Choppah practice

gotta improve my skills for Kalymnos!

A photo from Albany!

Alpe d'Huez

I have a litany of excuses for not going to Alpe d'Huez to watch today's stage:  knee pain, muscle soreness, rain.  Basically, lameness.  Here is today's paper:  a switchback by switchback preview of today's stage

Rapha Rising ride

For the last couple of months I haven't been feeling great on the bike. Basically, I get dropped by people that I never had a problem keeping up with. It's been frustrating, but I've still managed some riding: Glandon from the Maurienne, Charmant som and others. Today I drove with a friend to the Alpe d'Huez for a semi organized ride from the temporary Rapha shop in town. We set off over Sarenne, down across the dam and back into the Bourg valley, and then up a climb that I had been scoping out for a long time -- up to Col du Solude. This last road turned out to be spectacular, despite having to ride through unlit tunnels. The top part is a well graded gravel road with magnificent views of the Alpe d'Huez and the valley. Somehow we managed to ride past a bunch of people who had stopped at a cafe in Villard-Notre-Dame, but we ended up waiting for them at a cafe on the other side in Villard Reymond with an American couple that we caught up to along the gravel traverse. It turned out that they were the Grubers, whose photos (link here http://gruberimages.zenfolio.com) I have really admired, so that was cool. Next, a technical descent down to the road that comes off Ornon, and back towards Allemond. I got dropped along this stretch and started up the last climb: Alpe d'Huez via Villard Reculas with just my friend. It turned out that there are a couple of alternate starts to this climb, and the rest of the group was waiting for us down the road for a while -- oops! After 1 km I waved my friend off, shifted into the biggest cog and started the grind by myself. It was slow going but ok until near the top, where I had the worst leg cramps that I have\
 ever experienced. I had to get off my bike at least ten times to let my legs unclench. It was a delicate balancing act: lean too far one way and the hamstrings would go… the other way would start the quads. It was agony, and despite the shelf road at the top being gorgeous, with Sound of Music rolling hills looking out over glaciers and peaks, the best I could do was to focus on arriving back to the car. I eventually made it, but I'll admit that those last several km were pretty dark, even with the very loud Dutch music and Swiss rap filtering out of bumper to bumper RVs. I took a little video:




This was two days before the Tour would sweep through, and there was already a continuous stream of cars and bikes going up and down the hill. By thursday, there would be close to one million people on this narrow stretch of road.

98 km (60 miles), 2565 m (8400 feet) of climbing.   I should also mention that this was part of a "Challenge" to ride ~24000 vertical feet in eight days.

Dropped the kids and Chloe off at the airport this morning… I miss them already!

Dimi Restaurant

So my new favorite place for lunch is in a pretty unlikely place:  an industrial zone in St. Egreve.  The food is simple but excellent, with a large percentage of organic ingredients.  Best of all, they serve possibly the best cheeseburger in France (ok I have not tried that many -- one look usually cures me of that)!  Did I mention that it has an actual bun and cheese?

mom leaving

After what seemed like a very short stay, mom was off today.  We'll all miss you a lot, mom!

Took mom over to Hank's today to show her his place on the plateau.  Was great to see him again, even if we didn't ride our bikes.

Home from the Drome

More climbing this morning, thanks to mom babysitting (thank you mom!!)  We were hoping to go to Fauborgs, but it was in full sun at like 8 AM, so we hit the main cliff and hiked to a sector we had not been to in a long time called Bicolore (right next to the sector where I exploded my tendon).  Warm up was on a beautiful blocky 6a called "Le clef du nirvana", then I managed to fall off Bicolore itself, and then did Ambroise, a fantastic 35 meter 6c:  bliss!


Then it was back to the gite to clean and close up shop.  Here is a photo of chloe next to the thistle that someone had inexplicably planted next to the front door and which we were stabbed by almost every time we opened or closed the door

(it is a beautiful thistle though!)

Last thoughts on the gite:  beautiful location, tastefully appointed and well equipped.  My only criticism is that large tractors and balers were driving 6 feet away from the front door every thirty minutes or so.  I'm not sure what exactly they were doing.

Although the Moulin de la Pipe is the only game in town in terms  of restaurants, I think we will cook ourselves next time, as it is not the best quality, and quite expensive.

On our way back to Grenoble, we stopped at a lovely restaurant called the Auberge de Leoncel.  Everything we had was wonderful, but extra special compliments are due to the caramel ice cream that they served, from "Glaces de l'Ardeche, Michel Morand".  Possibly the best caramel ice cream I have ever tasted, and worth a detour.

"Climbing"

We got one route in after a late start on the main cliff before getting grumpy about the full sun (EVERYWHERE!) and retired to the Gite.   OK, maybe it was just me being grumpy.  We did a little touring instead and headed south through small towns and eventually ended up in Crest.  Nothing too remarkable really.  It was one of the least interesting parts of the Drome that I had been to, but still pretty.

After it cooled down, Chloe and I went to the Pecher du Bas sector, and oh my god was it hard!    I barely scraped together an onsight of the 6c+ pitch of Maux d'amour and almost had a heart attack thugging my way through the lower crux of L'equilibre du juste followed by very tenderly clawing my way up the very technical upper part.  Probably the hardest 7a I have ever done, and I was elated to reach the chains without getting ejected by any of the thin moves leading up to it.

Next, we had a so-so dinner at the moulin de la pipe, 

and against my better judgement flew the Phantom in high wind, in order to get some pictures of the cliff

Road trip to Ombleze

Chloe had found a new Gite just past the Gorges d'Ombleze which we were supposed to have gone to in May.  After a few cancellations and moves, we were finally able to go this weekend, and with mom!  Based on the price and remoteness, I was a little worried about what it would be like, but was very pleasantly surprised.  It was a very well refurbished farmhouse, with lovely furniture and cedar panelling everywhere (even in the bathroom!).  The kitchen was well equipped as well.  Next to the gite was a big field with knee high grass and a path carved through it to a small creek.

Glandon

I rode Glandon from the Maurienne with Martin -- my legs felt terrible and I was dropped, but what a wonderful alpine paradise it is up there.  1500 meters of climbing is a lot when you are not feeling fit, however.

Dinner at Francks!

Oh how I miss BBQ.  It's so strange and sad that we aren't allowed to grill on our little patio!


And as usual more fantastic desserts from Franck

Pizza night

with the guys.  Franck, who is known for his exceptional dessert making skill, made probably his best dessert ever, and one of my all time favorites.  I took the opportunity for a little Phantom footage, even if I had meant to shoot stills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGo7zMcFGNY

Touvet

Today mom and I went to the chateau du Touvet, in the Gresivaudan, to the East of Grenoble.  After a very short drive, we followed the tree lined entry, parked and bought a ticket.  I soon found myself in a conversation with the woman at the ticket booth about where we were from, and the usual questions about what we were doing there.  It turned out that she was from St. Egreve, and did I know that there was a chateau in St. Egreve, too?  It turned out that the current owner of the chateau du Touvet (their family has been in charge for the last 500 years) used to own the chateau in which we live, and had broken it up into apartments and sold it.  We all laughed together about the coincidence before the bell for the tour rang, and mom and I had to quickly shuffle off down the very long but impressive driveway.  The tour began with a description of how the castle used to guard against some hostile neighbors (The Savoyards), of which there were a couple in the tour with us, who took it in stride.  The docent told us that the gardens used to be even more majestic when they could afford ten gardeners instead of one.  Ah, la crise!

Once after we entered the castle, I immediately took a photo of the impressive entry, and was as usual told that photography was not permitted.  It seems that not even the smallest of public places has escaped this irritating anti-photography trend.


Next on the tour was the salon, where there were two big basins which were apparently used for rinsing your hands after eating utensil-less.  There was also a table on which the aristocrats would place their dead animals after the hunt.  The flooring in this room and all of the other rooms that we saw (only the ground floor, unfortunately) was spectacular.  Up next, the music room, where I was mostly fixated on the floor again, which was a mix of noyer (walnut), merisier (wild cherry) and Erable (maple).  Stunning.

I don't remember too many details about the rest of the tour, except that there were extremely wide chairs to accomodate the huge hooped dresses of some particular era.  At one point, the docent asked us what we thought the boudoir was for, and one wag replied "pour bouder!", which received some laughs.  After looking it up, I discovered that "bouder" is "to sulk".  So I learned some vocabulary!  We also saw a cool yew table which was made from yews felled from the St. Egreve chateau.  I actually noticed that there were some Yew trees on the grounds, and had started to make Alex a bow with some branches, until I read that every part of the tree except parts of the berry is extremely poisonous.

After the tour, mom and I wandered the gardens and grounds

Mom

Mom always amazes us with how quickly and easily she figures out local public transportation systems.  She is already at home going to and from the center on various buses and trams.  She's been exploring a bit and brought back a small selection of desserts today!

Tour, Frise

Took Keith and Mom on a tour of the synchrotron and to la Frise before dropping keith off on the train to  Paris

Presles and Pont en Royans with mom, Zoe and Keith

We did a little Vercors tour today by way of the col du mont Noir, then through Presles, to Pont-en-Royans and then back over the plateau and down to the valley again.  We stopped at a nice little cafe for drinks in Presles and had some outstanding ice creams in Pont-en-Royans.  We also stopped at the cheese co-op and bought some bleu de Sassenage as well as some Vercorais (not impressed).  It was a beautiful day, tje wildflowers were everywhere and I did not fly the phantom into a cliff.  What more could you ask for?

Chamchaude, with the quad

Keith and I walked up the Chamchaude today.  The sign at the bottom said 2:30 to the top, and we didn't realize that was round trip, so we were walking pretty fast (we got a late start).  One hour and fifteen minutes later we were at the top, in a big cloud bank freezing our asses off.  I did a quick flight, saw the wind buffet the quad enough to get scared and then put it down.  I did manage to get some cool shots lower on the mountain, even if it the thought of loosing the thing scared the hell out of me.  Strangely, some local birds took umbrage at this invasion of their airspace and began circling and dive bombing the phantom!

So, the bottom line is that this thing is a game changer for me.  Even if the quality of the camera is not that wonderful, the perspective is incredible.  It's a little like macro or wildlife shooting: I'm not convinced of how much artistic value they have, but it is SO fun.

School performance

We went to Zoe and Alex's end of the year school performance.  Apparently they practice quite hard for these things!  Chloe and I were satisfied that neither Zoe nor Alex had to be pulled screaming from the stage.

Keith here!

At long last Keith has come to visit

Quadcopter

So I've had a rough few weeks.  So rough that I didn't really even have a chance to celebrate my birthday (actually, I was on a plane) so wanted to have something cool and new to play with.   I've actually wanted an RC airplane since high school, but figured that it would be an endless frutrating stream of broken wings and props.  Enter the quadcopter:  a RC flying machine with a much more shallow learning curve.    I have been reading about RC drones for a while, and recently a company called DJI that sells the flight control "brains"used in many multi rotors copters released their own quadcopter which is called the Phantom.  Everyone seems to love it, even if there are a few things that they got wrong.  I did a little research and at least in my opinion, for a quad carrying a HD Hero, the Phantom is the best deal going.  The GoPro is not the best for stills, but excels at video.  I picked one up from a local shop on the other side of town (http://www.flashrc.com/, HIGHLY recommended) , started the thing charging, picked up the kids, asked who wanted to see daddy's new helicopter, and interpreted their YAAAAAAY YES ME I WANT TOs as an affirmative.  I had watched all the tutorial videos except the advanced guide multiple times and started off gently.  I did not, however notice the fact that when you get an imperfect GPS lock, the copter does not use GPS to correct its flight, so hands off the joysticks=copter continues to coast.  So, long story short, on the second flight a mild puff of wind starts the phantom going towards the forest.  Worse still, it gets turned around so all the directions controls are now flipped.  It lofted slowly over the fence and crash landed in an immense stand of bushes.  Nice.  I put the controller down, and with the kids in tow began bushwhacking in my shorts and sandals.  That's when I noticed that this was no ordinary stand of bushes, but chest high stinging nettles with some blackberry vines weaving through them for.  Zoe tried to follow me without my noticing and she was soon crying from a nettle sting, and my arms and legs were starting to throb.  I brought the kids back to the chateau, got on my Carhartts (the ones I used to use when I was chainsawing stuff) and headed back into the sea of pain.  After stomping down a large area, I eventually found the thing deep in a nettle.  So not the most auspicious of starts, but it could have been a wall, I suppose.

Since then (Monday) I have done at least six flights and am getting better and better but still have moments of terror when the copter gets turned around and the controls are shifted by 90, 180 or 270 degrees.  I have to say though that this thing is amazing.  It will climb, drop and glide as fast (ok, much faster) than I am comfortable with and gets around 12 minutes from a fully charged pack.

Tonight I showed it off to Franck and managed not to crash it or injure either one of us, despite the lack of GPS lock again and a bit of wind.




I can't wait to do flyovers of cols, cliffs etc.  This is going to be amazing.