Stage 5. Hobbits have 2 breakfasts.

What day is it today? Hmmm… not sure

What time is it? Nearly lunch time. Its always nearly lunch time.

Where am I? Hmmm… not sure. I think I might be between Nice and Marseille, but it might have been yesterday that I was in Nice or maybe that’s tomorrow. Im pretty sure I’m in France though.

Where did I stay last night? Hmmm…. Not sure. See above.

What did you have for dinner tonight? Oh, I know that one. Pasta with some form of meat in a stew. Followed by cold custard or an apple pie made with cold custard. It was nice. But took an age to be delivered and there wasn't enough of it. 

Where are you going to tomorrow? Hmm… not sure. We just follow the arrows and we get there eventually.

Life is pretty regimented at the moment.

0530 alarm clock goes. Sort my shit out for the day

0630 breakfast – massive breakfast.

0700 make sure my bike has pumped up tires and check I have my luggage in the right place for pickup

0730 Swing my leg over the bike and start pedalling until I see a sign saying ‘Revitalment’. Which is French for stop.

0930 Stop for second breakfast

0945 Swing my leg over the bike and start pedalling until I see a sign saying ‘Revitalment’. Which is French for stop.

1200 Stop for lunch

1230 Swing my leg over the bike and start pedalling until I see a sign saying ‘Revitalment’. Which is French for stop.

1400 Stop for second lunch

1410 Swing my leg over the bike and start pedalling until I see a sign saying ‘Revitalment’. Which is French for stop.

1600 Stop for lunch number three

1610 Swing my leg over the bike and start pedalling until I see a sign saying ‘Revitalment’. Which is French for stop.

1800 Je suis fini.

1810 some wee snacks to tide me over to dinner

2000 Dinner

2200 Sort my shit out for tomorrow

2300 Go to bed.

Repeat. 

The most observant amongst you will have noticed that we eat a lot. These lunch stops are not just for small snacks, we eat like horses. We are burning 5-6000 calories a day just with the cycling. That’s 4 times what we would normally burn. Even with that exercise I am still going to put on weight, I think. I noted down what I have eaten today. As I know it will make riveting reading.

Breakfast1

2 pancakes with maple syrup

Bowl of granola

Yoghurt (my preference is strawberry, but strawberry yoghurt is in short supply in France. So often times I slum it with peche)

4 sausages

5 potatoes

2 chocolate croissant

2 normal crossant

1 glass of orange juice

Breakfast 2

1 slice of custard pie

handful of peanuts

Half a Danish pastry

Bread with rasins in it

Half a chocolate croissant

2 sponge fingers

1 hard biscuit thing. Might have been a biscotti. But I don’t know what a biscotti is. However if I were to imagine a biscotti, it would look like this thing. Regardless, they are very tasty, although very hard. Perhaps not recommended if you don’t have your own teeth. If you do have your own teeth you may not after one of these bad boys. 

Snack stop

1 waffle smothered in chocolate – dam they are good.

Lunch stop

2 glasses of coke

Ham and cheese baguette

Three slices of something like pizza but with no cheese, but with an olive oil on top

A thing like a pizza but with fried onions instead of tomatos and anchovies instead of cheese. Wasn’t a fan of this to be honest. But when in Rome... (Are we in ROME?). 

4 slices of the best quiche I've ever had. 

I lost count of the number of water melon slices I had.

Two wee bits of bread with an unidentified topping on. It looked like pate, but I don’t think it was. Salty. 

Two cup cakes decorated with a wee bicycle. Not sure of flavour but one was lurid orange and the other lurid yellow. If I closed my eyes they were delicious. Not sure how many calories the rice paper bicycle added. 

Four squares of chocolate

Second lunch stop

2 chocolate waffles

raisin bread x3

Some pretzels

Yellow cake x2

Tonnes of water melon

Afternoon tea stop

2 cans of coke (drank one and dropped the other. It exploded and sprayed all over someone’s very expensive bike. He wasn’t best pleased)

Half a chocolate waffle – how abstemious

2 slices of water melon

Finish snack

Handful of pretzels

1 slice of yellow cake

1 Muesli bar

1 slice of water melon

1 can of diet coke (got to watch the figure, after all)

Dinner

Crudités de vegetables (uncouth vegetables for those not au fait avec le francais)

Chicken on a stick

Fruit salad. 

It's not just an insane amount of miles we  are wracking up. All those calories take a lot to get through. 

It was a tough day today. It was long.  But I had expected flat. Unfortunately it was the day with the most accumulated ascent so far. A long and hot day in the saddle. Still, the scenery was sensational. Again.

Better go. It must be nearly lunchtime. 

From marseille,

N