internet back again (finally)

The internet has been a running joke for us: many weeks to get a connection, and we have twice been without it for a week now. Nice job, Bouygues.

Leroy Merlin

Chloe was dropped off Zoe at a birthday party today (which we were both worried about because she is so shy) and taking Alex to go hang out with a former work friend. In the mean time I decided that i would take care of a few house things that had just not been getting done. This involved a bike ride to Leroy Merlin, the French equivalent of Home Depot (or Loews, I guess). The big difference is that Leroy Merlin has people that actually know what they are talking about. unfortunately, the "huge endless maze of products" is the same. First stop: lighting. I was hoping to get a light fixture or two, but as I was staring at the wall full of pictures, I noticed the light getting brighter and brighter. Soon, people were shielding their eyes and turning away. I guess some enterprising Leroy Manager had decided that it was important for us to see what the fixtures looked like at various light levels. However, the wall of light looked like a rock concert and furthermore, the levels were changing far faster than human eyes could adjust. Anyway, I found a nice stainless steel fixture, but then realised.. I was on my bike! There really is no way to get something like that into a backpack. Next stop: fasteners. I got lost in here for a while, and it took me forever to find the padlocks. It turns out that padlocks are kept several aisles away from the padlock clasps. Who knows why. There was an almost constant whine from a high speed circular saw while I was wandering around. I had assumed that they were doing work somewhere, but it turned out to be a Leroy staff member with a vacant look on his face absent mindedly sawing small bits off of a 2x4 (or whatever the metric equivalent is) at a demo station. I guess he was showing off a saw that was on sale. It seemed like a lot of noise and dust for nothing though! I made it out of Leroy Merlon eventually, and with several new masonry bits for my drill. The thing about buildings in Grenoble is that every wall tends to be made out of rick or cement. Therefore, even simple things like putting in a toilet paper holder require a hammer drill, masonry bit and expansion sleeves! I like the solidity of the walls, but the whole "drilling holes in cement" thing gets old pretty fast.

A ride in the Trieves

The Trieves is a beautiful region south of Grenoble that we have not explored very much. It contains the Mont Aiguille and a string of picturesque small towns, all on rolling hills ringed by mountains. My first ride with Hank more than a year ago was in the Trieves, and I wanted to go back. There was one col in particular which I had seen recently called the Col du Noyer. After a few terse emails between us it was on. We parked at Pellafol, suited up, discussed the impressively cold temperatures (at least for a Bay Area wuss like myself) and we were off. We headed down the D217b into a sharp sided ravine. A few turns still had frost on them and the grass was still white in the shadows. Over the bridge, up the steepish road and the legs were finally beginning to warm up. Then it was descent time again. After a left handed turn in the road I noticed my front wheel move a bit, and then I heard the sickening clatter of road bike against pavement. It's such a distinctive sound, and one that always makes me queasy. I glance backwards and I don't see Hank anymore, but there was a sliding sound. I remember actually saying "uh oh" and then my front wheel
was out and my bike was on the ground too. We had come across a huge sheet of totally black ice. Usually there is some kind of clue: tire marks, frost at the edge of the road.. something! This time there was nothing, even off the bike and standing still it looked no different from tarmac. I've only seen that a few times in my life actually. Anyway, We dust ourselves off: shifter and RD missing some varnish, half of my cleat broken off. Hank makes his way down the road on foot: an impressive bloody gash on his palm but somehow he's still smiling. He tells me that it was lucky there was so much ice to cushion his fall. I think I'll start calling him "Jens". Somehow, with half a cleat I was still able to clip in, albeit with a lot more float than usual.

Onwards on small roads. We end up at an intersection and opt for the smaller road, which after a pretty decent climb confronts us with a "Road Closed" sign. We press on. There is a foot path over an impressive drop to the valley floor. Velotel shoulders his bike and charges down the rocky footpath. I follow, branches pinging off my wheels. Next it's rolling hills, past broken castles and farms, and then to the base of the Col du Noyer. It kicked up immediately into a respectable grade, then through some hamlets and then into the business of the climb. It's stunning scenery and the top looks a bit like Izoard to me. Neither of us could believe how beautiful and wild it was up there, and how unexpected. It looked so out of place somehow. Then over the col, and a ginger descent over potentially icy roads, but happily no more close encounters of the road kind. Down a hill and I can see a huge white dog amidst a flock of sheep notice Hank and take off towards him. I actually thought it was a sheep at first because it was the same size as one, but whiter. Another mishap about to happen? No, the dog hits a small section of orange fencing and gives up. From here, it's all downhill and back to the car. 64km, 1400m gain and a stunning loop. a must do, and in the direction we did it IMO. Video and photos below:

Ciao a te

Ciao a the the Aussies… probably the last time we will hang out with them sans infants. Chloe and I are both really sad to see them go.

Rollers

The issue of staying fit in the Winter is a bit difficult for me. Cycling gets difficult with the occasional snow storm, soaking or slushy roads, and yeah, the cold. I have accumulated a decent amount of cold weather gear, so I can safely ride without dying or freezing to death, but it's not always fun.

This season though, I finally broke down and bought a set of rollers, which are a primitive indoor torture device for cyclists. My last encounter with them was in college on the cycling team, and it did not go well at all and since then I have always assumed that they are impossible. After talking to a guy at work that has them, however, I decided to give it another go, and I think the new versions are a lot easier than the ca 1990s rollers. It still feels like riding a bike on a skating rink though.



After a few workouts I can stand while riding and ride one legged. I've also been setting up a connection to the computer for targeted training programs. It should keep it a little less bleak than staring at the wall.

Kid drop off this morning: too cold to wait outside

Mont st. Martin

Kitties!

We're going to adopt a cat! After the new years, that is

Our new place

A view out the window

Zoe: "and the other presi-nent? Il set mechant?"

arrrgh

Still no internet, and pretty busy at work, so sorry if I haven't been responding promptly to emails!

Bike path

Storm aftermath. Not easy to bike over that mess!

… and we're back

It's been a busy few weeks, and I haven't had much time to do any updates. Also, despite giving our ISP (Bouygues) almost two weeks of notice, we STILL do not have working internet or phones at home. Amazing. I'll be filling in a few posts from the past weeks as we have time, but it is still hard to upload imaged. Everything goes through my phone, in hotspot mode.

Anyway, last night when we went to sleep there was a cold rain blowing sideways, strafing the flanks of the Neron, but no hint of snow. When we woke up this morning, we were amazed to see at least 5cm of snow on the ground!






When I opened our window to open the shutters, I could hear the cracks of branches and trees breaking under the weight of all the snow. Indeed, a tree fell over in the lot and almost hit our car.

A party!

After our move, I was eager to get things out of boxes as soon as possible, but it was a very busy week at work, so we didn't get much done. It would have been nice to delay Zoe's party until next week, but it turns out that next week is the start of a two week school holiday, so we figured that not many of her friends would be able to make it. So we bit the bullet, scheduled it for this weekend and unpacked like crazy into friday night and saturday morning. Chloe cooked her second set of cakes (the first set was delivered to school earlier this week). Invitations were sent out earlier in the week, and finally the big day was here. Earlier in the day I made pain perdu (French toast) and we decided to put a candle in it.

Neither Chloe nor I had ever done a party like this, as it was the first year Zoe expected it, and we were pretty stressed out. Of course, the weather turned out to be pretty uncooperative: the forecast went from sunny to rain, and then freezing rain. As a result we were left to scramble for indoor games and came up with pin the tail on the donkey (which I guess is not very common in France, but the kids seemed to really like it)

and a treasure hunt. Vanessa very kindly stayed the whole time to help -- thank you Vanessa!!!

Hmmm.

Move

Today was the big day of the move. After lots of packing and much hand wringing about how bad the movers would be, they turned out only to be the second worst movers ever (why can't they all be like Pat Ryan? http://www.yelp.com/biz/pat-ryan-moving-and-storage-san-francisco-2 ). But still, fewer things broken even if they did suddenly change the amount we had to pay because the entrance to the apartment was greater than 20 meters from the parking. What can you say to that, really? Many boxes clearly labelled in french were delivered to the wrong room, etc etc. Basically, moving was awful, but not as bad as the last time. We're just glad it's over. In the run up to the move, we threw away or donated a huge amount of stuff but there was still quite a bit. Oy vey. I should say that the three non manager guys did a good job

Note the ironic text on the box

Storming the Bastille

ok maybe "flailing my way up" would be more accurate. The Bastille is a local climb known for it's steepness. It even got the famous Bernard Hinault off of his bike, but that was after a long stage in which he had a spectacular crash. I have ridden up it a few times: once mildly drunk at night with a buddy on MTBs, and then more recently when I met up with some local expats who promptly spat me out the back. The first ramp is almost comically steep... and then it gets worse. By the end, even 15% grades are a welcome respite from the serious parts. But somehow I did not remember this when I was deciding where to go for my lunchtime ride. I guess time dulls my memory of extreme pain, but it came back very quickly. The steepest parts make it hard to even keep the front wheel on the ground, and standing up is more or less out of the question. Some photos:

painful, but a pretty unique and cool climb

Pedestrianization

The local merchants are all up in arms about the proposal, which will be put to a vote, to turn the center of town into a pedestrian only area. There are big hyperbolic signs announcing the death of the shops etc etc, and the story even made it into the Dauphine Libere (image below, used without permission)

That's our mayor, who one day assured me that he was doing what he could to stop the Tabac owner from sounding the alarm every morning and fixing the extremely noisy delivery door. Of course, it was immediately fixed. Or not at all, I can't remember which. In any case, I seriously doubt turning the center into a ped only area will kill the local stores, especially considering how much business the boulangerie does on a Sunday (when the street is closed to traffic). It will certainly be less convenient for people who live on the West side of town, however. I'm not sure how I feel about it -- if I really thought the boulangerie would be affected, I might be swayed. It is a pretty good boulangerie, after all. On the other hand, people drive through the center of town at very high speed, and the main street is basically a not-so-secret detour taken by jerks who live in Voiron, Chevallon and other places east to save time. Since they are doing it to save time, they feel obligated to put all of our lives at risk by driving in the typical French small road fashion: at the rev limiter. Unfortunately, their detour goes on the same roads on which kids cycle to school, and indeed have made one such road (The rue de Cornillon) too dangerous for that purpose. The main road can still be used, but only with very close parental supervision. It's not unusual to see little pelotons of families making their way to school, parents looking warily behind them to assign risk to the oncoming cars. Kids turning high cadence and largely oblivious to the danger behind them.

A mouse in the house!

There was a mouse in our house! Chloe bravely shrieked, jumped onto the couch cartoon-style and had the kids and I trap the mouse. The kids were beside themselves with excitement, even if it was short lived. We dropped it off in the park up the street.

Cheese plate!