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Back to the usual. Tecno boy, Happy feet and The Fashonista are watching a David Hasselhoff film at 10AM. The Butcher and Map Boy are at the Cafe waiting for a crossant. So much for the health kick.
This is it. Alp du' Heuze. 14KM and 1000 meters of the toughest riding France has to offer. No warm up here. 20% grade straight out of the village. Think of ridding a bike up a kid's slide. Now do it for 14 KM. The Griswalds and there kid's came along as support crew. All the fun here
Map Boy likes to ride up hills, He thinks this is what normal people do when they go on holidays. The Butcher doesen't mind riding so long as it's flat and there is a resturant with a decent Plat de Jour about half way. Tecno boy is happy so long as his I thingy is charged. The others just go with the flow. We've spent a few days riding around Borg de' Orisan which is spectacular. There are some seriously fit people here riding up and down things I can only describe as cliff faces. We met a bunch of Scott's who never seem to get to bed before 2AM and still ride 100km of grulling mountain passes the next day. They invited us to join them, fourtunatly sanity prevailed.
And so the tour continues. Map Boy, Happy Feet, Techno Boy, The Fashionista and,The Butcher, (I'll let you figure out who is who) all arrived in Borg de Oirsan after a huge day of training. We had to pick the fashionista up at Grenoble Station about 4 PM, and we had 160 KM to do, it seemed achievable. Never mind that we had intended to drive to Lyon on the first day out of Paris and only made it about 80 KM. The second day we did even less. We started of with the usual Petit De Juiner of croissants and coffee then piled in to the Peujeot at the leisurely hour of 10PM. 15 minutes later Julia had guided us to our first winery. The tasting only took an hour, and we left with a six pack of nice bottles of Pino and Vine Rouge. This left us with a small problem as there was no longer room for the Fashionista in the car. We drove another 20 Km and debated this problem over beers at the local. We where surrounded by French Farmers, all spending there government subsidies for not farming anything, on a few drinks, before driving the tractor back to the Missus for lunch. At the pub The Butcher and Techno boy spent some study time trying to work out the PMU (French TAB), and the automated Peanut dispenser. We failed miserably.
Realising time was now short, we programmed Julia to get us to Grenoble via the Fastest route possible. This caused a conflict between Julia and Map Boy which we solved by ignoring him. An Hour later Julia had whipped us past Lyon and had us well on the way to Gren, nob, le, a, as she likes to pronounce it in her synthetic voice. We drowned Map Boy's directions out by listening to French radio. They have 25 stations all continually repeating the same songs. A French rap song. Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and an English rap song. After a few hours we couldn’t stand any more and had to return to Map Boys droning. A team decision was made to head straight to or Chalet, as we had accumulated so much wine the arse of the Peujeot was now dragging on the ground and there was no room for even a bottle of Chardy for the girls let alone The Fashionista and his gear. We where running late so we elected to stop for lunch. This was at a old service station, not our usual 5 Michelin star cuisine, but corners had to be cut for the sake of expediency. The Butcher ordered his usual Plate da Jar, which threw the local waiting staff until Map Boy explained in his immaculate French that this was the meal of the day. A hour later we crawled back into the car stuffed full of the best the French had to offer.
We arrived at our humble 3 story abode with mountain views, just as the Fashionista started texting that he had searched the station and having not found us had sensibly decided to retire to the Irish Pub next door. After Sherpa ing our gear up to the Chalet we slit up. Techno boy and Happy feet where sent in search of beer, while The Butcher, and Map Boy did the run to the train station. Fortunately we found the Fashionista while he was still able to walk and safely completed our mission. For dinner we decided on Pizza. For those of you uninitiated French Pizza is Pizza Jim but not as we know it. It has things on it like Duck, aubergines, artichoke, and Foi-Gra. Add these to a 3 micron thick base of limp pastry and cover with a least a Kilo of French Cheese. Eat until you feel sick then feed the rest to any unsuspecting animal that walks past, making sure that the RSPCA doesn’t catch you. Your humble correspondents are now back, preparing for tomorrow. Then the fun begins. We start riding.
More Pics Here
Picked up the Renult today. A great little Machine. Who needs Euro Disney whe you can drive around the Arc de Triomph on the wrong side of the road.Me,Frank Joe and Ern, headed south for warmer climes. Got lost and had a great lunch in a classic little French town. Shortly after that we had dinner in Avalone 20 Clicks down the road.Definatly not losing weight on this ride so far. 007
Spent way to much time eating and drinking. Joe, Ern, and I have also done a million miles on the Velieb free bikes. Dinner last night with Happy, and the kids followed by a few beers. Joe rocked up 12 hours early which threw the bedding suiation out of kilter. No problem. I love sleeping on the floor. Marie anne has taken off to Spain, and I've picked up my Citrone. All in all not a bad couple of days. More pics here 007
Met up with Ern and Frank for a great day of wandering around Paris. The boys had just flowen in in the morning and needed to stay awake all day so we started off with a couple of beers at the local Cafe. On to a fancy seafood lunch, and more beers at Cafe Oz trying to watch the footie. Frank left to get Marianne, so Ern and I grabbed a couple of free bikes and did a big tourist ride. The louve, up the Champs de Lisie, and the tower. Back to the hotel for a few more, then bumped in to Frank and Marieanne. It's a small town. Wine,Dinner and another walk around town, till they crashed at 11.30 at night. I was stuffed and I hadn't been on a plane for 24 hour. Took some great pics, Unfortunately my camera bounced out of the cycle basket at the tower. There was 10 millon people there so even though I noticed it missing after a minute , it was gone. Say La Vie. 007
5.30 am Another airport. Some where with lots of sand I Think.
John Kindly sent me a couple of pic's of the bit of the trip where we got to use the boat. His pic's are labeled with LakeEyreTrip.
The pics are still here
