Samedi 17/07 2010

There is no refuse collection in the Bretagne countryside, so no dustbin man. We have to take our rubbish to the nearest decheterie or the nearest group of bins which are strategically placed near to groups of houses. At the decheterie we can sort the rubbish as there is a bottle bank. There are different bins for magazines and papers and plastics and general household rubbish. I went to the decheterie this morning and saw no-one on the way there. On my return I passed a sans permit being driven by a friend in the village who is one of six sisters. Then I stopped and allowed a cyclist to pass. She almost fell off waving to let me know she knew me. There are lots of male cyclists and there are some female cyclists, but they are usually on what I call ladies shopping cycles. I don't know much about bikes, but I remember these. They are the ones that the ladies in the Cheshire town I knew used to shop. The town had no hills in fact it was completely flat. The bicycles had a large basket in front and a rear rack to hold the shopping. I also remember the chopper. I remember these because they came in just as my brother bought a cycle shop. I was allowed to manage it for about 3 months. I tried to stock choppers but there were none available from the manufacturers which was Raleigh. Racers were popular also but mainly for boys and men in cycle clubs. I bought a 2-wheeler for my son, and he was too scared to ride it eventually we bought him some stabilisers which he refused to remove. We visited my sisters, and he rode his cousin's bike without thinking and then he couldn't wait to get home to take the stabilisers off his bike.