European Vacation The Sequel
Topic: Undefined

 

    The Griswold have embarked on there 2^nd European vacation. Clark, Ellen, Rusty and Audrey have been joined by there newest arrival Hanna Banana. “It's all arranged” we have a new Renault to drive us and the brood around. A few relaxing days in Paris where they caught up with the Fatboys and then there off. Well almost, the landlady was late after telling them not to be. This resulted in a panicked rush to the train station, whilst paying a French taxi driver to go faster. Something the French aren't good at at the best of times. It was tight but they made the Eurostar and it was off to Geneva. A quick look around and it was into the brand new Renault for a drive across the mountains to Chamonix It was a beautiful day, the sun was shinning, the world was good, and the new Renault with 0 k'm on the clock made it about 30KM up the hills before the dash lit up and steam started coming out of the bonnet. After quick walk up the hill to get phone reception, and couple of expensive phone calls to the assist line in French which did not, the car had cooled down, so they decided to continue.The  thing want well for a while. Well not very long actually. More party lights, beeping sounds but no more steam. Is this a good thing? More French assistance.

       After a couple of hours a Tow Truck rolls up and puts the whole crew including car on the back. At least Hanna got some European driving time in. Next day the Renault is fixed, apparently it was a loose radiator hose. Wave goodbye to the nice Mechanic Kids. Around the Block Say hello to the nice Mechanic Kids. Nice Mechanic gets in, Drive around Block. Griswold’s get out. Back to Hotel. Next Day. Car is dead, Renault arranges hire car, Ellen has 400 euro taxi fare to pick up rent a car in next town, only to find out there is no car available in next town. Another relaxing night on the Ski Fields. Finally the rent a car mob comes good. Another taxi ride, Ellen returns triumphant. A Fiat bongo van perfect for the Grissies. They head off for a couple of days R and R with the Fatboys in Bourg d' Orisans. At last the Renault is fixed, besides the bongo van is meant to be in Italy for someone else. A quick drive to Chamonix where the new improve Renault is unveiled. Things improve from here. Audrey only opens the door on the motoryway once, and doesn’t even fall out. Rusty surprises the troupe by christening the Renault with a big chunder in the cab. At least they arrive in Italy for the next adventure. Aren’t holidays fun. Stay tuned for more.

 

Still Shuffling
Topic: Europe

Coffee, swim, lunch (above), siesta, aperitifs, dinner, sleep. Repeat x 14. If stress persists see your accountant! Courtesy of Mick

Beach Life
Topic: Europe

     We kept on driving south till the thermometer in the car hit 20 deg. After a beautiful week in France it's decided to turn a bit like Spring in Melbourne, and we could have stayed home for that. On the way down to my Cousins house in Spain the temp hit 28 Deg at one stage. That's a bit more like it. We arrived just as Brian and Pat where packing up, and after some quick instructions on how to run the place left to go shopping and to try out the local tucker.

      There are 6 different types of supermarkets in town, and the food is good and cheep. We had the local Menu next door 10 euro for a 4 course meal with a carafe of wine, and some sparkling mineral water. Roses has about 200 little cafes all offering great meals. We have adapted ourselves to the local time. This means getting up at 9, breakfast, walk, swim, shower, Lunch(about 1), eat to much, siesta, TV, Dinner (about8.30), evening drinks,sleep. This is pretty much what the locals do to, every thing opens at 9 closes between 12.30 and 4, then stays open till 8.

      Brian’s house is in a National Park, just 2 minutes walk from the beach. It was owned by a Spanish family so it's pretty typical of the houses around here. Barbecue, veranda, well for water. The beach has a big caravan park and cabins for visitors. They have an all you can eat smorgasbord every night for 15 Euro, it includes as much red as you can drink in one and a half hours. After that there's a bar on the beach. Heaven! The house has two small problems. Ants and water. If you leave everything in the fridge the ants aren't a problem. It's been really dry around here, so the well level is really low. It,s 11 meters from the top to the water, and the pump struggles to lift it that high. Mick and I have been hauling water up in buckets but it's bloody hard work and you use a fair few buckets in a day. We went off and bought a couple of cheap mountain bikes at the local sports mall, and next door was a giant builders suppliers. After a bit of looking we found a cheap sump pump and brought it home. It wouldn’t pump the water high enough either. We tried to get it to siphon down the hill no luck. We where just about resigned to hauling water when we hit on the idea of using one pump to fill a bucket half way up the well to supply the house pump. A bit of rope, a few loose bits of stuff from around the house, and a bit of electricians magic, we now have automatic hassle free water. Mind you we still shower and swim at the beach, but it's now out of choice rather than necessity. Love to say more but I'm off for a siesta.

Click the pic above for more of  Carla Mountjoi or below for a short cilp of us on the beach.

Mick Burger
Topic: Europe

At last something good was named after me!

The End
Topic: Europe

 

And so Fatboys 11 ends. We finished of with a couple of easy 700-900meter rides just to warm down before we returned the bikes. A heavy night of fine food and superb wines was had to finish the day off courtesy of Map boy. Thanks. I think!. We caught up with the mad Scot's who rode everything and proceeded to punish them with Calvados a local aperitif until the bar shut. Tecno boy is off to Prague to do what he does best. We dropped him off at the TGV, where he saw a good drug bust by 4 cops and experienced bad coffee. Map Boy went to buy a ticket to Paris to catch up with his wife and Nacho's but the machine wouldn’t accept any thing above a bog standard credit card. After all anyone in the station with only gold and platinum cards must have stolen them. The Butcher helped him out with his VicTeach card and eventually a First class ticket with all the extras was obtained. Tecno Boy having left, the 4 of us jumped in the car for a trip up Galbier. 100 KM of nuttiness with 2000 M of climbing. Not even Map Boy was keen for that one. Great views from the top of miles of valleys and Mt Blanc in the distance. A very Quite night. Where all up early the next morning for a quick clean of the house, then where off. Map Boy to the station. The Butcher, The Fashionista, and Happy feet to Valance to pick up Marie Ann. Thanks Guy,s.

Awards.

Slacker Award ,The Butcher. Complained about hills, ate everything.

Polka Dot Jersey, Map Boy Rode every thing including Alp d' Huze to many times to remember.

Up and coming Rider, Award Tecno Boy. Will be unstoppable next time.

Down hill Award, Happy feet doesn’t know where the brakes are.

Best Dressed Award, The Fashionista of course. Wardrobe improved remarkably after he threw all his riding clothes in the bin, and picked up Tecno Boys discards.

 Click the pic

 

French Roads
Topic: Europe

   Gotta love the French, lots of holidays, great pasteries, cheep beer , attitude, and none of these silly safety things like gard rails you cant ride a bike over on the roads.

More pics of why the French drivers are like lemmings here

The Rot Sets In
Topic: Europe

 

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.

The Crunch
Topic: Europe

 

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

Hard Yards
Topic: Europe
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.

The Road to the Alps
Topic: Europe

      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