Day 27: Compiègne à Chantilly

img_20180616_110804 — Strong start to the day

I wish today were two days.

First, there would be the most perfect cycle touring day. Before we could leave Compiègne, but after fueling up on pastries (at a boulangerie called Mme. Poulet, Mrs. Chicken, which I still find suspect), we immediately hit the Saturday market, where we bought cheese, carrots, radishes, and peaches.

Then 20 KM into the ride we saw signs for a strawberry sale, which was a strawberry VENDING machine, selling two types of strawberries at 4.50 Euros per 500g, plus berries for canning at 1 Euro per 500g. We bought both.

Then 30 KM into the ride we arrived at the beautiful Parc Naturel Regional Oise, a former royal hunting grounds complete with soaring trees and paved cycling routes. The climbs climbed themselves and we were joyfully spit out in Senlis, where a missed turn resulted in the perfect picnic spot amongst the ramparts.

We rolled away the last 15 KM into Chantilly, where we bought wine and indulged in a picnic dinner near the racetrack and chateau, tomorrow’s Diane “French Oak” race explaining the exorbitant hotel prices in what I assume is otherwise a beautiful town with a penchant for whipped cream and lace.

But then there’s the other day. The day where after the market you make a few right turns and arrive at the Compiègne train station, where, between 1942 and 1944, 39,564 people were put on cars and sent to internment camps (thanks Dad for the heads up about the memorial). Two of the cars still stand in the train station as monuments – lest we ever forget.

Some bars and years make a barrier between us and the cars, but it’s only miles that separate us from migrant kids being separated from families under a new government policy right now in my home country, according to headlines that trigger whenever I’m back on WiFi.

If only they were two different days, or two different worlds. If only I could check a box that I was here and I bore witness and so I haven’t forgotten.

We spent a bit of time back at the hotel reading up on policy solutions to migrant family separation in the U.S. that are in the works (medium-term) and I’ll give calls to my senators (even if they’ve as much as endorsed this), and we donated some money to an organization that fights for legal representation for children in the U.S (short term – list of ideas).

In the end, all this was just one day. A really nice day. Not forgetting it is just going to take a bit more work.