FRANCE - August 2015

Having had three great summers of cycling in the states, we were ready to head to Europe again. Our Trek Travel experience in Tuscany in 2006 was so amazing, that we spent the winter pouring over the Trek catalogue and ended up selecting an “avid” ride called “Classic Climbs of the Alps.”

During the six years I lived in Germany, I had many trips back and forth, so international flights shouldn’t be a mystery. But I was a bit befuddled by the timing of the flight to Europe. On Wednesday, we got up as usual, went to the office for our Wednesday morning leadership meeting, then Ryan brought us to the Madison airport for our 12:30pm flight to Chicago. We arrived at O'Hare with 90 minutes before our flight to Paris, so we ate lunch at Wolfgang Pucks in the International terminal - awesome people watching and a fun game trying to match people to their nationalities. If I’d been smart, I’d have changed my watch to Paris time when we left, because it was hard to sleep when I could see it was only 8 PM!? And then at 10 PM CST (5 AM Paris), they served us breakfast and said we’d be on the ground in an hour! Throughout my dozing time, I went through periods of anxiousness and excitement! How will we find the right train? Was there a voucher we were supposed to have validated or was that for next week’s train? … That sort of thing! All went well as we got our 3-day rail passes validated, caught the High-Speed TGV train at the airport, transferred in Lyons to a regional slower train to Annecy. We were bone-tired, and dozed and snacked most of the ride. As we neared Annecy, the scenery changed into alpine meadows, lakes, rivers and mountains.

We were delighted to see our hotel as we pulled into the station in Annecy. Three nights at the Novotel to get acclimated to the mountains and enjoy some R&R before we start the Trek Travel portion of our journey.

After we checked in, we took a 30-minute nap and headed out about 5pm to explore the city and get dinner. We strolled through a pedestrian zone down to a park along the lake - very busy with tourists, mainly French, but a few were conspicuously American (the ones with green name tags from their tour group were easy to spot). We were still quite exhausted and wanted food and then sleep. Rick Steves’ travel guide said dinner in France starts at 7pm, and man did they get the memo here! Plenty of sidewalk cafes open for drinks, but nobody was serving food. We settled for a burger and salad from “Quick Burger,” then strolled back to our hotel.

I was out like a light at 7:30pm, and although I woke up a few times, I didn’t roll myself out of bed until 9:30am. Breakfast at our hotel is served until 11a, and we barely made it on time! By the time we were moving though, we both felt pretty good.

After breakfast we strolled through the old city; along canals, under buildings built over the street, up to a chateau overlooking the city, then to a church overlooking that. We followed a path leading into the woods where I’d hoped we’d have a great view of the lake. We didn’t - however we did work our legs and lungs a bit in the climb so we rewarded ourselves with a gelato when we got back down to the city.

We rented a paddle boat and ventured out onto the lake. We were able to see around the shore a bit and found another area we’ll explore on our walk tomorrow. You can rent bikes and cycle around the lake, but it seems a bit dangerous with the crazy tourist crowds right now. We decided we’ll leave the biking to when we’re with the Trek Travel guides!

Our hotel, Novotel, which I think is a French chain, turned out to be fabulous. Great location, awesome breakfast, quiet, great bed, bathroom not too funky for Europe! We keep having this phenomenon of shock though when we leave the quiet sanctuary of our room and step out of the elevator to a busy lobby scene, and even crazier mall scene just outside the front door. That was certainly our experience last night when we stepped out at 7pm on a Friday night! The city had come alive.

We’ve mastered the layout of the old city and took the shortcut to the area we’d scoped out for dinner. We stopped along the way to listen to a French guy singing Elvis tunes at an outdoor bar - not bad - just a guy on with an electric guitar and a buddy on drums. We browsed a few menus and stopped in one that looked most interesting, and learned they were booked up for the night - the woman taught us that the sign “complet” means “full,” so that saved us some time in deciding where to eat as many were “complet!” We made a reservation there for Saturday because it did look awesome.

We settled on Italian food. We noticed lots of Italian influence here as it is very close, in fact we’ll cycle there for lunch in a few days. Our waitress quickly pegged us for non-French speakers - we asked her how and she told us it was by the look on our faces when she greeted us. She was super friendly and spoke perfect English. She worked on training us a bit. I had lasagna and salad, Jeff had pizza and salad. We noticed another table eating chocolate cake, and many tables finishing off dinner with shot glasses full of something from a large bottle with stuff in it. We asked about that - some kind of infused rum. We finished off dinner with two of those, chocolate mousse cake and cafe (coffee). The cafe was so cute - a tiny cup of espresso, a cute little sugar cube, a little cookie and a little boxed piece of gum. Why don’t we get that kind of after dinner coffee presentation at home?

After dinner, we strolled a bit more. We were too stuffed for gelato, which was good because the lines were very long. Back over the canal, we caught the last of the set from the duo at the bar. He was doing all songs from the U.S., but not exactly with all the words - no criticism intended here though! It was just a little funny - he’d run out of words and end the song and the drummer would be a little unaware that it was over.

We were pretty proud of ourselves to stay up past 10 pm. We thought that signaled we were in our way to being over jet lag. That was until we awoke just before 11am the next morning - almost slept through breakfast again!!! After breakfast, we set out walking along the lakeshore. We brought swim suits along just in case. We talked about renting kayaks or paddle boards, but instead just walked nearly six miles - past swimming beaches, boardwalks, lots of parks with benches - so prime for enjoying the lake and the outdoors. On our way back, we watched several games of bolle again - a bit like bocci, but different rules (which perhaps were being made up on the spot?). Fun to watch and imagine what the older guys might be saying to one another - lots of contention, that was obvious!

We stopped and swam at the beach, and then vegged out in the sun for a bit. Being a beautiful Saturday afternoon, it was crazy packed. My mom sent us a paperback book that she found at a used book sale and we’re reading in “Rather style.” That is that one person starts reading, then you rip apart the book and the next person starts reading. The first one has to stay ahead or chaos breaks out. We typically read all of our books on our iPads, where it’s easy to share without destroying the book - but this is kind of fun! The book is “French Revolutions - Cycling the Tour de France” by British author Tim Moore. It’s a great story about this guy who wasn’t much of an athlete who decided to ride the Tour route several weeks before the actual tour (about 15 years ago). It’s hysterical and helping us transition into “leisure” and also getting us excited to start riding tomorrow!

Back to the room for showers, and then to La Porte Saint Claire - the restaurant where we had reservations. We had a great dinner there at a sidewalk table. They probably turned away 50 people during the course of our dinner - amazing. We skipped dessert, deciding to stroll and get a gelato instead. Another gorgeous night in Annecy. What a great visit this was. If it wasn’t for meeting our Trek Travel guides here tomorrow morning, we’d have never found this gem of a city!

Jeff opened the drapes when he got up and we were shocked to see rain on the window. We hadn’t been checking the weather as it seemed to be perfect since we entered the mountains last Thursday. We both realized we’d forgotten to pack cycling foul rain gear – what we brought for regular rain jackets would have to do!

Back to the train station just before 9:30a to meet our group and guides. We picked out a likely suspect, Courtney - a young man from Alberta, Canada and chatted with him until we saw the Trek van go by. Then we met our guides, Gabe and Jon, and the other guest, Roger from Australia.

We drove through Annecy, not a problem on a Sunday morning, especially given the drizzle and cooler temps. We drove just past where we’d walked to yesterday, to a small town called Menthon-St. Bernard. We’ll stay here two nights at Le Palace de Menthon.

We quickly were sized to our bikes - we brought our own pedals and shoes, everything else is supplied. We’re riding Trek Emonda bikes with Di2 electronic shifting. The guides guaranteed we’d all want new bikes by the time this trip was over! We grabbed a few snacks for our pockets, had a little safety briefing and we were off and riding. Gabe rode with us today, Jon followed in the van - leap frogging us and offering snacks, water and support along the way. The weather was perfect - overcast, but not raining and the road was mostly dry. Sunshine would have made the views even more spectacular, but it was a good trade off to not have the heat!

After some nice warm up through little villages we passed Chateau de Menthon, a 13th century castle that was the birthplace of St. Bernard de Menthon. Then we were at the foot of the Col de la Croix Fry (“col” means “mountain pass”), with a 12.8 km ascent and average grade of 6.6%, last used as Stage 19 in the 2013 Tour de France. Stunning views, even on an overcast day. Besides the views of the mountains, meadows and alpine buildings, we were entertained by cows and goats that had bells around their necks, playing a lovely tune as we rode by.

There was a fair amount of traffic, but all vehicles were respectful and gave us a wide berth. Roger and Courtney proved to be very strong riders, and we didn’t see them again after the start of the climb (they’d finished their lunch before we arrived at the end). I feared being an anchor, but it seemed ok for me to ride my own pace and stop for frequent photos (I stopped only about a 10th of the time that I wanted to however). Jeff, always the patient partner, hung with me.

We had some extra clothes in the van. Jon was waiting for us at the top of the pass and encouraged us to layer up for the descent. It was hard to take his advice as I was drenched in sweat from the climb, but I put on my jacket and I was glad I did. It wasn’t quite as sleek as my cycling rain gear, and fitted with a hood - it billowed out a bit on the descent - like a parachute to help slow me down, and I got quite chilled even with it on!

The descent was fun, but I think I like the climbing better - more time to look around, and much less frightening. There were times I felt good letting it run, but for the most part I descended much slower than needed probably. I’ll get more comfortable with that.

There was another option of an additional 6k climb Col des Aravis, but we were already slow so we waived that option. The guys did that and still beat us to lunch at the end.

We descended through several ski areas - chairlifts, gondolas crossing the road and a big luge run off to the side. Then back along the same road to a snack bar next to the hotel where we enjoyed beer and sandwiches and toasted our first ride.

After naps and showers, we gathered for dinner. A light rain had begun, so we were unable to have cocktails by the lake as planned. Instead, we went into a large tent, which is also home to one of their two restaurants. What looks like a common “event” tent from the outside is all tapestry on the inside. It felt like we were transported to Morocco!

We discussed the week, along with making a decision about day 5 - the day we were scheduled to ride Alp d’Huez, probably the most classic climb from Le Tour de France and the last mountain stage of this year’s race. A landslide had taken out a tunnel and closed the road, so in order to do the ride, we’d have to be shuttled for 3 hours (one way) around the detour. Even though we’d hyped Alp d’Huez to everyone we talked to about this adventure, we voted to not spend 6 hours in the van. Jon and Gabe assured us they have an awesome alternate route with even better vistas.

No one seems to know the history of this hotel, but you can tell it was quite majestic in its day! It’s still quite nice - our bathroom is renovated and it’s everything you could ask for. I thought the bed looked a bit “lumpy” but as we retired for the night it was awesome to discover the featherbed that had given it the lumpy appearance.

Sometime during the night, I awoke to the sound of a pretty steady rain. It was forecast, we were all just hoping that was wrong. The plan was to get up and have breakfast and if it wasn’t raining, be ready to ride and meet at the bikes at 9am. It rained all through breakfast so we lingered over extra shots of espresso and chocolate croissants. Then the group met in the lobby and Jon said while there were patches of blue over Annecy, radar on weather.com showed more rain and a yellow cell coming up from the south. The group collectively decided to reconvene at 10:30am.

We retreated to our room where I read for about thirty minutes before crawling back under the down comforter for a nap. Nothing like sleeping with the pitter patter of rain outside. At 10:15, we got up and dressed in our cycling clothes. We pulled from our memory bag all the times we’ve been rained on and felt miserable - knowing we were coming back to a snugly room with a large bathtub made it ok to go out and get wet and dirty!

Since we decided to ride, our guides modified our ride a bit for the conditions. We were going to climb Col de la Forclaz - stage 17 of the 2004 Tour, but the descent would have been a13% grade, too steep to be safe in the rain. Instead, we headed around the lake to the south, some on the road, but mainly on the bike path. The rain let up a bit, but never completely stopped. Rather than worms on the pavement like at home, I was dodging slugs - would have been awful to run over one of those and be splattered with slug guts!

The lake views were awesome, despite the clouds and low visibility. Around to the other side, we climbed Col de Laschaux. It was about a 13k climb, pretty decent grades - not as tough as yesterday. I warmed up enough to remove a layer, but kept on my non-cycling rain jacket that would normally be too hot, but was perfect today. The rain continued quite steadily, and the visibility was limited (not to mention it was impossible to see through the prescription glasses that I need!). We just imagined what the view of the lake must be like, and focused on the beautiful sites within our visual range - cute tiny villages, farm houses, my favorite ivy geraniums hanging everywhere, and beautifully terraces switchbacks that kept the road from being too steep.

At the top, we got a snack from Gabe, waiting patiently in the van, then headed downhill towards Annecy. Of course, it rained harder and we got colder, and in-between squeezing the brake levers, I’d wipe the rain and fog from my glasses using my fingers like wind-shield wipers! I thought we’d come out on the road we hiked along several days ago, but we didn’t. Gabe was waiting for us to show us how to get back on the bike path, and he offered for us to sit in the van for a bit to warm up - great idea - Jeff, without as much body fat as me, was visibly shivering. We sat there for about 15 minutes, then Jeff put on his dry shirt that he’d put in the van before the ride, and we headed back out.

We found our way easily through Annecy and back to the hotel, helpful to have had a few days there or it would have been confusing. Gabe was there again to take our bikes from us and hand us our day bags and we struggled up the stairs to the lobby. I peeled off my raincoat and emptied my pockets then jumped right into the hot shower with my bike clothes on. Thirty minutes later, the clothes and I were washed, but what a ring around the bathtub! As usual in our bike travels, our room looks like a garage sale of dripping cycling clothes, and was as humid as a sauna.

It was a great day. In order to appreciate the sunshine, you have to endure a little rain - we endured a lot of rain today, so the rest of our alpine experience should give us abundant sunshine!

The next day was epic!! Jeff and I opted for the shorter option as the two passes were going to be difficult enough. We dropped Gabe, Roger and Courtney in St Etienne for an extra 30k, then Jon dropped us off in St Michel to get started climbing Col du Telegraphe. It was a bit of a shock to start right off with 8%, but we were able to find a rhythm pretty quickly, plus it leveled off a bit - 12k climb with an average of 7% grade. The route had heavy, but respectful traffic – they said it was busier due to the Alp d'Huez route closure. The area was dense woods, most of it a national park, and that made for perfect temperatures - the sun was out, but at the elevations we saw today it didn’t really feel hot.

We felt really great when we reached the summit, so we grabbed water and snacks from the van and kept riding - a big day and they’d urged us (me) to keep moving! From there, we descended about 5k into a ski village Valloire, which was really bustling. It would have been fun to stop there a bit, but we were then at the base of our 17k climb up to Col du Galibier - average grade on this was reported to be 7.1%, but that is averaging 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and at the end 11! At the halfway point, we stopped for lunch at a cute Alpine restaurant - a base for hikers, cyclists and hang-gliders - not to mention those supporting cyclists that were climbing today. We were enjoying our meal when Roger and Gabe cycled past (Courtney went by too but we missed him). Many cyclists out today - the Telegraphe/Galibier combo is frequently featured on Le Tour - and one of the fun parts about being out there today is the remnants of the spray-painted roads, urging on fan favorites (Frank, Andy, Levi, etc.) of the tour. I have a new found respect for how fast they climb and descend, for me today, it was merely about survival!

Col du Galibier was different in that it was totally above tree line - the views were so spectacular, and from the glint on the cars, you could usually pick out where the switchbacks were. It was encouraging to me to also look down and see how far we’d just come, so I’d be hopeful to just push on one more kilometer, and then one more and then one more. It was cool, even though it was sunny.

About two kilometers from the top there were several families picnicking along the road. As we approached, they cheered us on with shouts of “Allie, Allie, Allie!” Then as I passed, and young boy ran out and ran manically alongside me for about 10 steps - at first, I was freaked out, and then I realized he was emulating the tour maniacs and it was hysterical.

After we crested Galibier, we had an 11k descent. I had to stop a few times to rest my hands. Just before the end, we had two tunnels to go through. The first one was long, dark and narrow and I was petrified. I wanted to go to my happy place like I do on the back of the tandem when we cross scary bridges (eyes closed, sing a little mantra), but I couldn’t do that piloting my own bike. I was never so happy to see the LIGHT at the end of the tunnel in my life. I braced myself for the second tunnel, but it was shorter and wider and no problem.

We’re staying the next three nights at the Edelweiss in LaGrave at the foot of the Meije Glacier - beautiful beyond words. We sat in the courtyard and had a few beers and snacks - then off to shower before regrouping for dinner at the hotel. Amazing food and more great conversation with our group.

Day 4 of Trek Travel’s “Classic Climbs of the Alps” found us riding to Italy and back. We started with a great breakfast at the Edelweiss Hotel - where they make their own jams and breads. Yum. Loved that the eggs were already hard boiled* but I missed the espresso machine that we had in the last two places.

*eggs - also at the last two hotel breakfasts, there would be a basket of eggs and this pan of boiling water with little baskets looped over the edge - kind of “do it yourself” 2-3 minutes for soft boiled, longer for hard boiled. Courtney told us the first day, under jet lag he didn’t notice that, took an egg and smashed in on his plate, thinking it was hard boiled!

Today’s avid ride was scheduled to be 131k with 2500 meters of climb. The guys were all in for that, but Jeff and I opted for a “boost” up the first climb 11k from LaGrave back up to Col du Lautaret. That meant we started our day with a 25k descent into Briancon. It was a beautiful morning and amazing scenery - little villages, a ski area, and gorgeous mountains all around. From there, we rode through the beautiful Vallee de la Claree. It was a total of 17k to Col de l ‘Echelle, with all but the last 2k a very gradual climb through an amazing valley with cute little villages, a roaring river and campsites. Lots of cyclists and hikers out enjoying the beautiful day and area. Many touring cyclists too, including one guy pulling a BoB.

We descended down into the Vallee Etroite, and soon crossed into Italy. It would have been hard to tell, save a stone marker and also a different language being spoken at lunch! In Bardonecchia, Italy, we had lunch at Hotel la Pigna, which was a ski area that was very alive with summer activity: golf, climbing, tennis, mountain biking and cycling. Jonathan pointed out the half pipe area carved into the hillside is where the snowboarding competition was held during the Turin Olympics several years ago. Lunch was great, bruschetta, salad, pasta - we all passed on the wine and dessert options that were available to us since we were going to continue riding.

Back into France, and back up to Col de l ‘Echelle - the hardest part of our day - several short portions were 13%, quite a bit of 10% - but then long stretches of switchbacks that were shaded and manageable. Swarming black flies made breaks intolerable, so we pushed on!

Back through the gorgeous Vallee de la Claree, where I stopped a bit more to take photos. When we got back to just outside Briançon, Gabe was there with the van so we accepted a boost back to Col du Lautaret (skipped a hot 25k climb), and thoroughly enjoyed the cruise back down to LaGrave. We were enjoying a beer in the garden when the guys cruised in.

Our last day was the day we didn’t ride Alp d'Huez (would have been 14k climb with average grade 7.9% - and 6 hours in the van due to tunnel closure) but we found an adequate substitute that kicked my butt - the Col d’ Izoard, which is also a “Hors Categorie” climb that is often featured in Le Tour. This is something that I learned this week: climbs are categorized 1-4, with one being the hardest. It was a system originally used to denote what kind of automobile engine was needed to climb the mountain, and was adopted by cycling to describe mountain ascents. The term “Hors Catergorie” means beyond classification, originally meaning a mountain road where cars were not able to climb the pass.

We left this morning from our hotel, with Courtney, Roger and Gabe riding the 11k climb back to Col du Lautaret; Jeff and I took the van boost up the hill. From there, we cruised the 25k descent back to Briancon, where we then started the 19k climb up to Col d'Izoard. It was a beautiful climb. The first half was in a beautiful forest with a mountain stream way below the guardrail, and it felt like we could have been in the Rocky Mountains. We passed through a village where we grabbed cold water from the spring, and then the climbing got interesting.

It was warm and I had a couple little “pity parties” that I had to work through in order to keep moving today. It would have been easy to jump in the van for a boost! Two things really helped spur me on today. The first was a young lady shooting down hill, who yelled an encouraging “Alley Madame” to me and the second was a family on mountain bikes - including a young boy that looked to be about 9 years old (we passed them about 5k from the top and arrived at the top only about 10 minutes before they did). Swarming flies and loud motorcycles screaming by added to my misery, but marathon running taught me to push through the uncomfortableness and that I’d be happy with myself when I finished - and I was!

The boys passed us about halfway, they made it to top and then waited for us on an overlook where we had just under 1k to go. As I pulled up to them, I went off the road and nearly fell down a steep rocky hill. I was able to unclip and shift my weight uphill. I wouldn’t have died, but there would have been blood (and witnesses!).

The last several kilometers were amazingly beautiful. We were pretty much above tree line, and the scree slopes at the top of the mountains had slid down or eroded away and left protruding pinnacles of rock - like nothing I’d ever seen, like sand castles on top of a mountain!

Then it was time to go back down, and that was a blast. It’s fun to ride down where we just came up because I feel better letting it go a bit more when I’m confident that it’s a good road. Jeff said he had to work to keep up with me in a few places – that was a change! We took two quick breaks on the 17k descent to rest our hands, necks and backs - but otherwise, it seemed ten times faster than the climb!

We met the guys for burgers in Briancon, then all boosted back to Col du Lautaret. The guys, including Jeff, all climbed the backside to Col du Galibier one more time - I opted for a solo descent back to the hotel - solo through the scary tunnel, another reason to feel good about the day!

We had a third awesome dinner last night at L ‘Edelweiss. Great food, easy company. We finished our dinner with a treat that Roger had once in Bali - chocolate mousse with a shot of vodka - adds an interesting dimension. After that we went to the bar and had an aperitif that was a mixture of creame de menthe and Bailey’s. After that, we were smart enough to go to bed.

Normally we’d have had an option for a short ride the last morning before transfers to the train station in Grenoble. With the absence of the tunnel however, the 30k drive becomes a 2.5 HOUR drive, so we had a leisurely am, breakfast, and a slide show of photos prepared by Gabe and Jonathon - highlights of the week!

About 9:30am, we said goodbye to Gabe and Jon and loaded into a VW van to be shuttled to Grenoble. That meant a one-hour thrill ride - back up Col du Laurdet, Col du Galibier and Col du Telegraphe! Roads without guardrails that were breathtaking via bicycle were heart stopping from the back seat of a van. Jeff remarked that it felt like being a passenger with a Caribbean driver! From St. Michel, we got on the autoroute to Grenoble. It felt much safer, with beautiful scenery to be enjoyed without the sudden braking and lurching back and forth.

As I reflect on the week, it was an awesome way to experience the French Alps, and will make watching Le Tour de France much more meaningful for me. I loved the challenge of the climbs, but that was enough for me. I love touring by bicycle where you can really see the countryside and get a sense of the place. That wasn’t the purpose of this trip, but I was able to really enjoy the countryside and the small villages we passed though.

It was really great getting to know Courtney (from Canada) and Roger (from Australia). It gave this trip another dimension talking about their different experiences and travels - and gave us a chance to broaden our perspectives a bit more globally. It was humbling to have them be so knowledgeable about US history, politics and have an opinion on next year’s presidential election!

Our guides, Gabe and Jonathan were amazing. They were laid back and had great chemistry together, and were able to ensure that everybody got what they were looking for in this trip. When I saw what strong riders Courtney and Roger were, I was afraid I’d be an anchor and hold back the whole group. By taking “boosts” we were able to be together when we needed to be, and toward the end of the day there was more time for me to do my “smell the roses” style of riding without impeding anyone else.

Jeff and I love doing these guided tours as they take care of much of the logistical hassles. But once we’re on the tour, we like to be self-sufficient and be given the chance to get what we want to out of the trip. Just like our last Trek trip with Jake and Amy, like our REI Costa Rica trip with Alex, and like our Yosemite experience recently with Martin - Gabe and Jonathan made that perfect balance happen for us!

Paris, Giverny and Normandy Beaches - with Mary (mom) and George (dad)

We took the train to Paris where we’d planned to meet my folks. They’d arrived in the morning and took the bus into the city and figured out the Metro to find the hotel I’d booked. I had my fingers crossed that all went well with their travels and it was great to come out of the Metro station and see Geo sitting on a bench!

We didn’t have much of a plan for our couple of days in Paris. After breakfast, we were headed down the street towards the museum de Invalids, when we saw one of those open top tour buses and thought that might be a better way to get around - especially given the beautiful morning and not much traffic. We hailed the La Open Tour bus and bought tickets onboard. We cruised a loop through Notre Dame and to where the shops start on the Champs Elysées. Then we walked up the street and through the tunnel to the Arc de Triumph.

After that, Geo took the bus back in the direction of the hotel, and we walked through some cool neighborhoods before getting back on another bus to Sacre Coure. It was Jeff’s first trip to Paris, so that, combined with Mary and Geo’s jet lag, meant we really just scratched the surface. Jeff and I will have another two days at the end of this trip where we can do a bit more.

After three nights and two days in Paris, we set out for Normandy. We were up early to get going, as logistically it was going to be a challenging day! We had breakfast and were out of the hotel by 7:30am, right on schedule. We hit a snag at our first metro as we only had three tickets left and have had some issues with using credit cards without chips (and cash is no good at some of the stations). We were hustling to take two metro trains to the St. Lazare Gard (train station in NW Paris). We hadn’t pre-purchased our tickets to Vernon/Giverny, because we didn’t want to stress of HAVING to be there at a certain time (wrong move). We arrived at 8:05am and would have made the 8:20am train but we couldn’t figure out buying the tickets in time! We finally figured it out, but the next train wasn’t until 10:20am. I was delighted to find a Starbucks in the station (first one in 12 days, but who’s counting?!) and mom and I walked around trying to figure out where we’ll catch our respective trains when we return here on Thursday.

The train departed like clockwork and we arrived in Vernon at 11:05am as scheduled. Visiting Monet’s gardens in Giverny had been on my list for many years. I hatched this plan to get a rental car here and our travel agent helped it happen, although we had some skeptical moments when we stepped off the train. She’d reserved a rental car through Hertz for us that we’d pick up in Vernon, drive to Giverny to see Monet’s garden, then drive to Normandy for the next few days. When we got off the train, we asked the information guy where to find the Hertz lot, and he said “there are no rental cars in Vernon.” A little feeling of panic and wondering what “plan B” would be while I dug out the confirmation and found an address. A third guy confirmed that the address existed and it was a gas station on the edge of town. We hailed a taxi to take us there, and were relieved to see a little “Hertz” sign inside.

Though the place looked a bit like a run-down used car lot, it all worked out. It was staffed with just one friendly young lady, who wasn’t terribly familiar with how everything worked - and then she stopped about every two minutes to deal with a patron buying petrol! There were two guys from California there also trying to get their car - they proceeded, but were a bit freaked out to learn that only standard transmission cars were available (she was trying to tell them “two feet” and Jeff jumped in to help with the translation). Then our turn and Jeff entered our information for her, while Geo was outside talking to all the customers in English of course - the guys that rode in on Harley’s enjoyed talking to him the most (ya, Milwaukee!) … others just tried to ignore him, I think.

Soon we were in our pre-dented Peugeot and ready to go. We navigated pretty well, only issue was the rain was beginning to fall as we were parking in Giverny. My mom produced two umbrellas, which with our rain jackets, covered us a bit until we bought two additional and beautiful Monet print umbrellas in the little village that led to Monet’s house. My first reaction to the rain was frustration - I’d wanted to come here so badly and now the pouring rain? But the rain kept away the crowds and Jeff pointed out that the flat light was really better for photos. It rained heavy for a bit, then tapered, then heavy, then it stopped. It was all ok, and a great visit. The gardens were more spectacular than I could have ever imagined! Jeff and Geo relaxed on the comfy sofa in the gift shop (watching a video on Monet’s life) while mom and I shopped … It’s the only time we ever were ready to leave a gift shop before they were!

We grabbed some lunch in an artsy cafe, then we hit the road again, on the autoroute / toll way to Caen. Jeff and I made a good team of him driving and me interpreting the signs - at least on the highway (all bets are off when we hit town and I can’t read the map and the signs fast enough). We even figured out the credit card only tolls - using my Master Card which has a chip, and when I plugged my phone into the USB port, my iTunes played on the radio!

As we approached Caen, I looked at our hotel confirmation and noticed for the first time that we weren’t exactly in town - more like an industrial suburb. Ugh. Oops. Struggled a bit to find the hotel, but we found the general vicinity thanks to our bike Garmin that Jeff has loaded with France maps, and signs led us from there. We got settled, then drove to Caen to see what we were missing by not being right in town and have dinner. Decided we weren’t missing much, and the next two days we’ll be out touring the WWII memorials and museums in the car anyway, so this will do.

Jeff pointed out that part of our feeling of unsettledness with the location might just be that we’re so far removed from the quaint alpine towns and trendiness of Paris. No one travels to Normandy to enjoy the sites - you come to remember and pay respect and be awed at the bravery of the soldiers and airmen, and to be disgusted by the stupidity of war.

We had a great visit to the Normandy coast. We spent a day and a half exploring World War Two historical sites, and then an afternoon chilling in quaint French coastal towns.

I thought I knew a bit about “D-Day” before coming here, but experiencing the monuments and historical sites makes it so much more real. It’s humbling to think of the selflessness of the brave mostly very young men who came here to liberate France from Nazi Germany. It’s impossible to try to imagine what life was like for the French people under German occupation. And after surviving years of that, they were bombed by Allied forces to drive the Germans out. It’s amazing to look at photos of the German soldiers and see that they don’t look any different than our soldiers - in fact, my dad is 100% German. Did these young guys really understand what they were fighting for? All of that happened not all that long ago. All of that is still going on in other parts of the world. It’s senseless.

We got the most out of the Memorial in Caen, the American Cemetery, Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc. The only thing we could have done better was to stay in B&Bs or Inns along the way with better character than our Mercurie Hotel in Caen. Other than that, it was an awesome trip.

Wednesday afternoon, we got back on the autoroute and drove to the fishing village of Honfleur, where we had a picnic lunch on the dock and strolled around the adorable 1000-year-old village! After that, we took to costal route back towards Caen, stopping to explore little villages along the way. Was a great end to our visit to Normandy, capped off with a great dinner along the drive back to Caen.

Our last day, we were up early to travel into the heart of Caen to drop off the rental car and catch the train back to Paris. As the train approached, we heard some announcements, but couldn’t really figure out what they meant! We were fortunate to have a lady tell us it said that seat assignments didn’t matter. We found a seat for four, and had a lovely 2-hour ride nonstop into Paris Gare St Lazare.

We bid “Au Revivor” to Mary and Geo when we got off the train, they were going to catch the RER to Gard Nord where they’d take to Eurostar through the Chunnel to London. Nine years ago, on our last trip to Europe, we left our kids (Ryan and 16-year-old Bailey) in the customs line at the Frankfort airport to catch a plane back to the states, while we hurried off to catch our train to Italy. I had very much the same feeling of helplessness today as I watched my folks walk off - we did our best to explain exactly where to go. They’re resourceful travelers and they made it just fine.

Burgundy

Jeff and I had another week in France, and we were headed to Burgundy for a different kind of cycling adventure, before returning to Paris for a few more days. We had just an hour to ride two metro trains across town back to Gare Lyon for our train to Dijon, and then another short train to Beaune. We made it with plenty of time to spare, but it felt a little odd traveling on our own again.

Once in Beaune, the weather was warm again, and we enjoyed about a mile walk to Hotel de la Poste - our home for the next two nights. It was a wonderfully restored old place with lots of character. We got settled, then headed out to tour the Hotel Dieu, which was a medieval charity hospital/hospice, now a museum (shockingly, it was in action until 1971 when a new hospital was built outside the city). It is an amazing place, a beautiful building and quite a story.

In 1443, Beaune was devastated by the Hundred Years’ War and the plague. Nicholas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, built The Hospices of Beaune. Visitors began to tour in the 1950’s, but wasn’t fully open to tourists until 1980. There is a part that you can’t tour that serves as a “retirement home.” I’m hoping that is the part that was the hospital until 1971 and NOT the part we toured today. The exterior of the building is quite drab, but the courtyard is amazing. The design was intentional to ward off 15th century looters! The roof tiles are amazing - they’ll last 300 years and were last replaced in 1902.

The grandest room of all was the “Paupers Ward,” with a chapel at the front of the room, allowing patients to participate in mass from their beds. We loved the thought that this hospice would provide care for all - regardless of their ability to pay. Jeff is working with our local hospice foundation on setting up an endowment to do the same - we’re a bit unable to process that this endowment has been doing it for over 600 years.

They could house up to 120 patients, and it was noted that during times of epidemics there were two patients in each bed. Infection control wasn’t what it is today! Out of dignity, each patient had their own pewter jug of wine, mug, bowl and plate. No utensils as I guess in those days people ate with their hands. The jug of wine was because the water was so foul - also lots of stigma around eating or drinking anything cold. I want to have a jug of wine at my bedside when it’s time for me to go!

The chapel was as amazing as any we’ve seen in Europe. They had gorgeous tapestries that have been removed to an environmental controlled room (they’re 600+ years old). The hospice was not a place of hope - people came there to die. Care was more for the soul than for the body, so it was appropriate that the nurses were all nuns, but occasionally supplemented with women from the community that were “childless and of the right moral aptitude.”

I so much believe in the idea of a peaceful death when it’s time for you to go. I’m blown away that 600+ years ago they understood that too. Our guide book said that when American tour groups come here, they often ask the tour guide to downplay the hospice part of the tour since so many Americans freak out when talking about dying. Obviously, we’ve got a long way to go.

We also toured another room added in the 17th century for wealthy patients - these patients might be more likely to be cured of whatever was ailing them, so the decor was less fire and brimstone and more optimistic. Being a former hospital worker, my favorite parts were the medical equipment and pharmacy areas. Jeff noted lots of talk of enemas and suppositories - made everyone uncomfortable! Saws, bowls for bloodletting, syringes as big as caulking guns! The surgery room was next to the kitchen, with an open stream running under the building - made for convenient waste disposal, but you wouldn’t want to live downstream.

Since we are in the wine region of Burgundy, another cool thing is operation of the hospice was, and still is, primarily funded by “Vente aux Encheres des Hospice de Beaune” - auctioning off wine! In fact, it’s an internationally followed event that gives the first indication of prices for the previous year’s wines.

After the tour we found a cafe and each had a glass of red wine and a chocolate crepe - great intro to Burgundy. Then we headed back to the hotel to meet the guy who dropped off our bikes and gear for a tomorrow’s ride. I’d booked this portion of the trip online though a company called “Discover France.” It included 4 hotel nights (2 nights here, then they’ll transfer our luggage to the next one), cruiser bikes, maps and GPS units.

The next morning, we lingered over breakfast, enjoying the beauty of the room, the soft background music and the hushed voices of our fellow patrons. Jeff remarked how different the scene felt compared to some hotels we’d stayed in recently in the U.S. that offer a continental breakfast - and not the content of the breakfast, but the environment - there is usually a TV blaring the morning news, people shouting to each other “bring me another syrup,” Styrofoam dishes and utensils, etc.

We saddled up and were ready to ride about 10:30am. Our firsts challenge was to find the Tourist Information office and “start” our GPS route there. We did, but then promptly went the wrong way from there (following the route back INTO town)! Once we found the route, we got about 1k down the road and had more route confusion. I saw a sign that pointed to “velo route” through the neighborhood and we followed that. The GPS caught up and said we were on track! After three blocks, the velo route pointed to a small paved lane that opened onto vineyards as far as you could see! All the route hassle melted away and we cycled with ridiculous grins on our faces - it was pure joy!

The harvest was just starting and all along the route were workers cutting grapes, dumping them into large backpack funnels, that were dumped into the trucks. It was great fun to watch. Our bikes were beasts compared to what we’re used to riding, especially the lightweight Trek Emonda’s we rode just last week - but even compared to my Trek hybrid! We’d wrestle with them each time we stopped to take a photo.

“Discover France” gave us maps, turn by turn directions and a Garmin similar to what we used with Trek - somewhere in between the two Garmin models that we own. Jeff had that on his bike since that’s where the mount was. He mounted his new Garmin to my handlebars, but it wasn’t programmed to our route. It only took us about 10k until we were off the route again - but made the decision to keep going and we’d ride the route backwards. One might wonder - they can’t find their way on the route as it is, how in the heck will they navigate backwards?! Ha! That’s where the adventure comes in!

As we were riding and it was after 11:30a, it became apparent that it was time for lunch for the field workers - they piled into cars, vans and buses and headed into the little towns for their lunch break. The biggest difference I’ve noticed here versus California is all the fields are together and the actual wineries are in the little towns - they use these cute little tractors, load up the trailers and drive the grapes to the winery. One very small town we came to, Meursault had 17 wineries in town!

The velo route was well marked and we rode it through vineyards to Santenay. Then we looked at the map in our GPS and confirmed with our map how to get to the next town of our backwards route, Nolay. Soon, we saw different velo route signs so we went that way - GPS be dammed! We came to a beautiful canal and rode along that for 5k or so, passing some barges that were the sort you can hire to “bike and barge” in Europe. One cute one was docked, with about 10 people onshore having a picnic.

We realized we were off our map, so using our GPS, we plugged in Nolay and it brought us through fabulous farmland, more wineries and into Nolay. The town looked closed up - we needed water and a baguette! Finally found a little town square with a few places just at the end of lunch service (2pm). We ordered two ham sandwiches, and a liter of Vittel (water) - ahhh! That gave us time to study our maps and the turn-by-turn information and feel more certain about the rest of our route. Of course, right out of town we were lulled astray by another beautiful bike path, but quickly turned around and got back on the route.

We climbed quite a bit - not as long as our Alpine rides - but pretty tough on those trucker bikes! There was a really amazing castle above LaRochepot, and we were heading downhill and I wanted to get a photo of it across the valley. I pulled off into a turnout, that I thought was paved but it was loose gravel. Traveling too fast, and looking at the castle rather than where I was going (what did I learn in Yosemite?) - I crashed. Actually, I just tipped over going fast. My whole right side took the impact so nothing in particular got hurt - road rash on my shoulder, elbow, shin, hand and only ugly wound is my knee. The creepiest feeling was the sound of the gravel rushing by my ear as I skidded to a stop, but no damage there or even to my clothing. Lucky girl! We got to the town of LaRochepot and there was a water spigot like we were drinking out of in the Alps - sure it’s not safe to drink the water here, but I did wash out my road rash a bit.

Then up and up through some sleepy towns, which afforded us a great view of the vineyards below. We did a short section with grades of 10-13%, glad we had granny gear on our beasts. Once it felt like our BoB trailer was behind me, or maybe I had a flat - just good old gravity working against us, I guess! Then down down down (gee, I’m glad we did the route backwards and didn’t have to climb this long hill)! Then another little stretch through the fields and back to Beaune. Quick shower and a walk to the pharmacy for some non-FDA approved magic medicine.

We’d read that Burgundy is considered by many to be France’s best cuisine scene – it has elevated peasant cooking to an art form. In the fields, you see the large white cows: Charolais - producing France’s best beef (boeuf). In our first two meals here, we sampled all the regional delights: escargots de Bourgogne (snails served sizzling in hot garlic butter), boeuf bourguignon (beef simmered in red wine), coq au vin (rooster stewed in wine) and œufs en meurette (poached eggs in a red wine sauce, often served on a large crouton).

The next day was another awesome ride from Beaune to the little village of Vougeot (rhymes with the car Peugeot). After yesterday’s amazing ride through the vineyards, I didn’t think this would compare, but it was equally awesome, with just slight navigational challenges (you know by now that’s not unusual)! We detoured through the town center of Beaune, as we’d heard there was a market on Saturday morning - and was there ever! Not just veggies, but everything you could imagine - the biggest surprise to me was a booth with Levi’s, and it was mobbed. We toyed with the idea of buying socks since the morning was so cool - but figured we’d warm up once we started riding.

Today we rode larger roads through miles and miles of vineyards - besides the occasional tractor, there was an occasional car too. About every 5k, we’d come to another medieval town with several wineries and the occasional chateau (most were wineries, too). We’d learned that in the 15th century, powerful dukes controlled the land that stretched from here to Holland - what we’re seeing were probably their former homes.

We also rode a section that went through a beautiful forest, and we remarked that we could have been anywhere! We went by fields where the summer hay has already been cut and fields of beef cattle and horses. We also did a one kilometer 10% climb and there were vineyards all along that, with tractors climbing very steep hills and men hoisting large trays of picked grapes aboard. Some of the wineries we passed today had grape crushing activity going on; we could tell by the sounds and the smell - yum!

We stopped in the town Nuits St. George and found the town center for a lunch break. We split a burger & fries and salad and it was more than we could eat! The day was cool (60’s) and we ate outside, so we finished with hot chocolate for JT and double espresso for me before we started moving again.

It was very different cycling from our first day - clearly the route we biked on day one was for tourists, and the bike rentals in Beaune point everyone out to the signed route through the vineyard. The little villages have cafes that cater to cyclists around their town squares - and free pretty decent toilettes - unseen anywhere else in France (or maybe Europe). The small villages we cycled through yesterday and today were very quiet, not much action or commerce even in the little villages.

We headed off the road and back into the vineyards for an easy pedal to Vougeot, where we checked into a very quaint “Le clos de la Vouge” which is really charming on the outside and a bit rustic on the inside. We were happy to see our luggage made the transfer without incident too!

Our third and final day of cycling in Bourgogne (Burgundy), and it was Sunday. It was almost eerie how few people we saw in the villages we traveled through. Lots of road cyclists out yesterday and even more today, probably locals rather than tourists. Today we probably saw 4 cyclists for every car!

Today’s route took us up into the hills, out of wine country into wooded areas and farmland. Lots more Charolais cattle, too. The towns were well kept up, with flowers and beautiful gardens, and each town had a church - but who knows what the people were up to?! There were still lots of groups of workers in the vineyards, so maybe that’s where they all were. The first group we went by at 9:30am were drinking wine and eating bread - couldn’t tell if that was “communion” or the daily ritual before work. Made me want to join them though!

The GPS they gave us clearly had a different route than our paper maps - so we navigated with the paper map and route guide, and just a little help from Jeff’s Garmin. I’m so glad he took the time to figure out how to get the French maps loaded - who knows where we’d be without it!

It was cool again today, but with abundant sunshine. Being Sunday, and also how remote our route looked, we packed all the snacks we had plus extra water in our pannier, and we needed all the food we had. It was tough to hang on until dinner was served at 7pm!

We arrived back in Paris just after noon on Monday, giving us another day and a half of sightseeing. We checked back into our same room at Hotel Le Tourville, got settled and set off to tour the Army Museum at The Hotel des Invalides (the word Hotel used to also refer to Hospital in French - so this was a former veteran’s hospital). When I saw it from the back last week, I was most confused because of the gold domed cathedral like structure. I didn’t understand why it’d be a military museum, but now that we’ve toured it, it all makes sense.

It was originally constructed in the 17th century to house injured soldiers from Louis XIV’s armies. There are two chapels - leading out from one tremendous alter - one side for the veterans, the others for the royals. After the French Revolution, the royal side was converted to tombs for French elite war heroes, including an “over the top” tomb for Napoleon himself.

The war museum is amazing - they say the best collections in all of Europe. A large collection of armor, and to view up close the exquisite detail on the armor, helmets, swords, etc. - very unbelievable. The museum takes you through world history from the 17th century on. Most of what I’d learned in history class was so US-centric, so I learned a lot on this trip about global history. Trouble between Germany and France didn’t start with World War One, but goes back to medieval days of kingdoms, battles over land and control, revolutions, and so on. Over and over “rules of warfare” were referred to - seems so absurd.

Also, part of the display was the way warfare changed over the years - and I’ve never been a fan of guns and war memorabilia, but it was quite fascinating. Being a French museum, emphasis was placed on how devastated the country was after WWI, and how easy it was for the Nazis to occupy France from the start of WWII. And how the entire French empire became engaged, as well as how DeGalle directed the resistance from his exile in England - all very fascinating, but haunting.

After a couple of hours of that, we needed a diversion - shopping!!! I didn’t set out to buy much, although I had my eye on some beautiful jackets, but I wanted to window-shop and check out the Printemps store, so we spent a few hours doing that. After that, it was early evening, and looked like rain, but we decided to keep walking and when the rain came, we could head to the metro. The rain never came, so we walked a LOT!

Back up the Champs Elysée’s, where we sat on a bench for about 30 minutes just people watching; and then to the Arc de Triomphe, where we watched rush hour traffic zoom around in controlled chaos, and back down to the Seine where we viewed the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero. While we were there, we heard cheering and chanting, like a rally going on, so we set off in the direction of the voices to see what was going on. We found it was a boisterous crowd of young people, and as we got closer, we saw alcohol bottles and guys running shirtless through the group. We approached some young ladies on the perimeter, and they explained it was the first day of school and this was a ritual for them to party and for the boys to take their clothes off.

By then it was after 8pm, so time for dinner! We walked back across the river, through the park near the Tower (the edges reminded us of Central Park with little cafes and joggers), past our hotel to a little Italian restaurant we’d scoped out last week “Cafe Romantica.” There we had another amazing dinner and soaked up some great international ambiance, with a young German family, French lovers smooching in the corner, and a production of linguini Alfredo sauce made in a large wheel of Parmesan cheese (add cognac, set on fire, stir until the cheese melts, add linguini, mix and scoop onto the plates).

On Tuesday we slept until we got up, which is a fabulous vacation for me. At breakfast, about 9:30am, we read the Rick Steves’ book to plan our tour of the Louvre museum. In several places, it says quite clearly that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays. So much for not reading ahead. We decided to walk there just to be sure. Yup, it was closed - but while we were there, we viewed some sort of police ceremony, that was neat. We decided to walk across the river to the Orsay Museum to see the impressionists exhibits. Not a lot of tourists in Paris on Tuesday Sept 8th, but every single one was in line at the Orsay, and we didn’t feel like standing in line or shuffling through a crowded museum, so we went back to wandering the neighborhoods, which we’ve enjoyed tremendously.

Several of those huge doors we’ve admired were open - revealing quiet courtyards that you’d never guess were there. Jeff commented as we were walking in Burgundy a few days ago that all the houses seem to have fences and gates - probably goes back to the heritage of walled kingdoms - these courtyards too - out of view from the street. We wondered what the French think when they see our neighborhoods with our vast lawns and no fences?

After a rest, we walked back to Musee d'Orsay, and the line was practically non-existent. So, we did get a chance to see the Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh’s along with a lot of other paintings and sculptures. The building itself, a former train station, is a beautiful piece of work on its own. Then we walked through the Latin Quarter and found a lively cafe for one last yummy dinner in Paris.