we had a twenty mile journey this afternoon to pick up Evangeline~the name came to me as we loaded her into the back of pippin~it feels like the perfect name.
its has been raining on and off all day but it held off long enough for me to have a little ride outside our house and she feels perfect...i just love the little rack on the back and the original little saddle bag, complete with the motobecane logo
all we need to do is replace one break cable and swampy is going to give her an 'mot' for me. i am not going to do any kind of restoration, i want to keep her character~including the bumps, dents and missing paint and slightly cracked saddle. i am just going to get myself a basket and bell.
helen, the lady who owned her before, bought her when she moved to Paris and used her daily for some years, before she returned to England, bringing the bike with her~i am so glad she did.
everything on her is original...
except this...
...looking closely i realised that it was not original to the bike, so naturally i had to do some investigation and discovered that it is some kind of hand stamped token/icon (i cant find the right word here!) from an Augustinian nunnery in Avesnes in France. being the kind of person who loves to check maps i had a look for Avesnes
only to discover it is close to where my great grandfather Johney Gaul died and is buried.
i have to say that freaked me out, not in a bad way though
given the distance he is buried from family, what are the odd's i have just bought a bike or at least an 'add-on' from so close to where he lived his last days