Road trip to Serres, Sigottier, Orpierre

We drove down the N75 to Sigottier, which we spent a whole five minutes enjoying, and then to Serres. Serres is kind of a dump, and we went to an awful cafe

after eating our picnic lunch. Both towns were easily and happily forgotten as soon as we left the city limits. During the drive down, Zoe greedily hoarded the bag of Cape Gooseberries that Chloe had packed for us. When we asked for one, she would give us a big toothy smile, say "noooo", while moving the bag away from us, and stuff her mouth full of them.

The third town was one that I had been hearing about for years: Orpierre. Most climbers will know the name, and to my great embarrassment, I have never actually climbed there, despite owning the climbing guide. I thought this would be a good chance to scope out the city and crag, and am very happy that we did! The first order of business was to let Zoe at the small playground near the church. They have a climbing wall which she showed no interest in climbing, but lots of enthusiasm for jamming little pebbles into:

She also made mom and chloe get into a little house with her:

and made us watch her go down the slide


The town is surrounded by beautiful cliffs


And has some wonderful narrow cobbled streets. Some pictures:






This is what happens when you take a tissue out of the hands of a 2 year old:

Bad daddy!
But I was forgiven soon enough

We took a few ill advised turns on the way back which ended up bringing us over snowy cols and narrow, fender scraping alleys, but we eventually made it home for an american version of Raclette:

mom

figured out the buses and spent most of the day in Grenoble. I was happy get her phone call from our house (rather than Lyon or Turin).

Grandma with Zoe

awesome lunch at le Tour de Sens

carrot emulsion with lobster risotto

Three kinds of foie gras (the one on the right was amazing: a foie gras creme brulee

Langoustine

Cabillaud (Altantic Cod?)

Veal

Cheese from les alpages

Best french toast in the world

Palatte cleansing emulsioon of yogurt with pineapple (oh yeah, and choclate minicake)


None of us ate dinner today. Absolutely fantastic!

mom here!

picked mom up from the train station on tuesday!

They call me Mr Mom

I had a crazy morning. Chloe is in Paris for a job interview, and I am here with the kids. After wasting almost 20 minutes looking for a pacifier for alex (Day care tends to get very offended and snotty if I don't bring one), I finally dropped Alex off. On the way home, I noticed something strange about my shoes:

I have this single parent thing totally down.

woo!

alex slept from 10PM to 6AM!

proud

We went for a walk near the MJC in le Fontanil today. Along the way Zoe exclaimed "CLIMB ROCK!", and we were obliged to let her try her hand at escalade. She immediately went to the steep section

but then relented and climbed the slab

Langoustines

hard to find in the states, but plentiful here. Our local fish guy has them, and we had an extravagant Langoustine lunch. Not surprisingly, Zoe loved them and we were barely able to keep up with her

boarding at the 7 laux

decent.

The toll plaza

One difference between US highway driving and French autoroute driving that you immediately notice can be seen in the two photos below:
I80 Bay Bridge Toll plaza:

and the toll plaza near the Lyon Airport:


Notice anything different between them? If your answer had something to do with the lack of lane markings on the autoroute version, then you are correct. Specifically, there is a noticeable lack of lanes or markings once you are through the barriers.


After a few seconds you find yourself vying for position in an ad hoc drag race. The only thing missing is a scantily clad flag girl and the cops. It's a remarkable departure from the usually fantastic etiquette on the autoroute. Think about how much better traffic would flow on Bay Area roads if the passing lane (you know, the one on the left) were actually only used for passing. That's how it is here (except in heavy traffic situations of course).

Dog in a trailer

now that's a stylish dog.

aaargh

Dropped my bike chain five times today... in the pouring rain

Biking along the river

It was a perfectly still day along the Isére today. There was a man out on a skull, and it looked beautiful. Of course, no decent camera, but I got an iphone photo:

alex not sleeping

well, not exactly, but he typically wakes up 3-4 times a night, which is really starting to wear us down. I'm just glad I'm not operating any heavy machinery during the day.

Fiat 500

It looks like it is finally coming to the states, and I have to say it is a fabulous looking little car. The car reviewers seem to like it a lot too. I'm content trying to live wih one car for a long as possible, but if it doesn't work... Fiat 500 Abarth!!


links on the fiat 500 coming to america:
New York Times
Available trims
from the CEO of Dodge

museum with the kids

We went to the Grenoble museum with the kids. They happened to be having a special performance in which a dancer would do a dance in front of a work of art. A detailed description by a docent would then follow. I'm generally a dance philistine, but I thought it was beautiful, and Zoe was transfixed.

more pics:






Earlier in the day, Chloe went swimming wih a friend while I corralled the babies. Zoe read to Alex, and even shared her Babu blanket

Baja 1000

Zoe's opinion of the Baja 1000: "DIRTY, DIRTY!". Little does she know that she will be my co-driver in 2026. NB, if you have not seen Dust to Glory, Rent. It. Now. I am watching it for the third time. The narration is bad, but everything else is so, so good.

Trip to Mirmande, the Drome

The Drome is still my favorite area in France thus far, so I was excited to take a day trip to Mirmande, a (you guessed it!) beautiful medieval town, officially listed as one of the plus beaux villages de france (link) in the Drome. We auto-routed it most of the way, so there wasn't much to see until we got there, but the town didn't disappoint. The only problem was that it was really, really, exceptionally cold, and we all retreated to the Cafe Chez Margot in short order. Some photos by our young compatriot from the states, Ian:



and my photos


From there, we drove to Chabillan, which has an impressive, but falling apart keep, more picturesque streets, a very cool looking library where they serve beer, and a whole lot of cats. This cat was in a tree that was not really able to support his weight:


The cafe is under the turret. Not a bad location, really!

The GPS was trying to kill us for most of the day, at one point routing us onto a tiny dirt road, covered in ice and snow that climbed a 15 grade up a hill. It also routed us through countless damn roundabouts on the Departmental roads.

alex

apparently trying to kill us; he was up from midnight until 6 AM this morning and has been "sleeping" similarly for days now. Arghhh!!

dumping snow

slightly scary bike commute home