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| Villaines-la-Juhel |
Conversations quoted below were originally conducted in French; they're retold from memory here, and written in English.🗣🇫🇷
My three bananas and I left Quédillac at about 4:00am sharp Wednesday morning. Some nine hours and one hundred miles later I found myself approaching the control town of Villaines-la-Juhel, in good spirits but in need of a little grub and an afternoon nap. I figured that the control's dormitory would be pretty empty on that sunny afternoon, so I was looking forward to a peaceful, easy recharge before pushing on to the room I'd reserved for the night at Mortagne-au-Perche, some 50 miles or so farther down the route.
Now, the Villaines-la-Juhel control is always hopping. You approach the control along a main drag, and most of the bike parking is all along this road; control services are at church & school grounds on either side of the road.
And there are so many people! And an MC on a mic, talking to the crowd and riders! And banners! And even little handmade carnival activities for kids! And there are volunteers everywhere, all wearing the same blue volunteer t-shirt! A nonstop PBP party!
Despite the party atmosphere, my standard control drill was the focus: make that mental to-do list on the approach, check off each to-do item as efficiently as possible (in this case: park bike; get control stamp, water, & food; take nap), and leave.
Given the linear parking at Villaines-la-Juhel, it can be kind of a crapshoot -- do you hope for a slot closer to everything, or take one of the first you spot? I got lucky with a pretty good spot.
Upon parking, I did the usual minor management of clothes / food / trash / bottles / brevet card before venturing into the control on foot; this takes a minute or two. My bike was nose-in to the event fence, with onlookers along the other side of fence; the MC on the mic was just behind me, talking to the crowd with a bit of a play-by-play (if you can imagine). The perfect scene for chatting with folks!
My conversation with the friendly local folks along the fence was pretty general, not of particular note. Before taking my leave of them to look after my control business, I offered an SFR pin to one of them.
As we talked briefly about the pin, somehow my attention turned to the amplified voice of the MC coming over the loudspeaker: the MC was right behind me, narrating my San Francisco Randonneurs pin exchange live as it happened! Haha! He explained for the crowd how my presentation of the pin expressed the goodwill of riders from around the world. So fun, so funny, and so true!!
I got my card stamped in the control room -- check. Food up next.
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Despite usually having an insatiable sweet tooth, my body wanted something savory. The coffee & pastry station near the control room wasn't going to do it for me this time, so I went in search of restauration.
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| Villaines-la-Juhel pastries hit the spot for me in 2015, but this time I was after something more savory. |
Or, rather, I let the volunteers help me find it: blue-shirted volunteers lined the pathways of the control like yellow-vested riders lined the roads of Brittany out on the course. This included plenty of children and seniors -- apparently a cross-section of the community, all there hanging out, having a great time, and eager to lend a hand to riders.
I asked for the canteen several times as I made my way, with folks guiding me along. Soon I was making my way down these steps...
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| Image from Google Maps |
...and across the road toward the canteen:
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| Image from Google Maps |
As you can see from the signs above, the RESTAURATION was OPEN À TOUS, or open to everyone. A volunteer intercepted me as I entered this portion of the control site, and asked what I was looking for: restauration.
She took me by the arm and led me ahead toward the cafeteria. As it was peak lunchtime, there was a long line of people waiting to get in. This line was predominantly members of the general public (rather than riders); my volunteer escort encouraged me:
"Go right past all of these people, right to the front of the line. Go right in this door. You're a rider, everyone will understand. Just go right to the front and get your food."
I thanked her kindly, and she left me to get my food.
I made my way to the doorway and looked inside. It was PACKED. Ugh.
My mood was good, but I was tired (I still needed my nap!) and I just didn't feel like dealing with the scene. I figured I'd just go back and get some pastries before my nap. One could do worse.
No sooner than I'd made my U-turn, the volunteer who'd delivered me to the canteen intercepted me again:
"Why aren't you getting food?"
"Thank you for helping me, but I just don't feel like dealing with the crowd. I'll just get some pastries."
On a mission to get me my food, she took me by the arm again:
"Come with me."
She took me around to the other end of the building:
"You'll go in this door here and get a sandwich. Come. Right in here."
She takes me through the door, which opens into the rear of the cafeteria where I can see a bar.
"You see him?" Points to a teenager -- in a blue t-shirt, of course! -- behind the bar. "Go right up to him and ask him for a sandwich, and he'll get you a sandwich. Go on, go right up!"
Haha, AWESOME! Exactly what I needed: regular food, quick & easy, no stress; perfect. "Thank you!"
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Sandwich achieved, it was time for my nap. This was adjacent to the canteen, where a couple of people were staffing shower, bathroom, and dormitory services.
I signed in with my desired wake-up time, and a young person (maybe ten or eleven years old?) was assigned to show me to my dormitory spot.
We went across the middle school courtyard to another building. My escort shouldered his responsibility well, giving me instruction along the way. We went inside:
"You may leave your shoes here."
He then took me into the music room, brightly lit on that sunny afternoon. (I like sunny afternoon naps!) The room was filled with vinyl records: not on the shelves, but nailed to the walls, the anachronistic media reduced to decoration.
Mattresses were arranged on the floor, and I was directed by the young monsieur to one in a corner, as far as possible from the only other mattress in use, its occupant sound asleep.
My nap was fairly brief, but quite refreshing. I woke up a bit before my scheduled wake-up time, so I got my shoes, "checked out" with the folks at the services table, and returned to my bike and headed on down the road.
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As simple as it was, it was one of my best and most-memorable hours of PBP 2019. Could there have been a more perfect control experience?
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