Sorry fellas, not much to report last week! No bike content, really.

Spent a fail filled day in Toulouse Thursday.

Morning at a trade show, with wasn’t exactly what they advertised. Spider monkeys and midgets are of no use to me if they’re not Mexican! This is a crucial difference.

I did hang around the Capitole though. Took 3 horrible pictures. I hate being “that tourist” with a camera around his neck all the time.On my way back … moose signs. Oh crap. This can only mean one thing.

QUEBEC RESTAURANT! I had to try it. I knew it’d be disastrous, but I had to give it a shot. For science.

Ordered a poutine. With smoked meat.
For those who do not know about this Quebec delicacy, it’s fries, with squeaky cheese and gravy poured on top. You can add bacon or various things on top. It’s actually awesome, perhaps a bit of an acquired taste.

After 35min (!) it arrives. It’s tiny and toasted, shouldn’t be. Fine, it looks wrong, it might taste good.

…

Fries are wrong. The toasted swiss cheese is very wrong. The toasted smoked meat produced a $hit-ton of oil sitting at the bottom. And the worst? The sauce is not gravy, it’s maple syrup.
Can you say disaster?

Absolutely revolting. Tastes wrong, and I’m usually not one to complain about food being too greasy … but goddam that was so oily.

Just disgusting.

I have no idea why I actually ate it all like an idiot. Felt sick all afternoon.

Cut my losses and GTFO that place. Will not do that again.

Dessert was much better thank you.

So I wasted my morning and lunch was horrible. Hardly the end of the world. It gets worse.

I head to the bike avenue, where all the shops are, my rear tire is just about done. I impress the girl with the 1098 (a common thing, people always go “ooooh” when I mention it), but when I ask what she has in stock in 190/55 … nothing.
Fine, I’ll order a Metzeler M5 then … when should I expect it? A week.
Whatever, that’ll do, not like I have much of a choice anyways.

Oh, Ducati dealer is across the street. Let’s check it out. And this is where things go awry.
They have a boatload of superbikes, Monsters and Streetfighters. Not much else. Don’t recall seeing a Diavel or HM.
They’re also dealer for Kawi, Triumph … and MV Agusta and Benelli.
4 MV F4RRs next to each other. YUM. DO WANT. There’s also an Aprilia RSV4 sitting outside.
I’d inquired before leaving Montreal about making my bike France legal, and had been reassured “you’re in luck, all you need is a 60 euro part for the French 100hp limit”.
So I head to the shop area, and ask again, so that I can get working on that if it takes a while.
“oh, importing a 1098? we just received directions from Ducati on the subject few weeks ago. Ah there it is … oh shit … we can’t produce a conformity certificate for any US bike anymore, due to emissions”.
Great. Exactly the same unsubstantiated bullshit you get when trying to bring a US bike to Canada. Fucking Ducati. I bought your damn bike, I like it, let me use it!

I still have a lot of options of varying degrees of unlawfulness, but the most honest and legit one seems to be a no-go.
I do have quite some time ahead of me to decide what I’ll do.

So yeah, that wasn’t a very successful day.

 

On the upside I did see 2 Belugas. Yo Dawg I heard you like planes …

Shot with the 50mm, it was quite low and landing in Blagnac nearby I presume.