Transportation and the Ill Repute of High School Basements

I think it is time for me to talk about my bicycle.  This is one of those things about my living situation here that is generally fortunate and user-friendly, but has some seriously annoying drawbacks.

When I first came to Cosne, I wanted to get, or at least have the use of, a bicycle for the duration of my time here.  Cosne is too small to have or need a bus system, but there are times when I don't want to spend the twenty minutes it takes to walk across town to the train station or to the grocery store, let alone carry all my purchases back by hand.  Besides, isn't it what one is supposed to do in France, bicycle around gaily with a baguette in the basket of one's velo?

I was fortunate, as with many of my amenities here at the school, to profit from the generosity of Mme. and M. Gordet, the school concierge and her husband who have been amazingly good to me, including lending me kitchen supplies, utensils, kitchen supplies, and even doing my laundry for me once a week.  Mme. Gordet has, it turns out, a second bicycle, which she offered to loan me for the year.  I am really fortunate to have such good and generous people hear at the school who are so willing to help me out, and with the bicycle I am now able to cycle precariously back from Carrefour market, my purchases lashed to the back wheel.


Those are the good sides to the situation.  The slightly less good is that the bicycle is of an antediluvian age, and weighs maybe fifty pounds (I call it l'elephant).  Also, there is no good overnight place on school grounds on which to keep it, so I have to lock it in the school basement.  This presents two problems: 1) I have to carry it down stairs, and 2) My recent associations suggest that high school basements tend to be the source of scenes like this.  I don't really think that the Lycée Pierre-Gilles de Gennes is built over what I suppose they would call a bouche d'enfer, but it is a little creepy, as you can see.  I would hate to think that spending time down there would make me end up like this:

Although that would be an unfortunate end to my travels in France, I must admit that it is fairly unlikely, and the greatest risk I face from keeping l'elephant in the basement is that of banging my shin when I haul it out.  In any case, it is nice to have the use of a bike here (baguette in handle basket optional).