thursday 26 july, after the long circle of wednesday, one of the conclusions was the lack of time for resting and organizing workshops, so the group decided to change a bit the plan for the next days and go directly to Montpelier in two days (just one night of wild camping). Some of us stopped in Beziers for internet and most of the day we followed paths near the canals till Agde where we found a field to camp.
KaLaJ Squat
friday 27 july, yo and me took the train to Montpelier in order for her to hitchhike early and pass on her bike. The others cycle next to the beach. On Montpelier, after finding the squat that hosted us, some visited KaLaJ squat in the center to meet some other squatters and check for electricity and internet.
saturday 28 july, we played some group games together and had a biketour dynamics workshop, using The World Cafe methodology to identify and get some proposals on some issues on how this biketour community works. After lunch most of the people went to the city and, after a great skipping adventure in the town, we got to know that the squat we were staying got an eviction order starting from monday. A long, and out of hours, circle to decide what the group should do was held after dinner and we postponed final decision to the morning.
sunday 29 july, the plan was to cycle to the next squatted punk village on two days, but on the morning half of the group decided to stay behind to support the local squat that hosted us, showing solidarity, helping on small tasks, have time for nice conversations on squatting and baking cakes and meals that pleased all. The others continued and wild camped 50km north of the city.
monday 30 july, although some woke up very early to be ready, there was no eviction in the morning! After saying goodbye and be thanked for our (mainly moral) support, 7 of us cycled around 120km to meet the rest of the group while others took the train to alés and cycled the rest, we were still able to arrive to this beautiful squatted village before the rest of the group.
tuesday 31 july, we spent an amazing day in this punk rebuilt village, helped in the garden and collecting medicinal plants and we had time for a conclusion circle on the biketour workshop we did in Montpelier. We radically changed the way we distribute tasks, instead of having breakfast, lunch, dinner, food and trailers tasks we created a food group that is responsible for all this tasks on one day and other similar task group for route was proposed. This proposals appeared in order to better distribute tasks and create more free time for everyone. Was incredible to visit this place and share stories and discuss different practices of community living.
wednesday 1 august, we got out early for a short ride to La Ferme des Enfants – Le Hameau des Buis, a big ecological project that built all their facilities ecologically and house around 50 people, they also have a school for 50 children following montesorri methodologies and we had a 3 hours visit and presentation about their inter-generational project. We also had time to swim in a nearby river and say goodbye to some people that will head to Avignon earlier to leave the tour.
thursday 2 august, we left early, as usual, and cycle near the Gorges d’Ardeche for most of the morning, after an insanely hard climb we decided to stop for lunch and rest, natasha cycle further to talk with local anti-fracking activists and later on we found a neighbor that allowed us to camp near their vines.
friday 3 august, a short day going down from the Ardeche to meet the Rhone and arrive to Faisanderie de la Berre where we had time for some workshops on anti-advertisement campaigns in france and the luxury of using a kitchen to prepare delicious meals and eat together with our incredible circus hosts and share some of their farm production :D
Saint-Alban Nuclear Power plant
Stop Nuclear!
VELORUTION!
saturday 4 august, the group got smaller on the last days and we were only 23 people cycling down the Rhone to meet some of the people that went directly to Avignon and the Serious Beans Project that plan to join us with all their instruments on bike and trailers (it includes a double-bass!!) luckily we found a neighbor that allowed us to use their field to camp, really near the city :D, and the night ended with a great concert of our new friends in the center of Avignon :D