To Toulouse with nothing to lose.

I couldn’t pass up the chance to use a bon mot like that.

I do have things to lose, namely my bike and 21 pounds worth of gear. I was able to fit the Masi snugly into a box yesterday; Air Transat would have to try really hard if they want to cause damage.

You’re going to France!

Snug and overly bubble wrapped.

I have a heinous amount of experience boxing up bikes. Prior to becoming a bike mechanic, I was the person who took new bikes out of their boxes to build. I was also responsible for disassembling these same bikes and re-boxing them so that they can be ridden in another province.

(This is how I’ve gotten most of my decent jobs: by starting out doing the jobs nobody else wants to do. Eventually, the boss is like, “Aw, I feel bad. Here’s something infinitely less shitty that somehow also pays better.”)

Anyway, at least I can be confident about this one thing. Our bike boxes were just small enough to fit through the scanner! (Yes, I am typing all this on my phone at the airport.)

Our adventure officially begins in a few hours. Tonight’s bed is an airplane seat. Tomorrow night we’ll be sleeping in a tiny tent somewhere in the south of France.

I have not been this prepared for a trip since I was last in France, in 2008. One of the mistakes I made with the 2008 trip was planning my itinerary a little too well, leaving no wiggle room for detours. This time, we may or may not follow this itinerary. We’ll be roughly hereabouts:

As you can see, we might dip into Spain. An extra 30km after Porté-Puymorens could also put us in Andorra. This would be a great win if I had a scratch off world map, but the world means so much more to me than that!

Up into the friendly skies I go!