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Sunday 4th
The phones in the rooms woke everyone at 8.00am as arranged. Breakfast, the traditional
continental kind, was at 9.00am. The bikes were unloaded from the truck straight after
breakfast. We assembled into out cycling groups (Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and
France), and headed into the town of Chatelaillon Plage for 11 o’clock mass.
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We raised some locals eyebrows with all the
bikes and the size of our group. It was apparent from a few of the locals that we spoke to
that we were expected in advance of our arrival and were known as the "Irish cycling
group". The priest in the church evidently wasn’t expecting our group as he had
to do the loaves and fishes miracle with the Eucharist. |
| While most of the group were in the church, a
few adults remained outside to keep an eye on the bikes. Kieran Moloney pulled up, looking
very image conscious, in Paul Fallon's new Jeep. Michael Pomeroy gave some directorial
input to the camera man as to Kieran's best profile, before deciding to strike several
poses, sunglasses included, with Kieran and the Jeep. |
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With everyone suitably spiritually enlightened
after the mass, the group poured out of the church. While Kieran Moloney and Paul Fallon
discussed the finer points of modern camcorder technology, Marianne and Mirette discussed
the finer points of "lunch". In the meantime Burkey, Rob Nolan and yours truly
struck suitable poses for the camcorder. Some of the sixth class lad sat down for a chat,
while Declan Sugrue waited patiently for the off. |
| Still outside the church Rob Nolan was at the
helm of the camcorder. He reasonably requested David Tracy to give his Mom (Sharon) a
kiss. Sharon under Rob's direction moved in to oblige. David on the other hand, turned to
the camera and giving a suitably disdainful look, swiftly departed the scene, much to the
amusement of Sharon and the assembled onlookers. |
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In the meantime Morgan was proudly showing off
the Easter card that he got from Rachel Tracey (David's younger sister). In fairness
nearly all the senior lads got an excellent home made Easter card from Rachel, but all did
note with interest that Morgan's was the only one to be a pop-up card with a moving beak
(as Morgan demonstrates in the pictures here). "Favouritism" is strongly
suspected, but just as strongly denied by Rachel. Rachel's picture, taken by herself, is
also shown. |
| After mass we cycled via the cycle tracks to
the old port in La Rochelle. Continuing on, we headed to the impressive bridge that links
the mainland to "Isle De Re". The bridge (modelled here by Tom Flemming) is 4k
long and on a good day can be seen from our Hotel in Chatelaillon Plage (about 10 miles
away). The senior group insisted on stopping to admire it. They wanted a rest. |
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After lunch the groups went their various ways and did their own exploring of the
Island. Unfortunately time did not allow for use of the togs and towels that were brought,
but with the promise of even better weather tomorrow the groups were not too disappointed.
Being mindful of being back in the Hotel for 7.30pm for dinner, most of the groups did not
see the island in its entirety. However one group did manage to see considerably more of
the island than the others, and was slightly late for dinner as a result.
Everybody arrived back safely to the Hotel and enjoyed and excellent fish dinner that
evening. In between courses some of the senior lads decided to have a play with the
camcorder, and as a result we have pictures of nearly all of them. Pictures of the the
kids and adults of other groups at dinner follows on, on later pages.
| Gilly has a drink, while
Michael "Chunky" O'Carroll tries to hide from the camera, but we got him in the
end (was it worth the effort ?.......No). Likewise James Costelloe makes a dive for cover,
but we got him in the end too. It would seem caught "Mono" at a bad moment. |
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Burkey, Henry, Morgan, Mark, and David are all
smiles...... |
All in all most groups covered 60 to 70 miles, which turned out to be an
excellent start to the weeks cycling.
Click here to go to France - Day 2, but
before you do.....
.....You may be noticed at this point (as I have) that the most prominent
group of cyclists is probably the Senior Group. The is due to the fact that person
constructing / writing the site (Niall Devine) cycles exclusively with these guys, and
therefore has the greatest opportunity to write about / photograph them. I am looking to
achieve a good balance on the site, so I need and am asking for adults that cycle with the
other groups to submit photos to me for scanning and any stories / reports for writing.
This site is for all the Wheelers, so lets have input from everybody. Thanks in advance
for your help and support.
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