I'm having a great time so far, in spite of the anxiety. The beginning of the trip has gone extremely well. Thanks to John and Lorraine, we arrived at the airport early and had two great flights. I couldn't even feel the landing of the 777 at LHR. We took an Airbus A321 to Lyons and began the adventure of trying to communicate in French. Our first glitch was the car rental, because we couldn't fit everything into the Renault Traffic. An hour later we started off in a Fiat Skudo equipped with GPS (which is easily confused on switchbacks in the Alps).
Jon has chosen wonderful places for us to stay. The views from the apartment in Annecy and the chalet at La Grave are spectacular and we've had wonderful weather so far. There are flowers everywhere, cultivated and wild. I've been admiring everyone's neatly kept vegetable gardens, most of which are surrounded by red raspberry bushes. Tom just bought me a pint of raspberries for $1euro.
I was most anxious about driving, since I rarely drive manual transmission. On Sunday, when we were in Annecy, the three bikers took off for their ride and Jessica and I were to drive downtown to find a parking spot where they would meet us to watch the end of La Dauphine. I neglected to have Jon show me how to get in reverse, so I had to ask a resident passing by for help. We made it downtown and fortunately found a parking spot not far from the finish line of the race. Jessica and I had a lovely afternoon, which included a boat ride tour of the 14km lake and a great lunch at a cafe. The highlight of the meal was a Belle Helene, a dessert crepe with pears, chocolate, almonds and whipped cream. Since it was Sunday, the stores were closed. We visited a church, St. Maurice, but the organ loft was closed to the public.
While the cyclists rode on Monday, I experienced my first hairpin turns up the mountains, while trying to avoid oncoming traffic and pass cyclists safely. I survived stalling going up mountains and was grateful for any large parking area. My muscles ache from hanging onto the steering wheel and my left calf muscle is sore from holding the clutch in while waiting at a construction spot that took longer than I thought. They are doing plenty of construction in the area, so there is frequently one lane traffic. Jon drove to La Grave by way of Col de Galibier (one of the finishes in this year's Tour). They were going to ride that today, but after yesterday, we convinced them to take a rest day. Since Erin got a preview in the car, I don't think she was disappointed not to ride it. Kathy, the ride reminded me of the time we had to stop for the cows in Colorado. We were about 4 hours later than we wanted to be to arrive at La Grave.
You've already heard Jon and Jessica's tales of yesterday (the supposedly easy ride day). I got to know one stretch of the road really well. My driving has improved somewhat. After I picked Tom and Erin up at Alpe d'Huez, Tom kept telling me to slow down and not take the corners so fast. I think the combination of adrenalin and resentment made me ignore him. When I get home, ask me about doing 3 point turns on Alpe d'Huez and meeting oversized trucks in tunnels. I was greatly relieved when we got the call from Jessica that Jon had arrived. I kept thinking about the comments my sisters would make about the "Kahler communication" problem. I think the calls from Tom and Erin made it worse as we were trying to figure out which spot to wait for them. They kept saying there was nothing to worry about, when we hadn't heard from Jon for more than 2 hours. To get her mind off the thought of Jon lying on the side of the mountain, Jessica asked me about family history. That only worked for a little while - I couldn't think of enough funny stories. I'm just grateful the day ended well with a delicious meal, and as per Deb's advice, plenty of wine.
Today we are relaxing and sight-seeing. Unfortunately, the cable cars to see the glacier on La Meige don't open until Saturday. I'll just have to look at it from my patio.
Cindy
1 comment:
You guys are better entertainment than William Faulkner or even Akiro Kurosawa! The multiple stories' points of view are fabulous. When I first heard about your trip, these scenarios seemed more of what I thought you'd be going through (i.e., difficulty communicating, difficulty meeting up, getting lost, being in multiple places at once, etc., all followed by decent outcomes, lots of wonderful food, wine and surroundings). It seemed very BIG. And yet, broken down into its component pieces, this is a terrific story.
There are great pastries in the mountains. Tortiones aux noix are hazelnut tartes which are quite delish (hazelnuts are local produce). Also, sometimes they have fun penguins (little penguin looking pastries ... hm that might be intuitive) which have chocolate filling and marzipan frontcoats, with choux pastry on the back.
In the Isere region, you've probably already had many of the regional specialties: pommes dauphinois is one ... sort of like a potato casserole. Anyway, you don't need me to explain these things. I'm sure you're having fun.
I'm glad everyone hooked up. Always remember to carry the address/phone # of where you're staying and have a Plan B (ours used to be meeting in the rail station of whatever destination town when we used to hitchhike ... until we discovered that most towns had more than one station ... this really sucks when you're sans transportation other than your own legs). Vive la france! Vive les Kahlers! Vive les bicyclistes americains!
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