into grenoble

We went into Grenoble for lunch at Paul, and to vieux campeur for CZ to buy some new trail running shoes.

Later, there was dancing

and cake!

and a story

Martigny with mom

Today my mom and I hit the road for the Fondation Pierre Gianadda. We drove through the beautiful valleys under le Mont Blanc,


past Chamonix, over the Col de la Forclaz (looks pretty nice for cycling, except for all the cars), and then down into Martigny. The museum was recommended by Franck, and my mom and I loved it (Thank you, Franck!!!). The collection is impressive, and the exhibition space is quite unique. There is also an excellent sculpture garden with golden waterfowl of some kind

and an underground automobile museum. The automobile museum was the only thing we were really allowed to take pictures of, so that's all I have, except for this picture of the central space

behold the cars:








From there, it was back to Grenoble. We stopped at a charming cafe at the col des Montets for drinks


And then decided to go through Albertville this time, and it took a looong time. We did stop to buy saucisson and Beaufort, which made the detour worth it.

cowboys in the wild west (of le Fontanil)

While I was cooking dinner tonight, I happened to look out the window and saw a Cowboy in front of the Boulangerie. After people started wheeling cameras, sound booms and lighting into the street, it became obvious that something exciting was happening. I rushed downstairs with my camera to capture the action, and watched the crew at work. They were having a lot of problems, stemming from the fact that they were filming on the main street, but they eventually got their shots. Examples of events that caused cuts to the filming were:

A delightful young man with a bottle full of hair gel and aviator sunglasses, who, incensed at having had to wait for three minutes, peeled out along the main street, almost running over the camera operator and the horse.

A woman, attracted by the excitement who was IN THE SHOT during filming (as in, in between the camera and the cowboy), who somehow escaped everyones attention until the poor cowboy had trotted the horse all the way from the bridge down past La Lutinière.

A shrill "DAAAADDY-O" emanating from a certain 1st floor apartment (The boom operator assured the cameraman that he could not hear it).

Mom here!

And she got a big Zoe welcome at the airport

Fair!

I managed to pick up some kind of stomach illness today, so I missed out on the fair. Chloe met Simon, Vanessa and the girls in St. Egreve, and a few hours later a very excited Zoe came running up the stairs with a green bag. After surmounting the final step of the staircase, I realized that she was beyond the normal states of Zoe excitement, and in the hyperexcited mode which only key words are expressed. In this case: "FISH!" "MY CAUGHT IT!" "DINNER" and "DESSERT"! It soon came out that there was also a donkey ride. I was of course, very jealous.







(photos by Simon and Vanessa)
Here is Zoe at home, right before the gutting and cooking of the fish. Zoe asked why the fish wasn't bouging (moving) anymore, but was perfectly happy to eat it. It was not the best fish I have eaten, and even Zoe soon gave up in favor of the excellent Salmon from the fish guy at the Fontanil market.

Chloe's race, energy bars

Chloe ran a ~half marathon with 1100 vertical meters of elevation gain today. Woo!

I was at home, getting tortured by the kids and decided to try to make energy bars again. I did this a few weeks ago from a recipe in Outside magazine, and they turned out pretty well. Full of energy bar hubris, I decided to try to make my own recipe. I wanted to achieve the following characteristics:

1)A good mix of high and low glycemic index components
2)Not too sticky or flaky: suitable for a cycling jersey pocket
3)Reasonable shelf life, or the ability to freeze the bars
4)Not be totally disgusting

High GI components are easy:
brown sugar
maple syrup (Actually, GI of only 55)
Lavender honey

Low GI components:
A big scoop of peanut butter (GI 23)
Dried apple
Dried Banana
Rolled oats (GI 50)

The bar relies heavily on the low GI rolled oats and high GI brown sugar, which are the major ingredients. I just added things to taste for the first try, but if anyone is interested I could weight out portions next time.

I mixed all the dry components in a bowl, with a little salt and cinnamon to taste, then heated up the brown sugar, honey and maple syrup until they formed a uniform syrup, then added the peanut butter. I then poured this mixture onto the dry mix, stirred, and put it all into a baking pan that I had lined with wax paper and dusted with more rolled oats. Next came more rolled oats to dust (the idea of the dusting is to make the outside faces of the bar less sticky and thus more easily stored in a jersey pocket without creating a giant mess) and a second piece of wax paper. Then I pressed it into as dense of a sheet as I could, let it cool and cut it into bars. They taste pretty good. We'll see about longevity, ease of handling etc.

Rain

I was planning on doing the Col du Coq today, but was feeling bad along the entire flat ride to the base, and then quickly ran out of gas on the climb. I've been feeling run down lately, and also made the mistake of taking an antihistamine, which I think conspired to put me into a perfect storm of weakness. About a third of the way up, I realized that it probably wasn't going to happen. And speaking of storms, I saw some menacing looking clouds off on the horizon. The clouds soon turned very dark indeed, and I found myself in the by now familiar situation of getting water kicked up in my face and getting compleyely soaked. It isn't really that big of a deal when you are on the valley floor, where it is warm and not very much braking is required. Still, it got a little miserable toward the end

Granier

A wonderful ride through the region around Granier, including three cols.

Corbel

I went for a wonderful ride with a co-worker to the col de Granier from St. Laurent du Pont this morning. It was some of the most beautiful scenery I had seen in the Chartreuse, so after returning, Chloe and I gathered up the rug rats and drove out there. Along the way, we stopped at a fromagerie to buy cheese and confiture


and met Simon, Vanessa and the girls at what for me was one of the highlights of the ride: Corbel. Corbel is a tiny mountain down perched above (another) breathtaking Chartreuse valley. It doesn't have much, but if does have a Café with unbeatable views.


Here is a panorama of Corbel:

And some photos