day 104 - 44 km
Moux en Morvan - Lormes
In Moux en Morvan, at the town hall where the tree bike is located, we meet a man, Michel, who lives next door and would like to give the tree and leaflets to Mayor Pascal Rateau when he returns from vacation. Michel is a decorator and works here. We cycle a beautiful route through the wooded Morvan today. Climbing and descending alternate. Richard cycles with us, Daan follows with the car. It is not so hot today, around thirty, with a breeze. Perfectly doable. In Montsauche-les-Settons we cycle into a flea market. Over a cup of coffee, people come and ask what we are doing. Here too we meet Dutch people, of course. We cycle over a small “coll” of about six hundred meters altitude and know that from here on it only goes further down. But even on these roads the tree still gets a lot to endure, it bumps and the tree shakes from side to side. We are super happy that our Stone Oak has still held up. When we drive onto Eric’s property in Lormes after forty-four kilometers, Eric and his wife Elsje are waiting for us enthusiastically. What a nice welcome. A little later Hilbert reports who brings the new trees. Very nice. We put them in our trailer. They look good, which is nice to hand out. Tomorrow for the “Marie” here in Lormes. Hilbert and his daughter Cara join us for dinner tonight.
Sun Aug 17 - day 105
The first new trees, brought by Hilbert yesterday, are put on the tree bike, we hang the information cards on the trees and we cycle to the square in front of the Mairie here in Lormes. Eric leads the way. It is just about ten o’clock and on the terrace of the bar there are people who look surprised when we arrive on the tree bike and explain our map of seven by seven meters. There is a friendly atmosphere in this cultural village, partly, of course, because of the open-atelier weekend. It is a coming and going of people, a mixture of residents, both French and Dutch who live here, as well as visitors to the open-atelier days. Again and again we enthusiastically tell our story and we give away a total of more than forty little trees. Absolutely great. And everyone reacts, as we are used to, extremely positively to our initiative and our bike ride with the tree. We are now about three-quarters of the way through and you can sense the wonder and respect that we have actually done this. We have already cycled about four thousand kilometers, and we have crossed the Alps. We can hardly believe it ourselves but the photos and videos really show it clearly. It is a wonderful morning with, as I said, super enthusiastic stories and reactions. Around one o’clock we happily cycle back to Eric’s house where we are staying. The afternoon for me, besides the hour of swimming in the reservoir with Daan, is devoted to preparing the presentation for tomorrow morning in the Mairie. I wonder if and how many people will attend. Eric has also invited the artist community. Would be nice of course. Also a bit exciting. It was also in the regional newspaper that we were there, so maybe that will help, who knows.
Mon Aug 18 - day 106
Hilbert is there in time to replace the sensor in the tree bike that tends to falter. Hopefully it will be better from now on. Today it will be around thirty degrees but the next few days it will drop to around twenty. We will have to get used to that after the heat of the past few weeks. Around ten o’clock we ride the tree bike to the Marie of Lormes, where I give a presentation about Circle4Change at eleven o’clock. We set up the chairs and technology and wait outside in front of the door on the same little square where we handed out the little trees yesterday. Slowly some people come walking up, mostly Dutch people who live here and were invited by Eric. When we begin, there are at least thirty people in the room. The deputy mayor announces me and then I tell my story nice and compact in about forty minutes, without the longer Bosk film. It went very well, there was a nice balance between the old projects, including Bosk, and the new Circle4Change project, which of course is what this is all about. A nice meeting with warm enthusiastic reactions. We took a group photo afterwards in front of the Marie at the tree, everyone got a little tree to take home to give away to a birthday person and we walked to the spot where we planted three trees together with the deputy mayor. All in all an excellent event, thanks in part to Eric’s excellent preparations. Totally great. The afternoon, as is usually the case on non-cycling days, goes mostly behind the computer. Answering mails. And, among other things, sending the newsletter to all contacts on the line. In the evening, Eric invited us to dinner with his family. It is very pleasant and we talk about everything, including our Tour of course. It is nice to see the reactions our initiative generates. The fact that the circle is so large and incalculable in combination with the tangible of the tree bike and the handing out of the little trees makes it touch people, and at the same time creates wonder and respect. Tomorrow we’ll be biking again, in two days to Sens, if I’m not mistaken. But we will sleep one more night here tomorrow night. What a nice place to unwind.