snow on izoard

Jon, Sue and I drove to Izoard today with the kids. I had been hearing about the beautiful landscape of the casse desert for a couple of years, and assumed that the best way to get there was from the Guillestre side of the famous col (Since I had not seen any of it when I rode Izoard from the North side), so we drove south of Briancon to approach the col from the South. It was raining very hard, but we stopped briefly to look at the Mont Dauphin Fort, built in 1693 by the famous French military engineer Vauban. It was quite impressive, but not worth dragging the kids out in the rain for! From there, after a few wrong turns, we were on the road to Izoard. There was supposed to be a cycling race today, but hopefully it was cancelled. We continued up, and I noticed a whiteness on the tops of the mountains that looked suspiciously like snow. In a matter of minutes, the temperature had dropped to zero, and we found ourselves in a snow storm in the middle of July. It was not light snow either, but huge swirling flakes. We saw quite a few foolhardy cyclists descending and climbing the col. I have a feeling that they were even colder than Ian and I were last year. We stopped a few times for pictures, and the Casse Désért is absolutely beautiful in the snow.


After a few slighlty scary switchbacks we reached the col.

My plan had been to stop at the Auberge Napoleon for lunch, but the snow was sticking, and I decided that it was not worth getting stuck up at the col, so we descended and headed back to the chalet. Zoe got sick from all the windy roads, and vomited on her shirt and Alex's stuffed animal. Poor ZZ!

Du miel et des abeilles

Chloe and I got on a very short "grande voie" today. We got stuck behind some very, very slow people. Otherwise, it was beautiful and the rock was good!




The walkoff was easy, and we were soon back at the car. After driving back to the Chalet, we all went to Briançon together for ice cream, fort touring, and browsing the whistling marmot stuffed animals.

Monetier

Cycling, Jim

I went for a morning ride up Charmette today (only a few seconds faster -- I dont know how I am going to find enough power or lose enough weight to get to my goal of 1 hour even). It felt pretty hard, which I guess is expected for a hors categorie climb, but I need to work on my endurance on climbs over 600 meters.

Anyway, I usually turn around and go home at the col, but I decided to be a little adventurous and try out the forestry road that descends to St. Laurent du Pont today. I had heard different things about the state of it, so I just took it slow and was careful. The road was in very good shape; the only problems were the unlit tunnels. The first two were short enough that I could see what I was riding over, but the last one (tunnel des agneaux) was very long and *very* dark. I made it through without crashing, happily. The views from the road are spectacular,

and you pass a convent along the way

It's a wonderful ride, with no chance of cars! You just have to be careful and take it slow on the descent, unless you are on a mountain bike, in which case it would be no problem at all. I'll probably bring a mini bike light for the Tunnel of Death next time.

Later on, an old colleague from south san came by (he is in Europe for four weeks), and we went into town for vietnamese food and a trip to the top of the Bastille. It was great to catch up and gossip about biotech days and people and show him our new stomping grounds.

pool with the kids

First stop was Decathlon, since there is a rule (I am not making this up!) that you must wear speedo style swimming trunks at public pools in France. I tried on various pairs, which varied widely in their levels of hideousness, and eventually landed on a pair that did not induce any muffin topping. From there, it was off to the public pool in St. Egreve, where we played with the kids in the water for a while

and then had lunch. The kids went for the the organic free-range sausages. All natural!


I was still recovering from a crazy virus that gives you headaches and pains in your sides (chloe also had it), so I was pretty exchausted by the end of the day. At least I have a banana hammock now!

bike trailer

Rode 25k with the children in tow in the croozer. Not very long into my planned itinerary, I heard the dreaded "Home" over the sound of the wind, so we had to go back. Also, a water bottle exploded, soaking the menagerie of stuffed animals in the child trailer, as well as babu and my phone. arggh


current year to date stats
weight lost: 9 pounds/4 kg
miles ridden: 1806 km/ 1122 miles
vertical distance climbed: ~25000m / 82000 feet
crashes: 1

woo!

personal record up Narbonne (~20 minutes from pinsello to the last steep spot)

Schoooooools out for summer

It was the last day of school today, and I noticed a sign indicating that the kids would be going to the park near our house for a treasure hunt and activities today. Not being able to resist watching Zoe running around with her classmates, I asked the teacher if I could join. It turned out that they were looking for help from parents, and I was soon recruited into the gymnastics section. The complete pool of ~60 kids were broken up into groups of ten or so, and several activities were set up. The only ones I could see from my side of the field were a sack race, a relay race, and gymnastics. The gymnastics involved somersaults, cartwheels, hanging from the bar with their knees ('Cochon pendu'), rolling all the way around the bar, and the coup de grace: walking along the bar. Walking along the bar was the clear favorite (for the kids), but also the most strenuous (for the parents). It basically involved hoisting the not-so-light kids onto the bar, walking along with them, and them hoisting them up into the air and then down to the ground. My back and shoulder were in a fair bit of pain by the end, but it was still great to see Zoe in her école environment. Of course, after escorting the better part of the ecole maternelle along the bar without incident, I managed to lose hold of Zoe and she fell onto the bar. This engendered much crying, but the teacher saved me and Zoe calmed down. I'm not sure how she did it! Zoe then got a very special teacher assisted beam walk:

Other pictures:

A school performance

Today was the day of the rescheduled school performance. It being Zoe's first, Chloe and I were VERY excited. We arrived at the school to find Zoe getting prepared for her grande entrance. All week we had been trying to determine what her actual role would be, but our queries were dismissed with a role of the eyes and a "je ne sais PAS!". It was another hot day, and it seemed like an eternity before the little kids were due to perform. There was also almost no seating, and it was a struggle to get even a peek at her. In the lead up to the little kid performance, alex was getting pretty antsy, so Chloe and I had to take turns taking care of him. Some time during this kid shuttling, one of the kids (probably Zoe) filled our water bottle with dirt. Chloe unfortunately did not notice, and took a deep pull of mud water: refreshing! Zoe's class perfomance consisted of holding up cards that I could not see (because of the difficult viewing conditions), but which chloe tels me had the names of painters, writers etc, and then picking up instruments and doing some dancing. It was very, very cute. At one point, the kids put their instruments in a little circle before a dance routine, and then returned to pick them up. Zoe's instrument was a mini guitar, and a little troublemaking boy (who had earlier been hitting another boy in the head with his card) tried to steal Zoe's guitar! Zoe, however has been training her iron grip because of toy competition with Alex, and the guitar was soon firmly in her hand. I think the boy might have started crying at this point, but I didn't have much sympathy. Here is Zoe, with a stalwart look on her face, guitar in hand, flushed with the sweet taste of victory.


And a few more of the performance

Cerdon

Franck had introduced us to a sparkling wine with a light, dry taste a while ago, so we decided that it was about time to go visit the town in which it is produced: Cerdon. After a five minute internet reconnaissance, we decided upon Lingot-Martin as the vintner of choice. We had also cleverly timed the car ride so that the kids could get some sleep.

In addition to the wine, they also have a sparkling non alcoholic cider which while delicious, did not meet with Zoe's approval ("TOO FIZZY!")

Alex seemed okay with it, however

Chloe needed something with a little more kick, however

We ended up buying quite a few bottles, which we will avail ourselves of in Monetier in a few weeks time!
Next, we went to the town of Cerdon and wandered around for a while



And then walked to the copper forge, which was unfortunately closed. Alex did take the opportunity to dunk his sunglasses in the copper fountain, though.

And then we checked out this cool still

Before meeting up with the Aussie clan for drinks at the cafe under an awning (it was quite hot). After a while it was time to retreat to the safety of an air conditioned car. I could see cliffs down the valley, so I couldn't resist driving out to see if they were equipped, but alas they were not. It was an uneventful drive back, with the exception of seeing a pretty fabulous looking car dealership called GT spirit, which we will have to stop at next time!

Papa's day!

Today I awoke to Zoe bringing me a present wrapped in blue construction paper that she had made at school. It was a book about planting things (candies, musical notes, words, kisses, crayons) and the kinds of trees that grew out of them. When you plant a candy wrapper, a bonbon tree apparently grows out of it! It was beautiful, and quite honestly one of the best gifts I have ever received. She had apparently also been rehearsing it in school, so despite not really being able to read, she was able to recount most of it to me (stopping every once in a while to tell me that the book was "verrry special!". I think most of us have had moments like this described to us by friends and family, but it turns out to be one of those intensely personal experiences that defies description. Suffice it to say that I was overcome with emotions and ended up getting a little teary.


Later on, I went for a mega ride into the chartreuse: 80km and 1900 vert meters of elevation gain. I was pretty tired by the end.

Town

Peuil bouldering

We headed out to Peuil for some bouldering today


After trying out a few boulder problems, I wandered off with Alex, to practice walking for a while: he walked quite far and expressed his strong displeasure at having to turn around.

When we got back, however, I was greeted with the aftermath of a rather bad fall off the top of a boulder, with concomitant blood and scrapes. Luckily, nothing was broken.

Here is Zoe, a few seconds before sweeping her hand through a stinging nettle

even more ice cream

(best flavor=caramel, beurre salé)

Mille martyrs

Rode to Mille Martyrs today and checked out some of the route for the Criterium de Dauphiné. There were road closure signs, and the sprint signs had already been installed. It felt pretty good, and I had my fastest time up Placette. The last climb up to Layat was kind of brutal though.

Haircut!

dinner

Franck, Silvia and Artur came over for dinner tonight, the highlight of which was Franck's excellent Raspberry cake. I was thinking about grilling, but the weather was not cooperating.