Hi everybody !

I know I know, i said i'd write in english and i don't do it. But it's hard to find some time. Moreover i thought i could work with some english classes in France to translate some articles, but it seems to be to difficult to put in place.

I'll try to write a summary soon, but for sure it'd not have as details as the french version... so why don't you try to get some french ??

Bye !

Hi English reading friends !

First, we'd like to say a huge congratulations to Katrin and Gernot (Austria) for their wedding (coming soon) !

So, we are riding accross Russia, and the farest from Moscow we go, the better it is. People is more freindly, the country more beautiful, there are less cars... everything better, even the climate. Forgotten the cold summer in Moscow with its 15 degrees, we have now 25 degrees... more ! Here in Volgograd, it's about 40 degrees (shadow).

We try to sleep in hotels every 2 or 3 nights to get a good shower and a confortable bed, but it's also very nice to sleep in the country, quite and... cheaper ! Life in Russia is expensive. Food is good and affordable, but nights in hotel are not. At least 30 Euros, and for this price you don't necesseraly have a good room. We had one once for 10 Euros but it was in an old building of USSR, everything broken, no water... very special.

Russians are very different each other, I mean some are very nice, some not, like everywhere else, but what is strange is when you ask something. Often, they leave ! They just go without even looking at you. Or once, i entered an hotel and i asked for a room. The woman said : "no room available". It was late, we were tired, and there was only one hotel in this city, so i insist. She answered : "let me check" (1 minute goes) "oh yes, i have 1 left". In fact the hotel was at least half empty !!! (It had 10 floors with maybe 30 rooms at each floors). Hard to understand sometimes !

On the bike, after 1200 kms, we start to be a little bit tired. Moreover, we had 450 kms (on 550 kms) of strong wind in face, so it was very hard to keep a high speed. For example, Tuesday our average speed was 18 km/h instead of 25 in good days... It's hard in the legs, but it's also in the head when you have the feeling to be pasted on the road.Our maps seems to show less and less villages, so we'll have to be careful with water.

We sleep a lot, about 10 hours per nights, and we try to eat a lot to cover what we spend during the day. Food is good (as i said before) even if it is very salted and a bit greasy (which is not a problem for us with all the hours on the bike). They don't seem to know olive oil and prefer butter or mayonnaise... They also have nice soups (with mayo), hot or cold.

In a day we drink (each) : 1,5L of fruit juice, 1,5L of high mineralised water, 1 can of sweet something (tea,coke...), 1 tea, and 2 or 3 L of still water, and what we take in soups and fruit like water melon (everywhere here). These days (very hot), we drunk 6 to 7 L of water in a day !

That's it for this time !

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Hi english reading friends…

I’ve decided to write some lines in english to allow our ‘’world’’ friends to have some news of our bike trip. I’ll try to write 20% in english, especially for you, i hope you appreciate !

(and also, the english teacher of Riocreux, where i worked last year, could give these lines to the children to work on them ! so sorry for the mistakes i’ll make...)

So, as you could see on the map, we have plan to ride through Europe and Asia, during 1 year. We’ll start from Moscow, because it will save us time and avoid us a hard winter in Central Asia. We’ll ride from Moscow to France next year after the transiberian train.

From Moscow we will go south to the Caspian See (about 1500 kms). Then we’ll cross the border with Kazakhstan. After 350 kms we’ll take a train to Almaty, before to enter Kirghzstan and Ouzbekistan. Then it will probably be Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, China and Mongolia. So if you are in the area, or if you want to join us to have fun and discover new people and countries, don’t hesitate, we’ll be so happy to meet you again and to share our bike trip...

A last thing, you can (or you have to...) let some messages on this blog, we’ll be so pleased to read them, and they’ll be part of our ‘’special year’’.