Getting hit by car= no bueno

First of all, I am fine: no broken bones, just some blood and bruising. The bike also fared ok, and I am glad to have a steel fork on the bike. Had it been carbon fiber, I would now have to start worrying about whether the fork was cracked! So: it was about 3 minutes into my ride, and a d%^khead driving a white 205 decided that he would turn in front of me while I was going ~30 kph. I managed to slow down a little, but hit the car and then went down, skidded along the tarmac for a while, and rolled (I think) a little before both cleats released. When I got up, I saw stars for a few seconds, despite not having hit my head, and then got to work confronting the driver. I explained in my best french that there was a bike lane and he should look around a little before turning. He was suitably apologetic, and in the meantime a pompier who had been driving behind the miscreant had pulled over and checked to see if I was ok. After establishing that nothing on myself or the bike was broken, getting all of the relevant info from the driver (should my bike turn out to be severely damaged and need replacement by a full carbon rig), I set out again. From the scene of the crime, I rode an adrenaline fueled 40k along the bike path at my best pace this year: average speed 31.7 kph. I know, not too fast for flats, but progress! I just need to keep getting in crashes (just kidding, mom!!)

Climbing

We went to petit desert with Simon, Vanessa and the kids. It was a beautiful day to be outside!



On the way to Petit Desert, we passed a circus that was getting set up. It seems pretty common practice to let the circus animals graze on nearby medians and fields. This provides for fun and interesting photo ops, as well as much kid excitement!



I wasn't going to let Zoe near 1000 pounds of potentially irritable camel, so we watched them chew from afar. That is, until I saw a mob of kids descend upon the camel and climb in between the humps! Even then, we watched for a while, and when the kids left, we slowly approached the second hump, and zoe very gently pet the camel (while shrieking with glee).