Sashimi

We went to the best fish place in town -- Lachenal, where Zoe was so excited that she was prancing around chanting "I LOVE FISH! I LOVE FISH"!  She got to touch a very angry lobster:

And then made be buy some langoustines.  When I told her what the slimy white things on the side were, she replied: "Cuddle fish?  They do cuddles?!" and then made the most adorable cuddle pantomime in the history of mankind.  Next: IKEA to buy the fanciest child latex mattress we could buy, because I was worried about brominated fire retardants on our US-spec mattress.

And then home for home grown Shiso and a massive sashimi extravaganza

Legos

Zoe's improvement on the LEGO suggestion: Instead of being the damsel in distress, Madame LEGO is in the driver's seat of the now convertible fire truck (with parts borrowed from Alex's F1 car) with the cat safely in the back seat. The fireman is nowhere to be found.

Faculty retreat

the view on the way back was fantastic!

Clean Al welds

Bike forum guys always say that big toothpaste welds on bikes are fine, and that they can't be done any better.  Well today I think I saw otherwise:

Vanessa here!

Vanessa is here visiting, but sadly sans Simon and "little girls", as Zoe and Alex still call them.  She came with an amazing gift bag full of things, including a kangaroo scrotum change purse!  someone really needs to figure out how to make a bike under-saddle bag out of those.  Anyway, thanks so much guys!  Also for the Geraint Thomas jersey… rockin 

yay

Beaufort, Col du Joly

I went one a beautiful ride with Hank today.  A few stills:









And video

And Hank's account:
http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?p=1418644

Despite looming clouds, we managed to not get rained on the entire time.

First Homework!

The Rentree

Today was Zoe's first day of "CP", which is the first big step in the French School system.  Things get serious this year, with reading, writing, dictation and a whole host of other big kid things.  Both of the kids were starting at a new school this year (enrolling them in it was a big adventure for Chloe), so: a big transition.  It was made a bit harder by the fact that I was all alone, so that meant getting them and their stuff together, and then getting them to and from school all week -- pas facile!  Zoe settled in right away though, and it turns out that there is another Zoe in her class, who sat down right next to her!  There were a few speeches by the teacher and principal, and then the parents were expected to make themselves scarce.  Alex was crying, but our new nounou helped peel him off my leg and get him into his new classroom.

My new sunglasses, stolen by alex

a walk!

I'm trying to get our kids to walk more, with limited success.  Today we hiked along the lower flanks if the Neron, and they unexpectedly did great!  Even more unexpectedly:  Bento came along with us.  It was a bit stressful for me because it's a common dog walking area, and I was worried that Bento would either get chased far into the forest and get lost… or up into a tree

Making toy houses

with Zoe and Alex

Charmette

I rode up the back side of Charmette… longer than I thought it would be for some reason, even though I have descended that way a few times.  Lovely, as usual though.  I passed a monk in robes and hiking boots jogging up the hill.  Now there's something you don't see every day.  His head was surrounded by a cloud (halo?) of bugs.

Warwick

Went to warwick for a conference.  Here it is, in pictures


I stopped at Tesco to buy some nice bacon and cheddar

and Quarter cask

And was slightly tempted to go to Kos instead of home!

Back to the 'hood

Via Mercurey:  one of the most famous of the heart and soul of French wines.  But first:  excellent breakfasts!

They make the yogurt on site, as well as the jam (from their fig and cherry trees!).  There was also honey from the Abbey, and eggs from their free range chickens (which Zoe and Alex delighted in chasing).

Mercurey:

What can you say except it's painfully expensive, but spectacular wine.

Lunch on the autoroute

Noyers, Irancy

After a fabulous breakfast at the Abbey

And some "bouncy-bounce"

Chloe and Stephanie took the kids to a dino park in the morning while I went for a ride (Footage of the Abbey at the end!):



I had a somewhat disastrous series of tire blowouts, but it was still really pleasant riding.

 The Yonne river is still maintained as a throughway for boats, complete with operational locks.  It looks like a lot of people spend their vacations on the river and it reminded me of an article that I read a long time ago about Americans renting and buying barges, which I can't seem to find.  I did find this one though, which specifically mentions the Yonne river.  Anyway, after a lot of time on the side of the road, I eventually made it back to the Abbey, and spent some time looking for wineries on the web.  I also discovered that we were near another of the plus beaux villages de France called Noyers.

 We packed everyone up and drove the sinous and remarkably vineyard free countryside to Noyers, a pretty village with half timbered houses built along a bend in the Serein river.  After drinks and snacks, I took the kids down to the promenade by the river and we watched fat fish swim by a very frustrated looking fisherman.  We decided that one particular fish was the "chef des poissons" and tried to convince chloe to dive in to catch him/her.
From there, we went to a relatively unknown wine region known as Irancy.  The region had, once upon a time produced wine for the royal court, but after the Phylloxerra plague and some other problems (mold?  I can't remember) they apparently re-planted with plonk producing wines.  In recent years though, they have replanted with pinot noir and invested in an AOC certification.

After a tasting, we bought a few bottles from the Serge Bienvenu cave.  There were a few notices up on the wall proudly proclaiming their non-organicness!

Finally, back to the estate, where I took some photos:

And then we went to dinner in nearby Vermenton