Croissants and the City: Bournemouth to Nantes

Eleven days ago I was nervously staring at a small pile of panniers in the hallway wondering what on earth the next 15 months had in store? Now, just over a week later and I’m sat on a river bank eating a banana and watching a woman in overalls climb out of an elephant’s bottom.

The Night Before

It’s been nearly 4 years now since the idea of a ‘gap year’ raised its provocative head one evening after a bad day at work and a glass of wine too many. Spurred on memories of previous adventures and a sense of life sliding by at an alarming rate, the thought of ditching the bills, the endless zoom meetings and the shackles of adult life was just immensely appealing.

Piles

Having known each other a little while now I feel it’s ok to share a little personal information. In the last few weeks, I seem to have developed piles.

The Stuff Mountain

So, it turns out that handing in my notice was the easy bit and, after a brief, heady interlude of celebration, the reality has now well and truly taken hold.

As have the practicalities.

I now have just 2 weeks left at work and around 6 until we head off into the sunset (or the local ferry port) on our bikes. It’s not long!

In fairness it’s a similar/greater length of time to other pre-adventure preparation but there’s nothing to kick your heart rate and bodily functions up a notch like having a deadline looming.

Quitting

There’s nothing like a finely crafted resignation letter and, after nearly an hour of edits and re-writes, this is still nothing like finely crafted.