Usually we go from the UK to Austria in the summer holidays to visit my mum’s parents, my cousins etc. In 2020, because of Covid and cancelled flights, we got stuck in Vienna until the middle of October. That was very nice, but we weren’t very independent. In 2021, Anthony’s dad offered to lend us his car. It was the first time we had made the journey by car and we were looking for a place to stop on the way. Also, Covid rules then in force said we could not enter Switzerland if we had been in the UK in the last ten days, and we would have had to quarantine in Austria. So we were forced to have 10 days’ holiday in France. The Vosges region is about half way from the UK to Austria. Cyclists know that it is hilly from the Tour de France. We found a friendly-looking B&B in the middle of nowhere but near enough to the Planche des Belles Filles (scene of Chris Froome’s first Tour de France stage-win in 2012), booked it, and set off.
The B&B in La Montagne was indeed very friendly and well-located for exploring the Plateau des Mille Étangs. We made our first ascents of La Planche des Belles Filles and Ballon d’Alsace. The nearest neighbour at La Montagne, we heard, had chickens and we could get eggs. She also likes to chat, and when she found out about my cycling she suggested I should meet Rudy Cara, the head of a school in Faucogney where they have a cycling section. Later that day, she came over to tell me that M. Cara was in fact in his office (though it was the middle of the holidays) and we should go at once to meet him, so we did. We found him in the distinctive, multicoloured 1960’s building in Faucogney that is the Collège Duplessis-Deville. He explained his approach to running a school in a rural community and he showed me round the Section cyclisme: ‘When you go through this door you are no longer a pupil, you are a cyclist’.
Before we said goodbye, he offered that I could come and try out the school and the Section cyclisme whenever I want. Anthony said that would be an offer that would be hard to turn down, but asked what about my sister, Minz. Our neighbour with the eggs is also a journalist. She got a story, ‘Un élève Anglais a visité le collège’, and I got my picture in the local paper. The reply from M. Cara soon came that Minz could also try out the primary school which is across the road from the collège. We arranged to stop in Faucogney for two weeks on our way back to London. I joined the first class of the collège (6e) and Minz the first class of the primaire (CP).
My first outing with the Section cyclisme
It was soon clear we would like to make more of it than a short visit, if we could find somewhere to live. While Minz and I were a school, Marlene and Anthony looked around. There were some derelict farms, a tumbledown chateau, and old tax office and a big house close the school with sign ‘À vendre’. It also had a sign ‘Miel à vendre’. We bought some honey and asked about the house. The lady who lived there said we should talk to the agent, and it was the agent that showed us round the house and the garden, cellars, attics, studios, sheds, stables and barns went with it. We signed the deal before we left for London and came back in April 2022 to our own house in France.
