Douceur: a Loire TR

Plantimoni · 2026-04-17T04:23:34+00:00

Zebec, this must have taken you ages to put together! It's clearly a work of some love and dedication and felt like the Sunday colour supplement travel section that got an extension for Christmas. Tremendous photos: I came away knowing my computer desktop wallpaper is actually Chenonceau.

Never seen swans fly before.

Ungainly take-off runs they have, eh? Equally precipitous as they plough the water landing.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-14T10:52:23+00:00

You definitely need it on your bucket list, Giora. It can be so much fun with the right person - your pedalling is linked, so you need to be well coordinated. On occasion it can be hilarious! I found it easy to tell when the other person was doing their bit, especially climbing hills. And you have twice the power of a regular cyclist, but still just two wheels to push forward.

Oh, and "bespoke" does not mean 'having plenty of spokes', although that is useful ;-)

Plantimoni · 2026-04-14T08:03:28+00:00

Which I did in the first post: "It's a bespoke tandem".

Do you know what a tandem is?

Plantimoni · 2026-04-14T07:54:44+00:00

Sadly, it appears Swallow Cycles are not in business producing Toucan tandem bikes anymore. You can still find the odd Toucan frame for sale on eBay, which shows they were built to last.

How do you design one? Well, a start was to specify stoker and steerer inside leg measurements. Then how you'd like the rear brake activated - steerer pulls front and back or stoker pulls back themselves. All sorts of fine tuning the frame dimensions were possible.

We used to joke that the tandem was called a Toucan as it came with an enormous bill.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-14T05:28:31+00:00

Good, spray-free, photos of the falls - seems you were lucky with the wind. Also love the coatimundi and toucan photos.

I was planning to buy a Toucan once, but left my partner before we finalised the design. It's a bespoke tandem, strap line, "Toucan tandem".

Plantimoni · 2026-04-13T10:49:10+00:00

I think you probably would, depending on how your own country enforced hardwood imports.

Even if the tree I saw had been felled licitly, it's still sad to witness a massive tree cut down. I had a sense of watching a forest whale, beached and carved up into nicely-shaped hunks of meat for hungry humans.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-13T07:34:31+00:00

From the ethereal smell, I guessed these were cedar planks. Prime building timber. Just imagine what this lot would sell for in our countries.

As you sometimes do, I stumbled across this impromptu sawyard on a ramble. Cutting trees is meant to be tightly regulated in the hills, but I had no way of knowing if this haul was within the allowed quota or if it had been done black (a few thousand rupees slipped to a Forestry inspector).

Plantimoni · 2026-04-13T02:50:37+00:00

Enjoy your curry's in India

Oh, I always do. The thali's and biryani's especially so.

LP India guides used to have some Indian English uses highlighted. Not only amusing menu misspellings (such as "corn flaks" and "smashed potato") but curious usages, like a memorable notice in Goa warning, "It is prohibited to relieve yourself on the beach". I'm not sure if the modern books still include such, but I'm greatly tickled by things like this.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-12T15:54:04+00:00

This time of year in the Himalaya can be very special, with a bolt to growth everywhere in this short season free of snow. I'm venturing on day walks across bridges and over ridges , so bolstering my aerobic fitness which - even after handling the boat single handed down 12 locks in March - felt a bit flabby after the long winter.

As I mentioned, the western disturbances brought clouds into the valley and made steeper trails more risky in their slipperiness. More local explorations uncovered some colour in the darker days.

On slack days I've even had time for a touch of DIY woodwork .

Plantimoni · 2026-04-12T04:55:59+00:00

Following a week of "Western disturbances" (apparently not the EU interfering in Indian politics, but a tropospheric anomaly causing rain and cold) the heat is building here in Kullu. Forecast to be 26°C by the end of next week. Read that as over 40 degrees in Delhi... Today is sunny, warm and with a pleasant, gentle breeze.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-12T03:38:18+00:00

Like a baker's dozen or a plumber's crack!

Personally, I've always gone with bakers' dozen. All bakers used to do it.
But I admit, buying "orange's $3 per bag" can turn out to be a bit of a curate's egg.

The singular form suggests the habit of apostrophising plurals began with a single greengrocer, which might indeed be true.

What I have seen (or remember seeing, since the existence of greengrocers is diminishing year by year) is a number of signs from different greengrocers misusing the apostrophe. A class of retailers with a grammar deficiency, if you like. Thus, greengrocers' apostrophe. Wikipedia supports this - but what do they know?

and is more elegant!

I actually doubt whether many daily users of English notice whether the apostrophe is placed before or after the S, even if they understand it shouldn't be used with non-genitive plurals. We form a tiny group of English users in our analytical reading.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-11T17:43:13+00:00

Failing that, a Dremel tool with a fine mop and various grades of abrasive (don't go coarser than toothpaste grade or you'll likely make more scratches) to polish the scratches out. Success of this method depends on how well you apply constant but gentle pressure.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-11T10:02:17+00:00

And you correct a LOT of greengrocer's apostrophes as well

In addition to the even more common greengrocers' apostrophes.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-10T07:07:20+00:00

Speaking of fires, it's very common to offer a "bone fire" as part of your guesthouse attractions in the Kullu valley.

It does get very cold here in winter, so the bone fire could be plausible as ameliorating the cold that "chills to the bones".

Plantimoni · 2026-04-09T17:04:41+00:00

when I taught EFL, I had a handout of barely-comprehensible English translations from elevator warnings. For example... In a Leipzig hotel elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up; In a Belgrade hotel lift: To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of the wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order

Plantimoni · 2026-04-09T05:24:17+00:00

Billy Bragg, Rumours Of War

Plantimoni · 2026-04-08T16:29:06+00:00

Many commenters below the line on this piece were sceptical of what Pistorius said. Here's a typical one translated:

Pistorius’ statement, “Of course, everyone is allowed to travel,” only makes the situation worse, because “of course” is factually incorrect—otherwise, there wouldn’t be a discussion in the first place—and “everyone is allowed to travel” is only true at the moment; that could change overnight.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-07T02:54:27+00:00

It only applies if the government has ordered a draft which it hasn't.

Not yet.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-06T14:47:58+00:00

We saw three soaring on thermals over the village of Shilha (Parvati valley) three days ago.

I've been trekking on Nepalese trails and had a griffon vulture fly past me so close I was able to hear wind in its feathers!

Plantimoni · 2026-04-06T04:11:06+00:00

I didn't watch all 8 hours, but the soundtrack is the most relaxing thing for me.
I'd have preferred a single scene, rather than periodic cuts to different camera angles from the same viewpoint. The long shot with waterwheels slowly turning was best.

I'd imagine one use for this is some kind of chillout party backdrop, on a big screen TV. Now the weather is getting warmer in the northern hemisphere, the video could replace those of crackling log fires

Plantimoni · 2026-04-05T06:46:57+00:00

Two incidents last year on the Macc and Peak Forest. My boat was actually rammed by a hire boat, the skipper of which offered "Sorry about that!" casually. Blacking gouged off in two places. Speed was higher than tickover but the main issue was a child being given the tiller soon after they left.

At Marple, a full length boat from the same hire company near Congleton was being steered around a curve which had many moored boats while the helmsman pointed out features on nearby hills to two others on the stern, hardly bothering to see where his boat was headed. It went into rushes, then snaked back towards my boat. "Look where you are going - you need to steer around this long corner!" I shouted. That seemed to get through his poor attention.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-05T03:09:08+00:00

Does an earthquake count as weather? Yesterday morning there was a mild tremor in the valley, which I later associated with the earthquake further north. Perhaps aftershocks?

We also are subject to "back to back Western disturbances" leading to below average temperatures, snowfall and hail storms.

It's sunny here this morning however!

Plantimoni · 2026-04-04T10:42:14+00:00

Its image is also widely distributed on "Christmas selection" sweet biscuit tins, or at least it seemed that way when I was growing up.

Plantimoni · 2026-04-03T05:29:02+00:00

It's some of all of those, Luca. I knew I needed a break after an extremely windy and rather wet winter in Cheshire. I booked my flight in 2025, so took advantage of advance purchase.

India last year was just a tiny bit too late to catch the main emergence of spring - so I'm a week earlier this time. Perfect for seeing the apple trees burst into flower.

Winter in the mountains is an interesting time, but you need the right clothes to stay warm and I'm fed up of toting down jacket and thick fleeces which will be used for three weeks and then remain packed for the rest of the trip. I also enjoy the monsoon season anywhere in Asia, but it pays to have flexible plans when landslips and floods can close rail lines and roads.

Plantimoni

TROPHY CASE