day 99 - 45 km
Hautecourt - Montrevell-en-Bresse
The days stitch together like a long movie. It is not easy to recall what we experienced yesterday. This report will hopefully give us some guidance. Today and the next few days will be very hot again. We leave early and arrive at the tree bike in Hautecourt at a good nine o’clock. From there I cycle with Richard and Sanne follows by car. Daan stayed home today to get some rest. We are a few kilometers out of Hautecourt when, after a steep climb, we overtake a man who runs eight hundred and fifty kilometers in twenty days, a marathon every day. He, Frederic Guillemain, is raising money for ALS, an incurable muscle disease that unfortunately has also affected his wife. What a great and brave initiative. Next year he is going again. Hats off to him. We exchange our information and continue the route to Bourg-en-Bresse, about fifteen kilometers through small villages, rural areas and beautiful vistas. It is very quiet everywhere, despite it being Monday. Vacation time? We drive into town to the town hall. After a coffee, I walk into the “Marie” with Sanne and tell our story. The mayor, Jean-Francois Debat, is on vacation. We give a little tree and our leaflets, a forest book we unfortunately do not have with us today. Typical that here in France we have now hit several municipalities where the employees are not allowed to have their picture taken. Privacy rules? On the little square in front of the “Hotel de Ville” we meet a Dutch family from North Holland, who like many other Dutch people are here on vacation. They too find it a great project. In the past week we have seen a lot of Dutch license plates. It is around 12:30 and it is already starting to get nice and warm, well over thirty degrees, when we leave in the direction of today’s destination, Montrevell-en Bresse. Twenty kilometers to go. The route is beautiful along small winding roads with solitary trees, groups of trees, small forests, small villages and many detached houses. A richer area you feel that, and the “every-man-for-himself private property” dominates over the collective, which you seem to see more in the baptisms. You see clear demarcations of private property with fences and fences. It seems more and more dominant here. The going is good and while biking, even winds above 30 degrees feel “refreshing. The tree bike seems to benefit from the high temperatures, even against the slight hills the bike does well. Is the tree bike happy to cycle out of the Alps? Around two o’clock we drive into Montrevel-en-Bresse, a sizable town, and we park the tree bike under the trees at the back of the large building that also houses the town hall. The tree bike gets extra water and we put some leaflets there for information. The tree bike stays here until Wednesday morning, as tomorrow is our non-cycling day. That was also planned for today, but we were one day behind schedule, and now we are back to normal, which is super nice, after the fascinating and exciting Alpine adventure. After a sumptuous lunch on the terrace, everyone takes a much-needed “siesta. Quite a good invention actually, especially with these high temperatures. We do the things that still need to be done, such as bookings, socials, emails, laundry, and so on. Enjoying the view and the setting sun. Tomorrow another new day, a special day, it will be day one hundred of our Tour. Great right?
di Aug 12 - day 100
Today we stay at our place in Geovreisset, with the chickens, two white and one black. At noon, Daan takes Sanne to the TGV station in Bourg-en-Bresse, she is going to teach Yoga with her Yoga team at Lowlands. She will be back next week. Day one hundred of our trip is a good time to look back. What have we accomplished? Some thoughts: For four months we have been planting seeds, many seeds. We are making contacts with municipalities to set up a “family” of municipalities; we hand out a total of five thousand little trees and thousands of flyers, and take pictures of the happy people with their tree; we speak to people where the tree stops or passes by and tell our story; we see many happy people along the way taking pictures/films, especially from their cars; many people see our newsletters and socials (polarsteps, instagram, Linkedin) and forward the information to others. And also explaining the big map, giving the presentations and the three exhibits help tell the story. Not to mention the media, from newspaper articles to radio and TV items. We also work daily on the report and socials, capturing the tour with photos and film clips (including drone), so that the story can be told visually even after the tour and inspire others to join in. Despite all these actions, the seeds we planted are, of course, only pinpricks on the five thousand kilometer route line. But an important observation is that the soil for Circle4Change seems fertile, the reactions everywhere are very positive, from young to old, all ages respond enthusiastically. And what lovely people there are, everywhere we meet them. But where do these positive reactions come from? Is it the unfamiliar and unexpected image of the cycling tree? Is it the wacky idea of the huge circle through nine countries and that we are actually carrying out the seemingly impossible? Is it our plea for planting a birthday tree on your birthday, that we hand out five thousand trees, or our plea for a world in balance with nature? Probably everyone has his/her own arguments, and it is often and-and, but without the bicycling tree it would really have been different, the tree bike is our great asset! Looking at the hundred days, we can say that we made the most of our five-month Tour within our limited capabilities with a small team. It is a tough test-tour, it is inventing, trying out, doing, adapting, moving along, learning to embrace chance while keeping a close eye on our goals. In other words, being “fisherman” for the moment and “hunter” for the whole. What could be better in the last small five weeks of our Tour2025? Certainly in Belgium and the Netherlands, but also in France, the PR should be further activated. The Tour required a lot more logistics than estimated beforehand, among other things because of defects in the tree bike and because of the complex logistics of travel. Because we travel an average of fifty kilometers per day, we ‘glide’ through the landscape and past the villages, the interaction is often more limited than we would like, the number of presentations less than anticipated. The lack of sufficient financial resources has limited the preparation capacity. We feel that now. Even though going down the route uninhibited and with an open mind also has something very beautiful about it. We “fish and catch” what comes our way. We read the richness of different landscapes and cultures. That too is part of this test tour. What we are doing has not been done before and that has risks, just as it was with Bosk. And yes in hindsight maybe we should have put a lot more effort into building the socials and followers beforehand which would have given us a bigger reach. Even though we already have a considerable reach through the networks of SLeM, Arcadia, GO2025, TreesforAll, and other involved sponsors and partners, among others. Certainly, there is always room for improvement. And maybe we should have informed all the municipalities in advance that we were coming, that might have given more charisma, but that is not certain. Stepping in unexpectedly works very well. In summary, I see our Circle4Change project as a tree, it needs time to take root, grow and mature. It is constantly balancing between opportunities and limitations, listening carefully to the possibilities, playing with conditions and adjusting actions accordingly. This is why the intended project period of Circle4Change is one hundred years. And tomorrow, tomorrow we just go back to cycling!