Warsaw to Paris: Whatever Happened to Romain

We never saw Romain again - we hope he made it to London ok.

The day after we ran away from him, we met up with a couple from France, they were both riding reclining bikes, and the first we saw of them was only a blur, passing us at high speed down a long sweeping hill.`

Joel shot past first

Closely followed by Irene

Joel and Irene are French and live in Brittany, but have big plans to sell up their house and travel the world. (They were quite heartened when they found out now old we are - gives them at least another ten or twelve years on the bike).

We caught up with them,( they were stopped at the bottom of the hill) and immediately hit it off with them, as you tend to do on the side of country roads. Later, we had stopped for our morning treat of cake/tart/whatever looked sweet and tasty, when they came into the Boulangerie as well.

"We have been looking for you, we forgot to take a photo" said Irene

They sat down and we chatted away, they had flown to Bucharest and were riding up the Donau back to Brittany

"Have you met a TV Reporter from Bulgaria " I asked them

"Non" said Joel looking puzzled

Then a look of astonishment and terror took over his face

"Not Romain" he gasped

"Yes, we have been running away from him for a day or so" I replied

" Oui, Mon Dieu! - we had Romain for four days, we could not get rid of him"

"He had no food, no tent. we felt sorry for him" said Irene, "But in the end we had to tell him, this was no good, he was spoiling our every day, we ended up like you, running away from him".

Romain was sleeping in churchyards and any rough shelter he could find. He had no shelter at all and we are now wondering if he has managed to survive the trip, as the last couple of weeks have been wet and quite cool.

We spot Irene and Joel again - thats them on the left.

(it was them who told us we were in Switzerland!!)

We kept running into Irene and Joel for the next few days, but they were so full of fun and laughs there was no thought in this instance of trying to dodge them.

Rhine Falls from above

Rhine Falls from below

We last saw them at the Rhine Fall's a couple of weeks ago and having left the route for three or four days we expect they have gone well ahead of us.

Another French couple, who we have christened Frank and Fran (yes, we have been surprised by the number of our friends and acquaintances travelling in Europe over the last few months - a fleeting resemblance is all we need) are now revolving in the same loop as us, today we met for the fourth time, at which point Val said:

"We think if we introduce our selves, we may not meet up again" to laughter all round, and anyway, we like to see our Picton friends on the road with us!!

Even though the introductions were not made, they too seem to have moved into another orbit.

The unspoiled Loire.

Being back on the Loire is like meeting an old friend, the river is unspoiled and has an "outback" feel to it, then suddenly around the corner or on a hilltop in the distance, there is a Grand Chateau.

We camp along the Loire,

in the shadow of this Castle

And sip our wine as the sun goes down in a blaze of glory.

In three days we will be in Orleon, meeting up again with the Sainmont Family, who we met on the banks of the Loire in 2008, and subsequently hosted one of their son's, Johan, in New Zealand on several occasions, as well as his Mother, Klaud and younger brother Alban, when they visited him in NZ in 2009.