Haute Saône: On The Bicycle II

As our car was still waiting for us at the parking of Montbozon, we had to return there using the same road.

Earlier I noticed some nice buildings near a level crossing. when we cycled past again, an old couple happened to be there trimming grass and flowers.

Ernest loved to seize opportunities to chat with people. He was interested in everything as long as he was provided an explanation. He must be asking the grandfather about the cycle route.

After I had taken a picture of them from far, I left my bicycle on the grass and approached them. Seeing my camera, the grandfather thought I was a journalist. He told us that he was not ready for the interview!

Ernest quickly clarified to him that I was just a tourist from Malaysia. The old man was curious to know where my country was exactly situated in Asia, and if we had been affected by the Si-Chuan earthquake.

The grandfather was a retired railwayman, like Nicole's late father. He showed us traces of the track beside the cycle route. With his spouse, he even invited us to have a drink inside their house. The nice gesture reminded us a scene of the movie "Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis" where the postal supervisor Philippe once followed Antoine, a senior postal carrier, on duty. He wanted to find out why his colleague often came back to office from work as a drunkard. After accepting invitations to have a drink by numerous families to whom they delivered letters, both of them ended up being drunk together.

As we planned to arrive at our starting point by 6.30pm, we had to kindly turn down their offer.

Usually when we cycled or walked, Nicole was always dragging behind us. She liked "to move three steps forward and then two steps backward", as described by Ernest. This time with my camera, I was the one to linger. I braked spontaneously to take a picture of a slug,

a lovely well in front of a house,

or a horse.

When Ernest also paused for shooting, then only we would overtake. Nicole was the leader this time. Suddenly I realized a sliver-blue grass snake was sliding across the cycle route in front of her. Before she could do anything to avoid it, her front wheel had crashed on it. The poor reptile must have slithered in pain and disappeared in the grass. Nicole was also stunned and disgusted. When we told Ernest, who joined us soon later, about it, he teased Nicole,
"For the first time that you were in front, you crashed on an animal!"

Further up, we saw a man and his son were staring at a long silver snake on a rock. It was different from Nicole's victim.

"We found it killed on the road. So we left it here."

"Is it venomous?"

"No. This is a grass snake."

"How to differentiate?"

"You see here. It's ..."

A questions-and-answers session was initiated by Ernest as usual. Nicole still had the shock of the earlier incident. She did not even want to go near the rock.

We passed through the beautiful forest,

before we reach the milestone showing twenty kilometres. It was still a kilometre away from the car park.

So, each of us had pedalled to and fro forty-two kilometres altogether. Bravo to Ernest and Nicole, who were two times my age!