Grenoble to Florence

We drove to Florence today.  There's no getting around the fact that it is an expensive slog.  At least the section through the Maurienne is beautiful and I scan daydream about riding the high cols.  The section after the tunnel is a maddening section of pay booths every 10km or so with inexplicably different fees to pay.  The road from the foothills down to Genoa is just tedious and awful.  The causeways and viaducts around Genoa however are kind of amazing, if a bit bewildering.  I really felt like I was in a Rube Goldberg machine a few times.  We passed Carrera and the amazing never ending fields of tree farms before eventually reaching the city outskirts.  There, the Tomtom GPS happily delivered us to a nondescript alley which was supposed to house the parking garage.  Of course, there was no parking garage -- it was actually several blocks away and on the other side of an impassable avenue.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that kind of thing anymore.

After five more minutes of exciting Florentine traffic, we made it to the parking garage, unpacked the car and walked the stuff over to the hotel -- the Residenza il Villino.  The room was not as opulent as Villa Antea, but the location was much better.  And when you have two kids that are not particularly willing to walk, that is an important consideration.  The owner/operator was very nice and showed us around,  Zoe impressed us both by instant memorizing the electronic keypad combination and would let us in ever time we came in and out of the hotel.

First order of business: Gelato

At Rivareno.  "Service with a sneer" is the motto here, but damn is that some amazing gelato.  Especially the nocciola.

We wandered around for a while and then went back to the hotel before going to our first dinner reservation at Acquacottam just down the road.  The first problem was that between the time we sat down and when we received our appetizers, one and a quarter hours passed by.  Meanwhile people were served out of order and the general demeanor of the patrons started to border on rebellion.  The kids were of course going completely nuts, as expected.  The food itself was fine, but not what I would call wonderful.  I really don't understand how it gets so highly reviewed.  Perhaps it's another case of people who are unused to how good Italian food *can* be pumping up the ratings for a decent but unexceptional restaurant.  Chloe and I were disappointed not just because it was such a let down, but because we worried that perhaps our stellar memories of the food of Vini e Vechhi Sapori had just grown with time, and that it would also be a let down.

Plans re-made

Today we looked at the weather forecast to find that it was supposed to rain for our glorious climbing trip to St. Lege du Ventoux.  Our dreams of pulling down on tuffs were dashed.  Having promised the kids (and ourselves) a vacation, I scrambled into last minute trip mode and we decided to go to Florence.  It wouldn't be inexpensive of source since tourist season has already begun (not to mention automate fees etc) but we loved Florence the last time and had been talking about going back ever since.  I'll admit that a big part of what we were looking forward to was a visit to the most amazing restaurant.  It took a little doing to figure out all the plans, and my hopes for staying at an agriturismo along the way back did not come to fruition, because everything was booked.

Bento gets chased up a tree

Bento is my little buddy.  He follows me around the yard and house as I do chores, occasionally looking up and meowing at me.  Unfortunately, he also follows me out to the car, which usually ends up with my spending the next five minutes making sure that I don't drive over Bento.  He just isn't that afraid of engines yet, and I worry about him.  I was therefore happy when I started the car and saw him take off at maximum speed towards a tree.  "He's finally afraid of cars!", I thought to myself.  Shortly thereafter however, I discovered the real reason:  pursuit by a big unleashed dog.  Bento shot up a nearby tree with admirable speed:

but then required rescuing by me:  not easy.

Porte

Rode Col de Porte with Martin… A beautiful day and nice ride

Charmette (almost)

The road needs a little work up there

Graft #1 successful

Chasing Pigeons

Internet back!

but its the old internet… we're waiting for activation from the new provider so we can tell Bouygues to piss off. We have now not had internet for much more time than we have had internet (ever since we moved in October).

The weather has been beautiful over the last week, but our dreams of a full fledged spring were dashed by rain.

you don't see that every day

The cat

Bento has become popular with the castle kids, to his great misfortune. He is chased, and generally given more "love" than any cat could handle -- even a half kitten like Bento. He has been less of a hit with the castle cats, who have as expected looked upon this new arrival with suspicion. Because Bento is still small though, he tries to make friends with them and yesterday came back with a nice scratch on his nose. Apparently the other day the kids cooed as they watched Bento try to make friends with a particularly large and fluffy neighbour, rolling on the ground in front of her while the other cat hissed and arched her back. The kids were convinced that they were "falling in love" like in the movies though, and very excited.

Chloe loses her mind

A while ago I foolishly mentioned the existence of something called the Birthday Challenge (http://www.birthdaychallenge.com) which inspired chloe to do something crazy:  40km of running with over 7800 vertical feet of "up" and 4000 calories over the course of a day.  The kids and I did some support, and although she did not even notice it, I went out beforehand and wrote "Allez Chloe" in chalk on the ground.  Midway through we met her up at Mont St. Martin to bring her water and say hi.  She eventually called us from her second run up to Mont. St. Martin (this time with lolo) and we drove up to pick her up.  Congrats, CZ!!  My Bday challenge will be to eat 40 croissants.

New internet, at last!

Well actually we are paying for two internet connections, and one (Bouygues) has never really worked, and the other has not officially been in stalled yet, but we have wifi access from the middle of the yard. Anyway, we should be back in business soon.

Today, on this first real weekend day of Spring weather, we all went into town for some supplies for Ozenya: I'm going to attempt to make okonomiyaki, and ice creams for everyone at the green arch. The center was absolutely mobbed with people, so we all gave up pretty quickly.

Earlier, I did a ride up col de la Placette, the Grand Vervier, 1000 martyrs and back. The new bike position feels better on the knee, so I am quite happy. All told: 78 km and 1470 meters of climbing. I was taking it easy, but even so it felt pretty hard today.

Into town

For ice cream

Triple Zero

Exciting news:  we bought a new duvet.  OK, not terribly exciting, really.  It had been a while and I thought it was time for a new one, especially considering how long it had been and the fit that the down had been moving around a lot.  Rather than buy another cheap one, I checked out the well known French mountain apparel company: Triple Zero.  They use the best French down and have been working with it for a long time.  I looked at their jackets a few years ago, and the construction is really impressive.  The only thing I don't really like is the cut and looks of the jackets (same story with Valandre).  Anyway, they make fully "cloisonné" duvets as well, which means that the seams do not traverse the duvet.  We received it today, and WOW is it warm and well built.

Climbing

Bento exploring the top of the hedges

Catnip

A ride

Along the digue, then Parmenie.  I did the very steep little road that goes North from the col too:  very pretty!

Christine here!!