with dancing, some friends and cupcakes (and wine, port and Calvados for the parents). I can't believe how fast it's all passing! I took a bunch of pictures but something strange happened to them. Something strange as in they don't seem to be on my camera. Arrgh.
Installment 99 of "Cycling in France is awesome". The past few weeks has been a little frustrating for me cycling wise; I've been a little swamped in work, and I have been fighting off two nasty colds. In between coughing fits, I managed a few nice rides but mostly I've been longingly watching the good weather disappear. Yesterday Chloe and I biked to one of our favorite lunchtime places: a restaurant on Berriat that a work colleague had introduced us to. Among other things, they have excellent tarte tatin and griotte cake (served warm of course). Anyway, we locked our bikes to a pole across the street, and after savoring our desserts and cafes, walked across the street to unlock the bikes. Now I should mention that some parts of Berriat are a little rough looking -- not on the same scale as the Olympic Village or East Oakland, but a place that I am always a little bit wary. A man was bringing plastic chairs out in front of the bar next to our bikes. I saw him looking at us and the bikes and was thinking to myself that he was probably going to give us some grief for blocking his sidewalk. As we got closer, I saw that he looked like a boxer, and had some not so old looking cuts on his face, so I was starting to get a bit worried. As we got the keys out to unlock the bikes, he started pointing to the bikes and talking to me. However, he immediately started smiling and pointed to the classic stainless bike bell I have on my bars, and told me that he had one too, and that he loved his! He then nodded approvingly at my Brooks saddle (A classic leather bike saddle ) and said that he had a Brooks as well, and indeed had had both for the last forty years! I replied that I loved mine too, and he offered a handshake, a smile and a pleasant comment about my accent. That's the thing about bikes in France: they are really esteemed here, as is actually using them. I was immediately reminded of a few other experiences in the last few weeks. On col de la Menee, a couple that had spread out a picnic on the side of the road and set up lawn chairs yelled "COURAGE" to us as we passed. On St. Nizier, a hiker walking down from the Tour sans Venin looked at me huffing and puffing, and said "Bravo", even though I was going pitifully slow. Except for the crazy driving, I can't think of a better place to be someone who enjoys cycling.
I had to bring the car in for servicing in Echirolles this morning, and decided (as I did last year) to ride up St. Nizier while the car was being worked on. It was quite cold though, and a foggy cloud layer had settled into the valley and the plateau. As a result, I broke out all of the cold weather gear I own: windstopper N2S windshirt, thick Giordana jersey, new Ekoi bib tights, thick polypro socks, windstopper beanie, and my much loved Goretex paclite shell. I felt a little like a pack mule. Along the way to the climb I passed the always cool "fancy car service place", which had a GT3RS, a Gallardo and a 360 Modena out front.
I wonder what routine maintenance costs on one of those. I know, that's the wrong question. Anyway, after snapping a few pics, I rode over the beautiful new pedestrian/bike bridge that traverses the Drac, got a little lost in the maze of houses around Sessins, and eventually found the base of the climb. It is easy to find when you get close, because our car insurance place is right there, and it is located in the amusingly named "Zone Industrielle des Fleurs" (Industrial Zone of the Flowers). Anyway, under my many layers and tons of gear I did not feel very sprightly riding up the hill and indeed was downright slow. It took me ~1:02 to do the climb, which I'm sure I can better if I get a good day, the planets are aligned and I feel a little less sick. You know, the usual excuses. Anyway, the big problem was that even maxing myself out on the climb, it was so cold that I lost feeling in my feet by the top, and I considered turning around. I could see the clouds burning off though so I decided to press on. I continued through Lans, and the beautiful small towns that line the Route de Villard. At the top of one of the hills, I saw what looked like a herd of cattle in the road ahead. As I got closer, I saw that it was indeed a herd of cattle, being moved down the road by three people. Unfortunately, things started going poorly when one adventurous cow broke through an electric fence and started loping into an adjacent field. This induced some yelling by the closest Shepherd, but it was too late, and there was soon a peloton of cows escaping down the hill. They did not have a dog, unfortunately, so two of them ran down the hill and corralled them back, but not before the electric fence was completely trampled into the mud. Eventually the cows exited the road, and I continued onwards through Villard-de-lans and Les Jarrands. By now the skies were blue, and the sun was out. Around one of the curves I saw a Loomis truck pulled over on the side of the road, with a guard outside the truck on a cell phone, with the door open! I would think that even with an empty truck, you would not want to invite attack by doing something like that, but that's just me. In fact, the only time I have ever seen stopped armored cars is when they are loading or unloading. I'm sure it is a good policy to make as few stops as possible. Anyway, onwards to Meaudre, through les Gorges des Meaudret, which are lined with a stunning display of reds, oranges and yellows. From there, it was on to Autrans, over a little hill and them the Col de la Croix Perrin, the last major effort of the day (and not a big deal at only 200 m of elevation gain). Then came the descent into Lans, where I realised that I did not have house keys with me, so instead of the Gorges du Furon, I descended via St. Nizier. Before that however, I finally found a water fountain, after pulling up to several that had been turned off along the way. One bottle is not really enough for 50 km and 1500 m of elevation gain! The descent was beautiful, and not too fast. I arrived back at the dealership at the 89 km mark, but the car was not ready and the battery was disconnected for service. The problem was that my change of clothes was in the trunk of the car, and the trunk is not easy to open without power. I eventually was able to change out of my clammy cycling stuff and went off in search of food. Unfortunately, that part of town is unexpectedly seedy. There was a crowd of teenagers in the supermarket parking lot drinking beers, and a random guy was approaching strangers and trying to sell something. I decided to live with the chance that I might be missing the deal of a lifetime and continued to the Tabac. As I was queued for the register a drunk guy wandered in (it was 2:30 PM) and asked the Tabac lady about the different kinds of cigars they sold. I quickly left and went to the supermarket, where the only thing resembling a sandwich was a chicken-pickle mayo sandwich. I wandered through the supermarket to find something else to eat and noticed an unusually large number of middle aged guys in leather jackets and heavily gelled hair. Time to go. After paying and avoiding eye contact with the by now boisterous and probably drunk teenagers in front of the store, I found a park across from the Honda Dealer. Exhausted and famished, I sat down on a park bench in the sun and started inhaling the chicken pickle sandwiches which were, to be fair, not as bad as they looked. A group of women ambled into the park at this point, and were screaming to each other about couscous, which struck me as a strange thing to be yelling about. They had a toddler with them which they would take turns playing ball with. At one point one of the women shuffled off to a stand of trees WITHOUT much cover, I might add, and squatted down for a pee. I took this as a cue to again find a new place to wait, but the only place left was the dealership. Happily, the car was ready! I think they must have uploaded new engine management because the acceleration feels a lot quicker.
Video of the ride here:
Over the col de la Croix haute, col de Grimone, gorges des gats and col de Menee... fantastic!
Me: I'm the boss!
Zoe (walking away from me, looking back at me over her shoulder while rolling her eyes): I'm the boss aussi.
We did a bunch of shopping: Mr Mopps, TJs, the bike shop (for cheap gels), Tokyo Fish Market, Acme bread. After resting and trying to get Zoe to take a nap for a while, I went to the best bike shop in the east bay (Montano Velo) where they let me demo the revelatory Moots Compact. I did a quick spin up Tunnel, and I very much enjoyed the bike and wheels (Mavic R-sys). Some day. Also, despite not feeling 100%, I managed to improve on my somewhat embarrassing time up Tunnel. Tomorrow is the big flight!
I had lunch with my old boss in South San, and gossiped about our respective institutions and cycling (he is also a cycling guy). From there, I drove to Stanford to check out the newest and brightest source of X-rays around. It is very, very impressive
An older instrument:
And then into the usual mess of Bay Area traffic. wheee.
Dinner at Ajanta and then beers and port with Terry and Ben. It was really great to see and talk to them both and actually hang out at a bar (which does not happen very often anymore).
Zoe ate bagels this morning, which she LOVED. She kept requesting more "créme" (cream cheese) and was equally excited about the lox.
Ian came by shortly afterwards, and we went up to Indian Rock and Mortar to throw ourselves at various problems. I felt pretty good and actually did a few sections of Nat's that had always felt really hard to me. Next came lunch at Vik's Chaat, which has moved down the street into a much swankier space. Since we were nearby, we dropped into Wrench Science to ogle all the fancy frames before meeting up with the parents and Zoe at my Dad's studio. Zoe was working on some new oil paintings (!) when we arrived. Earlier, she had gone with my mom to the little farm, and then eaten lunch with the parents at an East Oakland favorite
My friend Steve and I went to the Lawrence hall of science with kids in tow, after driving up to the steam trains and getting rained on (and discovering that they open at 11:00, not 10:00!). The Hall was awesome as usual, with lots of hands on things for the kids. The only hiccup occurred when Steve and I excitedly brought the kids to one of the dinosaur rooms, and discovered that small children are inexplicably terrified of giant animatronic dinosaurs that roar, snap their jaws and lash their tails. Weird! Zoe and Kiran were both terrified of the dinosaurs, of course, and did not want to get any closer. They clearly have a more developed sense of self preservation than the adults, who were pointing and saying "coool!". Anyway, there were many other fun things to do, and we all had lunch at Top Dog. Excellent.
Next came the studio, where Zoe had her first foray into oil painting! She looked like a hazmat worker with all the gear we put on her, but the result was impressive.
From the studio, we went to the Berkeley Bowl, home to the LEAST positionally aware people on the face of the planet. Seriously, when there is just enough room for one person to get through an aisle, it makes sense to occasionally look behind you to see if you are backing people up for twenty feet. On the plus side, they had ripe cherimoya!
Finally, it was Kirala time. Living in France, you don't find yourself pining for food very often, because the food is excellent (duh!). However, there are some things that I have not been able to find. Chief among these are sushi. Kirala is one of my favorite sushi places outside of Tsukiji, so I am probably a little spoiled. Therefore, a stop at Kirala is always required when I am back in Berkeley. This time was special, because it was the first time that Zoe was big enough to come to the sushi bar with us. We ordered her standard kid fare: Kappa and Tekka, which she happily ate (the sushi chef recommended Ikura next time), but she surprised us all when she pointed at the Saba, and indicated that it was hers! Saba is not what is considered a "beginner" sushi: it is a bit fishy and has a thick skin on it. From there, she went through all the adult sushis, which impressed the sushi chef so much, that he made two very special Zoe sized sushi! I actually was watching him when he made them, and was thinking to myself that they looked really, really small. I did notice that he seemed to be putting more effort into this sushi than the rest, even stepping back and surveying the symmetry of the tiny maguro in a sea of Hinoki.
Ian and I did the Berkeley Death ride: a few of the steeper ways up to the Grizzly peak/Skyline ridgeline linked together. It's not as bad as some of the death ride variations i have seen, and not close to the nifty 1050, but still hard. Marin Ave. is just ridiculous, and was a pretty poor way to start the day. After that, we picked off the other climbs: South Park, Centennial, Toyonal without too much suffering. We weren't breaking any records, but we weren't going slow either. Unfortunately, the BPD had closed off the road down to Tunnel after Toyonal, so we took Centennial down, and then rode up Claremont. At the Claremont 4 way... more cops! And these cops were total jerks. I watched in awe as one of them walked up to one unfortunate person's car and yell at the driver. Most of us just got the standard patronizing BPD treatment. So we couldn't finish the death ride, but we did most of it. We did the Euclid climb to make up for it. I found out later that the road had been closed because a cyclist was killed by a car on the road a few hour earlier. It goes without saying that the media blamed the cyclist. One report actually wrote that the cyclist "rammed" the car. No word on whether there were any recent bullet rammings in Oakland on that day.
Some time ago, someone told me about a great children's park under the 24 freeway. I remembered vaguely where it was supposed to be, so I thought it would be fun to take Zoe there. It is in a slightly unlikely place, right next to the raised 24 freeway, and next to a vast "chiodrome" as the french call them! Despite this, it is an kid's oasis complete with a water course, well kept lawn and play structures. The centerpiece is a magnificent wood play structure, with slides, swings, giant plastic spider webs and all manner of secret kid passageways. Zoe learned how to slide down a pole, which at this point involves her swinging over to the pole, death gripping it, and then hand-over-handing down the pole while giggling maniacally. Another wonderful place that we managed to miss while we were living here, I guess.
After that, we rested before the day's main event: Kenji's show at the Triton museum in Santa Clara. We left early to avoid traffic (yes, I am back to thinking about traffic and how to avoid it again) and got into the carpool lane for most of the dismal trip down 880 to the South Bay. As we approached San Jose, I found myself looking around at signs of small tech companies, thinking that somewhere in that warren of office parks, some nerd was probably coming up with the Next Big Thing. Should it surprise me that the tech revolution was spawned in such uninspiring surroundings? I'm undecided. Anyway, after some excitement getting to the general area of the museum, we ended up at a REALLY good ramen joint called Orenchi ramen. We arrived before it was open, and since we were in a hurry, got back in the car to find somewhere else to go. Just as we loaded up, a raft of Kenji's people arrived, like some kind of Japanese adhān. They were coming in from every direction and on foot and in cars. We decided that it would be better to stay, and see what the fuss was about. By the time they opened, there was a huge line going well out the door. And this is at five thirty! The ramen was great: it tasted like there was miso in the base, and the noodles were firm and delicious. We also ordered some smaller things like grilled octopus balls (tako yaki) and fried chicken, which were also excellent. It was a fortuitous find, and I'll definitely be going back if I am in the area again. From there, it was off to the museum. The show looks amazing; one of the best that I can remember, and I have seen a lot of Kenji's shows! As usual I was running around trying to remember peoples names and corral Zoe. Zoe had a great time, and it was nice seeing a lot of Kenji's old friends. I'm proud of him and mom for putting together such a great show.
