Adventure Cycling has a designation for people who volunteer to help cyclists along their 40k+ miles of bike routes across the US. If we could do it in Europe, we would nominate our friend Lieven as a Trail Angel.
Lieven not only picked us up with our broken rim, but took us to several bike shops and was our French interpreter with many sales and service people. Finally driving us all the way to Bordeaux where he found the right wheel, back to a local shop that did the replacement, and even to a spa to wait for the work to be completed!
Jon also had a cut that had become infected, and we needed to see a doctor. So we got a small sample of the French medical system. Lieven took us to a local clinic, where there was just a doctor – no receptionist, no nurse, no 2 more staff to handle insurance, records, and billing! We just went in without an appointment, the doctor looked at the cut and made out a prescription, and then (just to show off to the Americans?) didn’t even charge us! The prescription however, did cost us $3.50 at the pharmacy. 🙂 Why do we Americans put up with the lies of the Republicans and our Corporate Capitalist driven medical system?
Then we ended the day with a most unusual pizza, made in a van that parks near Lieven’s house on the canal. The van has a wood fired pizza oven inside!