into Grenoble

for some cafe time with the kids

Montaud

Another shortish ride up Montaud and "Le Coing" today. I had a brief no-kid window and hemmed and hawed about which side of the valley to go to. Our town was still shrouded in fog, but I could see what looked like some blue skies over the Vercors. By the time I finally made a decision about which road to take, however, I was past my usual turn off so I tried a new route. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bike path that was not yet completed (but will be awesome when complete!) and I ended up scurrying down a muddy berm, across a creek, back up the other side, and eventually onto the bike path again. It was a little questionable in road cleats. Back on the path, it was still very foggy and visibility was ~100 feet and cold again, but I had a secret weapon this time: plastic bags over my socks

high f'in tech, I know. I hit the climb up to montaud from the St. Quentin side at the red line, which is a bit sad seeing as I was almost dead last on Strava, and soon emerged from the fog into a beautiful sunny day. People that live up there (and on velotel's plateau) must be enjoying a little schadenfreude on days like this. Anyway, I was happy to be out of the freezing cold, and savored the sun once I got to the church in Montaud.


From there, it was the mini-climb up to Le Coing, and then back down to the valley.

I'm not a big fan of the descent down to Veuray, and today was even worse than usual: a lot of frost on the road, usually right before a hard turn. After almost ending up in a ditch, I slowed waaay down and took my time.

The happy surprise was that the fog had burned off by the time I got back to the valley.

cold ride

went for a short ride up past quaix and near the col de Vence. It was very cold, but felt good to get out after a week with no riding. There was a bone chilling fog in the valley, and I could barely feel my toes by the end of the ride

A ride through the Drome

I went for a ride with Hank over the col des Limouches and Tourniol today. Another unseasonably warm "winter" day, and I was reasonably well insulated for the ride. Chloe and I have driven these roads quite a few times on the way to Ombleze, so it was nice to finally be on them outside of the car. There's a pretty spectacular cliff near the top of Tourniol, but it looked totally unequipped. My favorite townalong the way was "Barbieres", which sits at a notch in an impressive rock formation.

Wine, riding

I went for a short ride over Montaud with a friend from work this afternoon: slightly cold, but fun riding. At the beginning of the climb we saw a cat in the road, and as we approached, it became clear that the cat was not planning on taking evasive actions against the oncoming bikes. Despite seeing us coming from fifty meters away, it somehow ended up between our bikes. The unfortunate result was that the cat freaked out, chose the worst possible moment to bolt sideways, and got slightly run over my my friend. Not good. Earlier in the season, someone at work ended up with a broken collarbone after a similar kamikaze cat experience... So I usually stay well clear of them, or any other animal. After the collision, the cat fled and did not seem to be limping or leaving a trail of blood. My friend just barely held it together and managed not to hit the deck. Happily, no further excitement was had on the ride. We did see some more cats, which we stared down with great suspicion.

Later on, we went to the Salon du Vin in Noyarey with the same friend and the families, and had a great time tasting wine, foie-gras (I know, we are terrible people), Corsican saucisson, and of course the chocolate table





Since we had recently stocked up on some 2009 Bourgognes thanks to Franck, we went for wines that would be ready sooner… as in right now! Somehow that ended up being mostly Cotes du Rhones proper and Villages.

Later on, dinner at lolo and vero's. A full and excellent day!

Cherry Rocher

We went to the Cherry Rocher liqueur museum with the Aussies today. The museum is in La Cote-Saint-Andre, just forty minutes away, and it is certainly worth the trip. I've mentioned in the blog that I'm interested in different kinds of fruit alcohols (usually more distillates rather than macerations)m and the museum has a wonderful collection of stills, fruit presses and all sorts of other interesting machinery. They also have a tasting room, and an impressive selection of many kinds of alcohols.








From the museum, we all went to the "Paradis du Chocolat" chez Jouvenal which was also fun. They make a nut filled chocolate which are quite addictive, but with a bizarre name "Damnation".





From there it was on to the chateau and home

Col du Mont Noir

Went for a beautiful ride to the col du Mont Noir today. Beautiful weather… in NOVEMBER! The road goes through some spectacular scenery, most notably a road cut into the side of a cliff. Later on, after the small town of Malleval, the road opens up to a huge cirque, then up to the col. Halfway down the descent, I noticed that my friend was no longer behind me, and I had the thought that one of the usual jerk drivers had run him off the road, so I emptied what was left of my power into cranking back up the hill. Thankfully it was only a blown tube. Whew! The descent was a little wet in places, so I could easily see a mistimed brake application sending you into a ditch, or worse. Actually, the ditch scenario would probably be the best case.

st pancrasse

Hank, a new American friend whom I met a few weeks ago, invited us to his house in St. Pancrasse, at the foot of the Chartreuse. He had told me a little about his house, so I was excited to see it and meet his wife. It turns out that they have a beautiful house with stunning views of the Belledonne. He has done most of the work himself, and it is pretty much a dream house. There is even a wine cellar with a hand made counter weighted trap door! Even the stairs leading down into the cellar are well made. Their backyard has a huge garden, and one can see pastures in the foreground which apparently will never be developed. Also interesting: they have a mass heater, which provides heat for the house (as well as water heating) for several days after doing just a three hour firewood burn. Very cool. The company and lunch were also great; they had friends over from his wife's company and conversation was a mix of french and english.

Virieu

We drove to the Chateau de Virieu today, which is only forty minutes away. It was unfortunately closed, but we walked around and took in the sights. Another beautiful fairy tale castle: ho hum!





The main door to the castle is impressive

But no match for the marauding children

Actually, I don't really understand why they went to such effort to produce a door like that. I would expect a battering ram to be metal, or have a metal head, so the spikes would not be much use there. Except for discouraging people from pummeling the door with their fists or throwing a shoulder into it, I just don't get it. Maybe they would run up behind attackers, shove them and impale them on the spikes?