to the kind person from the Epicerie- Taverne- Agriculturelle Le Guibra who forwarded our contact! https://leguibra.fr/  

After another little bike ride and a pique-nique....

 

....we just about make it up the Col du Plessis - Altitude 1000cm




... and onwards to Valanjou. A broken seat post later we get ferried of - in a van! to play at L'Asso 7, under a tree in a little room. What an adventure, taking a lift in a van the day before World Car Free Day! Tut tut tut!
https://fr-fr.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Lasso-7-Valanjou-680806482059831/

Next stop Redon!

 


To meet up with new and old friends. New friends from Un Velo pour l'Afrique, https://fr-fr.facebook.com/un.velo.pour.l.Afrique, a fabulous workshop that sits on the edge of an industrial wasteland that has been managed by a community group called Le Transformateur, for ten years or more and is slowly being transformed by allowing nature to regenerate itself , creating a post industrial jungle garden. Yes! Lush!
http://le-transformateur.fr/

New friends from the wonderful world of warmshowers, Coralie and Laurent who hosted us in Redon and inspired us with their playful art of mobiles, flip books and early cinema.
https://www.colorant14.net/ 

And we got a letter! A real, papery letter with words written in it! Delivered by our old friend Vincent, Le Facteur Humain https://lemessagerduclepscycle.blogspot.com/p/chroniques-du-clepscycle_44.html
Our first letter in 6 years on the road. We're chuffed! Plus it's an invitation to the 10th anniversary of our favorite festival Le Festival du Roc Castel, Eloge du Voyage Lent! https://festival-roc-castel.eu/
We will be there!

We stayed with our friends Mimi et Fabien in St. Hilaire de Chaleons. Made some puppets with them. Please meet Belle Pou and Elk.
Verything-Love-Incorporation
and
La Compagnie de la Mitaine

A superbly lit theatre dans le jardin which led to our spontaneous gig No 3 the very next day at the very wonderful, newly opened

 Cafe Associatif
3 Francs 6 Sous in Le Pellerin.
https://www.3francs6sous.org/

And then southwards to Perigueux! It's mushroom season and the woods are brimming with mushroom hunters. We had no time for mushrooms as we had to cycle really fast to get to our rendez-vous with La Velorution Perigourdine and the Cafe Pluche in Comberanche et Epeluche.
https://velorution-perigourdine.fr/




Back and forth we went. Through the forest, over the hills, past the mushrooms to do two gigs in two days, rapidoo giddy bee.
https://lecafepluche.fr/




France 3 came to interview us! Oh lala!
Cafe Pluche et Spoke'n'Chain sur France 3

Onwards onwards to another set of beautifully enthusiastic people, to the valley of the Dordogne!

First off  in the heart of Sainte Foy la Grande a long standing community project, weaving and building peace and love in the Coeur de Bastide.
https://www.coeurdebastide.com/




Then to see our lovely friends Françoise and Dominique and play our show for them in a truly glorious venue, a right proper theatre setting. The garage of their friends Fabienne and Jean-Marie all part of a new Cafe Associatif and Castillon in Transition.
But what a garage it was!
https://www.facebook.com/castillonnaisentransition/



 
Les Amis!

  


A rare sight in France - a square that isn't a car park. A common sight in France - a closed down shop.

 


Cycle, cycle, cycle, cake, cake cake to our last show of the year with the sister of Jean-Marie in Lescar Pau. Theatre a la maison, around the fire place, a perfect way to finish off the year!

 



Before we spend the winter as russian, constructivist peasants.....

 

The Velorution is Now!

In we went cycling in to the bike-in cinema at the De Roma in Antwerp! We watched a programme of short films around bicycles, in anticipation of the Critical Mass Belgium. This was our favorite The Climb. 

This was Critical Mass Mass Belgium 2019 http://www.critical-mass.be/
Somebody came cycling straight of the canal to join Belgiums big critical mass of the year. World Naked Bike Ride was a bit early this year and people didn't know which way to go...

 


Trees! We need more trees. To arrive in Ghent the cycle path took us through the Garden of the Children. For every child born in Ghent a tree is planted in this little forest. We like!

  

We like the city of Ghent too. A wonderful city where active meassures are being taken to calm traffic and increase space for the people!

This bridge, only four years ago was a four lane bridge with a constant traffic jam passing over it. Now it is a mini plaza with benches, a Fritterie and lots and lots of people on foot and bicycles! Yey!  

 

You can imagine the rest of the inner city like this, more trees, more bike lanes, more pedestrian zones and less cars.
In the neighbourhood where the Bike Kitchen is the neighbours organised a Street party, road closure for three months one summer. It was an experiment to see what would happen. People loved it and a lot of good things have come out of it... the kids now have astro turf in the football court and actually use it, lots of people have met each other and are now friends and some of the street furniture is now permanent and people have somewhere lock their bikes and to hang out. Living streets in action!
 

Just down that road there the Fietskeuken Gent are back in their old , now new again workshop in the Mobelfabrik. The developers never got to build their tower block because the locals resisted and the council listened. 
Gent is cool! And so is the Bike Kitchen. We had a great time playing for them for their house warming party.

http://www.fietskeuken.org/fk/
 



An easy ride from Gent to Mons, following the fietskooppunten system.
We met some old friends in Mons and got to visit their beautiful garden on top of an old military bakery, Le Jardin Suspendu de Mons. It was a super hot weekend, we jumped in the fountain in the town square and we were very lucky to have tumbled upon this oasis in the centre of town. Trees, shade, beer and happines. A perfect way to spend a sunday!
https://www.lejardinsuspendu.be/

 


Le Laveur de mains a velo,       le velophant de Pneusia      et le herisson pas ecrase.
           


We took the long and flat way round, along the canal to enter Lille from the north. Lots of gravel, sand and dust big boats loading and unloading until we enter the greenway that leads us into heart of Lille just in time for the Fete du Velo. It was very windy, bicycles blew away, the pizza oven on a bicycle had a hard time staying lit. The choir on bicycles was excellent, even in the wind. They were singing whilst cycling - it felt like we were in a movie.... Les Cyclistes de Lille

 



And we did our show in this superb little bike workshop/ bar/ paint shop. It's busy and buzzing in here and the beer tastes yummy!
bike workshop http://lesmainsdansleguidon.fr/
beer http://www.singe-savant.com/

 



Onwards to Amiens, which swollowed us and bathed us in goodness. We stayed with a real clown, visited the inside of the Cirque Municipal Jules Vernes, went to the cinema to see I Clown, some of which was filmed in this there Amiens Cirque! In and around Amiens we played our show three times and it felt like if we'd stayed we could have easily played another five shows....

To the left le clown Rafistol. He didn't steal our bike. He did give it back eventually, because he's our friend now!
https://rafistolblog.wordpress.com/ 

And here the gert lush places we played our show
http://www.lamaisonducolonel.com/

http://la.briqueterie.over-blog.org/

https://lamachinerie.org/

And a big thank you to the local cycling association for hosting us and being our agents
https://veloxygene-amiens.com/

Through the boarded up windows of an abandoned building a gateway into the world of Jules Vernes... lets go! 




Amiens is so sticky we didn't get away very easily and spent two fun weeks in the company of Alain, Francoise and Loic in Liomer, baking bread, saving horses from the heat, building Jyoti the toilet seche, cleaning tomatoes and bundling faggots....
https://paindalain.blog4ever.com/ 

 


Fun's over. Welcome to frustrating cycling infrastructure. Maybe all the obstacles are there to test the pilgrims patience...
 


We didn't go this way nor that way or that way either....
 

We went this way! Short cut!....
 


We came out in a cave, chez les troglodyte and the tenth aniversary of Seen This. How lucky! We spend a fun filled weekend in the cool cave while the sun baked high up above the ancient fort, singing into the night, keeping the owl awake, recruiting chickens for the big chicken dance https://seenthis.net/


 


Finally we got to play our show in Blois at the atelier Velo 41. It was the last open workshop before the summer holidays, it was hot again and we had strange punctures with six holes at the front and a hole in the tyre on the rear. It must be those pixies that live on the Loire.



http://velo41.fr/ 


Oh, we're are we now? What's going on? What's this all about? Why are we here?
 

Yes!!! It's the tenths aniversary of Roulement a Bill in Tours! And to celebrate it cyclists from all over France and beyond have come to ride with the Velorutionairies of Tours and celebrate! http://www.roulementabill.org/

 

    


Our third visit to Tours and our friends at Roulement a Bill but a first for a Velorution Universelle! It was a blast, a 60h whirring of free wheels, a thousand bike bells a ringing. Together we transformed Tours for a long weekend into a happy valley of cyclists
http://velorutionuniverselle.org/






Benjamin from Recup'R Bordeaux brought his little lino print workshop with him. We made cycletastic prints!
 
 





Extinction Rebellion, dangerous anarchist activists joined the Velorution  with freshly printed flags. Tell the truth! Act now! Beyond Politics! https://rebellion.earth/

 




Just before the depart of the Velorution, we all listened to an extract of another dangerous activist the actor Jaques Gamblin talking about two wheels. It's in french, it's poetic and sublime. Roule Roule! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXsg2t940kE 

Looks like we're all dangerous activists nowadays... It's time we were!

 


One last glorious outing of two wheeled fun, with a little group of us heading west we tumbled across an evening with Cine Cyclo. A perfect way to round of the weekend and this blog. We cycled into a cinema in Antwerp and in Brehemont the cinema cycled for us.
https://www.cinecyclo.com/