Always Patronize Your Local Bike Shop

Always Patronize Your Local Bike Shop
My cyclometer died. What better place to replace it than in Bagnères-de-Luchon? After consulting the Office de Tourisme, I made my way to Liberty Cycles, unaware that I was to have the most delightful and surprising encounter.
The tandem and the Statue of Liberty were certainly auspicious, as was the portrait of Miguel Indurain. Poking my head around the van parked in the entry, I found Gérard Demiguel, a bike in the workstand, several onlookers visiting, an impressive array of tools, bikes and maillots. He humored my Francais before breaking into excellent Anglais. Certainly he had a wireless cyclocomputer, and he would find it for me. Rummaging about, he returned with three boxes and we explored together. As he was doing some figuring, I inquired about photgraphing his display of jerseys. "We will do better than that!" Within moments, he had pulled from a corner and unsheathed from its protective plastic a maillot jaune. A maillot jaune won by, worn by, and signed by the great Spaniard himself, Miguel Indurain. Gérard placed it upon me with much ceremony. To describe the welling of emotion within me words do not suffice. I was both stunned and deeply moved. Still am.
More conversation determined that Gérard's wife was born in the same hospital as myself, in the same year. A small world, indeed! One phone call, and Barbara took some time away from her work as a nurse's aide to come and visit. She has lived in Bagnères-de-Luchon for the last 23 years, having come to stay for a few weeks of working on a farm and, well, that's her story! She arranged for Gérard to loan me his city bike and we dashed to catch a concert in the park and she provided a little local history. Bagnères-de-Luchon was once a grand location for the nobility coming to take the curative waters. Then, for many years, the state paid all costs of treatment for the general population. Now it is both a resort city, and a center for the treatment of rhumatism, arthritis and sinus problems. Returning to the personal, we determined that we had attended Berkeley at about the same time, and that we share a common vision about the balance of work and life.
All too soon, it was time to get back to work for Barbara, and for me to depart, if I was to depart aujourd'hui (it was already après-midi).
Such a fantastic morning, all because my cyclo computer failed.
Merci merci merci, Gérard et Barbara!