Sylvain lives again!

Brought to you by the Germans, the Brits, and the Americans. But NOT the French:


Wow it's been a long time. Almost two months apparently. Does anyone even read this thing anymore? If so, you have to let me know! I've been hemming and hawing (sp?) about whether or not to keep it up, because I just don't have any clue if anyone is really reading it. I kind of feel like I'm writing in a void here, so if anyone is reading, PLEASE COMMENT! Do I keep it up or not? If I don't get any feedback, I'll assume no one's following and turn it off. After all, it IS rather presumptuous of me to assume anyone is reading, particularly now that I'm back to the trite banality of my American existence, haha.

But one last holdover from France: I finally got Sylvain put back together this week! Woohoo! He made it just fine, in really great condition according to the awesome guys at the bike shop.

The saga began in early July. I was initially planning to sell Sylvain, since I have a perfectly fine bike here. But then I got to thinking about how much I liked him and how much I'd miss him, and I figured, what the hell, biking was one of the best parts of my year in Paris, why not at least try to bring him home???

I looking online at British Airways and figured out that it was actually quite easy to do, with the appropriate packing. It was just the same price as an extra bag, which was 35 euros. So I figured, ok, for $50, that's totally worth it. Of course I had to buy a bike bag to store it in during the flight, but that would be reusable if I ever want to travel with the bike again.

The easy part ended there, alas. I went to my local bike store for a bag, and they were like, "yeah, we're out, we always run out in the summer, you'll have to call one of the big sporting goods stores, but they often run out too." So I called the big sporting goods store by the BN (Decathlon), and they were like, "yeah, summer's a high demand time, we always run out." I asked if they knew when they'd get them in, and they said they had no idea, they always run short in the summer. I then called another big sports store (Go Sport), and got the same message.

Which raises a fundamental question: HAS ANYONE IN THAT COUNTRY EVER HEARD OF CAPITALISM??? I mean, seriously now, I was calling all around, TRYING to spend my money, and everyone was giving me the same message: demand always outstrips supply in the summer. Right.

So then I did what ever smart consumer in France probably does: I went to Germany. Well, not physically, but cyber-ly (ok, I just made up a word, but you get the point). I went online, found a great bike bag from a German store, and I bought it. No wonder Germany is faring so much better during this financial crisis (best in Europe). Their economy WORKS.

Perhaps the funniest part was that I had a great email exchange with an employee over there (in French). I contacted them to see if I could get rush shipping, since at that point I only had two weeks left in France. They were super nice about it and sent it UPS, with a tracking number and all. I wrote back thanking them and saying that I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find such a bag in France and that I was so happy to have found them. The woman wrote back (and this is a direct translation of her message) and was like, "of course you'll be happy with it, it's a great bag, it's German." hahahahaha. Of course she was right, the thing arrived a few days later and it was perfect.

Getting Sylvain to the airport was no joke, however. I had to take an airport shuttle and then shuffle my way through Terminal 2B (the really packed one...obviously) with my overweight suitcases, overweight carry-ons, and a big old bike bag. Imagine me, with a cart, wheeling all that through crowds and crowds. And because it was the start of the annual summer vacation time, the airport was insane. One particular area I had to pass through was MAYHEM...guess what it was: Air Tahiti. Of course. Assholes. All on their way to exotic vacations while I was trying to get the damned bike through the hallways, haha.

But miracles do happen and I got it all checked in, and all the way through my connection at Heathrow. He was there waiting for me in Philly, safe and sound! And thank god for those little suitcase carts at the airport, I don't know what I would have done without them!

Took me a few weeks to get him put back together since, well, my knee is so messed up I'm not really going anywhere these days. I finally figured it would be a good idea to make sure he was ok, though, so I took him in this weekend and just rode him home. Perfect!