Carnivale

Like last year, Zoe went to the Carnivale, which is put on by the city. I am still amazed and delighted by how many activities are organized by the local government, and Zoe seems to really enjoy them. On Saturday, I had taken Zoe to the toy store to find her a costume. She arrived with a pretty good idea of what she wanted (Purple princess dress), so when we were browsing the aisles and came upon a purple and pink princess dress, it was a Raiders of the Lost Arc moment. I half expected choral singing in the background and a beam of light to illuminate the dress. Zoe got very quiet (which is her "11" on the excitement scale), pulled the box of the shelf, looked at me steadily, and said "this one." There would be no debate or substitutions, particularly since a purple dress had been the subject of about half of our conversations with her for a month or so. Anyway, this morning, I did the best braid I could summon and dropped her off at the nanny's with the dress. I took a few hours off work in the afternoon to come home to take pictures of Zoe, and witness the spectacle. They had "Monsieur Carnivale" loaded up onto a truck when I got there


And Zoe was there, with her nanny, looking very princess-like. I noticed that this particular kingdom seemed to have quite a few other little princesses

It started raining immediately, of course, so the parade started. This involved a surprisingly large group of little cowboys, ladybugs, dogs and princesses walking behind the truck, while enraged chav drivers trailed behind.



Next came the burning of Monsieur Carnivale! It was by now raining very hard indeed, but whatever they added to Monsieur Carnivale to increase his flammability worked very well




Finally, we went to the activity hall, where they had even organized snacks and drinks for the kids: bonbons, brioches and sodas! An excellent event, even with the rain!

Condolences

Chloe's granddad passed away. I only met him once, but I was impressed that he managed to live by himself (with a lot of help from Chloe's mom, but even so!) out in the country. I can't remember which company he worked for, but I think it was General Dynamics, as he had lots of pictures of airplanes that he had worked on up in frames. Chloe arrived just in time to help out with arrangements for the funeral etc.

Chloe en route to the states

And she took Alex with her, since he is dearly missed by much of the family, and this will give them a chance to see him. It probably will not be a fun trip for Chloe, though. The flight left at 10 AM today from Geneva, which meant that we had an early morning getting them to the gare routiere. Good luck, Chloe!

Grandpa sick!

Chloe's granddad is sick, so she will probably have to go to Albany tomorrow.

Brocante, Cafe

We met Simon, Vanessa and Co. to check out the usually awesome antique fair along the banks of the Isere (in the St. Laurent quarter). I was hoping to find some nice old photographs, but there wasn't much available, other than postcards. I also was keeping an eye out for fancy salt and pepper shakers, since my mom has been in search of them for a few years. I struck out on that quest as well. The kids seemed to enjoy it, though.


After checking everything out, we crossed the bridge to Pain and Cie, where Chloe had the brilliant idea of a "Kid's table", and it worked remarkably well

Alex ate most of my chocolate hazelnut croustillant

It's always fun going into town, and sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be a better place to live. I think we're better off where we are with the kids, though.

Climbing

we did a few routes with Simon, Vanessa, a guy from work and all the kids. It was a gray day, but St. Egreve is very well set up to climb with kids. The Rocheplaine park is two minutes from the base of the cliff! I was expecting to not feel any exertion at all on the 6a+, what with our months of training, but it still felt a little bit hard. Chloe, by contrast, seems to have really benefitted from the training, and had no problems at all. The next few weeks (which is when we should theoretically be at our peaks) should be interesting. We trained sub-lactate threshold endurance in January, and power in February and the beginning of march, so next comes power endurance.

Another cool thing: for the past year I had been hearing rumors of a new crag at St. Egreve, and had seen various climbers walking up trails on the left side of the mountain (where the really isn't anything except an old crag with very difficult routes). Today, while I was looking after kids in the park, I finally saw where the new crag is! It looks like there might be some nice overhanging rock to the left. Woo!

Also, I found a wonderful site comparing the suitability of various climbing sites for kids:
BBGrimp

Bike intervals

I did a few intervals up col de la Placette today, in order to try to get some power back. I'll probably do the same thing on sunday, but on the flats.

climbing

lunchtime ride

I couldn't face more flat miles today, so I rode with the "serious" cyclists from work to ride around the Neron. Despite the fact that most of them have a good ten years on me, the fast group dropped me on the first switchback! I was maxed out the entire time just trying to keep up... bleh.

picnic!

We had lunch with some old friends from "Grenoble, part 1", and some other work people at a park in Sassenage. Zoe ran around and played on the play structures, and then made several trips to feed the fat and lazy ducks in the pond. Chloe and I spent most of our time catching up to her and Alex, who has started going head first down the slide. At one point, in a remarkable act of defiance, he set off across the lawn on all fours in an attempt to return to the play structure that he had just been dragged away from, arching and screaming. His excursion came to a dramatic end when, on a slight downhill, he rolled into a shrub and became lodged between branches.

A bit later, Chloe went for a run with her fabulous new GPS watch, and I went for another flat ride along the Isère. 48 km (30 miles) at an avg speed of 18 mph / 29 kph. It felt a little painful, but at least I am getting closer to dialing in the new saddle position. The new wheel and tires are fabulous. I was thinking about buying a new bike this year, but the Merckx feels so good now, I'm not sure it will be worth it!

Climbing!

We went to a new (to us) climbing area in the Gresivaudan called "Le Glésy" with Simon, Vanessa and the kids. It is a fairly short drive on the autoroute, except today, when there was an inexplicably large and horrible traffic jam. It probably had something to do with the school holidays, judging from all the ski racks. Once there, it is a short hike uphill past a pretty waterfall to the crag. The rock was a little dusty, but not in bad shape. Everything felt a bit hard to me, and to the other adult climbers! There were also periodic showers of dust from the top of the crag, which were not so nice. The kids all seemed to enjoy "climbing" the rock, which meant getting hoisted up while giggling uncontrollably. They also enjoyed hunting for worms, and swiging on the rope that I had put up on one of the 7s to the right of the crag. Alex spend a lot of time in various parents arms, rooting through leaves, and eating random bits of food off of the picnic blanket. After a few hours, the temperature dropped, and it was time to pack up. The plan was to find a cafe for chocolate chaud and maybe even vin chauds, but the closest village (La Terasse) was mostly shut, with the exception of the ubiquitous off-track betting cafe.

another lunchtime ride

again, along the Isere, and another slightly chilly but beautiful day. More importantly, I tried out my new wheel (Ksyrium Elite) + new tires and a new heart rate transmitter. Everything worked well, and it feels a little bit like a new bike! I did happen to weigh my powertap wheel last night, and was shocked by its weight: more than 1800 grams with tire and tube (and without the skewer). I ride a steel bike so I'm obviously not obsessed with weight, but that's a seriously heavy wheel. I still haven't decided how many flat miles I want to put in before hitting the cols again. Today's outing was ~32 km in a little over an hour.

lunchtime ride

I went for a ride at lunch along the beautiful bike path along the Isere today. The legs are getting better, but I still have a lot of capacity to regain, and weight to lose. ~20 miles or so today.

Crazy cyclists

On the way down from col de Porte, I saw a guy on a racing bike (Canyon Ultimate CF) going UP to the col! It was snowing quite hard, and there was all manner of slush and nastiness on the road (and it was -2 C).

Snow

It snowed at higher elevations today, so Zoe and I drove up to col de Porte to do some sledding. I'll try to edit the very cute video footage that I took of her with the Helmet Hero.

Museum

We went to town for some exciting Museum action, shopping, as well as lunch.







Later on, I jokingly put some gloves onto Alex's hands, which he turned out to LOVE!


Later on in the day, he crawled up to me with a glove in his hand and whimpered for me to put it on his hand while making a "Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaase" face

Cycling

Since it looks like there might not be a serious winter after all (famous last words), I decided to start putting some km in for the spring. Several experienced riders have advised me to put more time into the flats before tackling the cols, and I am hoping to follow that advice (even if the flats are kind of boring). I did a quick bike tune up and swapped in my commute wheel, since I have visions of the campy hub on my "race" wheel exploding, and rode out onto the digue. I took it easy, and spent most of my time around 17 or so mph and rode for ~26.5 miles. I was trying to keep up a high cadence, but I think I need to work up to it, as I was getting exhausted pretty fast, and reverted to my old school low RPM mashing. Overall avg cadence was still 71 rpm, which is high for me though.

I also replaced my old Flite saddle with a heavier, but supposedly more comfortable Fizik Arione. Adjusting it will not be fun, but I look forward to less squashing of sensitive tissue.

painting

Zoe cooking!

Zoe helped me cook dinner toinight:

then it was time to play with trains and fall asleep from all the exertion

Lunch with the Antipodeans

A new postdoc and his family have arrived from Australia, and they came over for lunch today. It was raining, unfortunately, but they had a chance to sample some of the local fare, such as Diot and various cheeses (not local except for the St. Marcellin, Tomme and Bleu de sassenage). They have three girls about Zoe's age, so Zoe was very excited to play with them all. Because of the rain, our plans to go for a walk and to the park were stymied. When the kids started getting a little cabin feverish, we all went up to the attic for tricycle riding, somersaults on the bouldering pads, and rides in the bike trailer. As usual, I managed to whack my skull and back against the beams.

First impressions are hard to shake, so I hope they won't remember Grenoble at it's grayest. Spring, which is just around the corner, is glorious here, and even though it has been an exceptionally mild winter, I am already very much looking forward to it.

On the subject of Other People in the blog, I realized that perhaps people might not appreciate being (pictures, names) on the web, so from now on I'm probably not going to name people unless I get the thumbs up in advance! Sorry if I've offended anyone by not asking, and I'm happy to remove any references (with my apologies!).

Town

Another weekend on call, so no extensive adventures were possible. To be honest, we haven't done too much recently, but it's Winter and there is no snow! Oh yeah, and we have kids. So today, we drove into town, had Indian buffet, then walked around for a while

and went to the museum. We had the usual confusion and suspicion about our membership cards. The cashier actually asked us if the membership cards entitled us to free entry! Once inside the museum, we did the usual riding of elevators and scooting along the floor.



It really is a lovely museum, with a nice collection. There will be a Chagall show starting soon, but it was still being set up. Next: coffee and desserts at Pain & cie:


Then back to the car

rode to Proveysieux

and it felt soooo bad today. At least it was a beautiful day!

par-tay!

We went to a francois' place to fete lolo's birthday. We had never been there before, and it is a wonderful apartment at the heart of downtown Grenoble. It is shaped like a donut, with the hole being the central atrium. There was enough room for all the kids to have their own rooms, and an eagles nest with views of the Belledonne and Chartreuse. We had an excellent fondue a la Les Alpages, washed down by plenty of Champagne and calvados. Later, there was dancing and some ill advised indoor improvised climbing.

Crémieu

We drove to Crémieu today. It was another unseasonably warm and beautiful day (in contrast to the oppressive grey of last week) and a perfect day for exploring a new town. It is only a one hour drive, during which time we saw the usual parade of Genevois supercars (Audi R8, Ferrari 599 in MAROON -- what kind of a person buys a maroon Ferrari?) . The trip there epitomized the dangers of not looking at a map before going somewhere in France: I don't trust the GPS because it frequently tries to take us on long scenic routes of industrial wastelands and closed mountain passes.... and I don't trust the French road signs, because they will frequently also take you on the least efficient route to the target. Additionally, you could be driving along, following signs to some town or landmark and then reach and intersection at which there are no more signs. So anyway, we went with the signs, because they are right *most* of the time, and got taken on another long agricultural tour. I think it only added around ten minutes to the route though. We knew we had arrived when we saw a fortified hilltop approaching, and then huge stone walls.

After loading up the double stroller with the progeny, we checked out the church

And walked up the hill to the castle

When I saw the following sign, I got quite excited, only to have my hopes dashed by a closed brewery door. Next time.


My favorite part was the covered marketplace




Which had magnificent beams and a stone roof



And peculiar rounded depressions on a stone stand at one end of the marketplace


I know what you're thinking, but they are not related at all to bodily functions. they are actually for measuring quantities of grain. According to the sign, before systems of weight and volume were standardized, many regions had their own random units. These depressions allowed for the measurement of the local unit of volume, which was the "bichet", which was 19.50 litres. Two bichets equalled one émine, and two émines equalled a setier. It sounds a little like our beloved English units, which us 'mericans are one of the only countries in the world backwards enough to still use. Even the English are trying to phase it out.
Next, it was time to sample the local delicacy: a sugared deep fried heart stopping bread, which was enjoyed by the whole family



Then, it was on to look at more impressive stone rooves:




We followed the GPS advise on the way out, and it was much faster. It was a bit less pretty than the way in: after a while we found ourselves in a huge industrial park with gigantic windowless buildings and what appeared to be a prison.