Greg on the Go

The way this trip would work for everyone was that the Freeman’s would come first to Paris, and we would travel by rent-a-car for a couple of weeks around France, and Steve would come later for the cycling.

Lee and I started putting together a rough Itinerary for the first portion of the trip. I put some ideas on the table and they put some ideas on the table and we eventually settled on a pretty solid plan. Lee’s wife Mary jumped right on it and started making arrangements for cars, hotels, AirBnB’s for the trip.

With everything finally set in stone, I started my journey on May 6th, going over to Seattle on the Wenatchee Valley airport shuttle. From there, it was Icelandic Air to Iceland (of course), change planes in Keflavik and then to Paris. This was about a week before the Freemans would arrive. This was because I would have a large bike box with me and I did not want to carry it around France in the car with the Freemans. So I got to Paris, rented a car, and drove to Chambéry. Well, mostly. I didn’t quite make it all the way to Chambéry the first day. My lack of sleep due to the travel from Wenatchee caught up with me so I had to get a hotel about half way there. But I did make it easily the next day.

Seven years ago, on my first trip to Chambéry, I stayed at the Budget Ibis for 3 weeks and the manager, Julien gave me a nice discount since I was staying on for a long term stay. I stayed in contact with Julien over the years so I asked him if it was possible to get another discount again for this trip. I was going to stay there for the entire summer instead of getting a rental place. Julien said he could give me a break on the rate, but he had changed jobs and was managing a hotel in Grésy-sur-Aix, about 10 miles from Chambéry. The B & B Hotel. So I drove to Grésy-sur-Aix instead of Chambéry and got settled in the new hotel. Julien was on vacation so I did not get to see him right away, but the staff was expecting me and were very accommodating. I think it helped being friends with the Boss.

Next, I wanted to go check on a few things in Chambéry. First I went to the Bistrot du Verger, my favorite restaurant in town, with my favorite person in Chambéry, Ingrid, who is a server there. Well, Ingrid retired so that was a huge disappointment. But Marc, the restaurant owner gave me some contact information for her so I would try to contact her anyway. Next, I wanted to go see if the second hand book store I found was still there. They had a large selection of english books and the people who worked there were helpful to me. I must have read and returned over a dozen books the last time. But they were not there anymore either. Another disappointment. C’est la vie. But despite these disappointments, I was able to get my bike stored at the hotel in Grésy-sur-Aix and do the few errands I needed to accomplish while I had a car so that was all good. So next, it was time to travel back to Paris to met the Freemans.

Last year, I was thinking about getting older. Not a fun thing to contemplate. I know in the back of my mind that the ability to ride a bike at a high enough level to ride in the mountains is not going to last forever, and really, I’m not not nearly as competent as I used to be in that regard even today.

So I started thinking about another trip to Europe since I still have some things I would like to accomplish while I still have SOME ability. Namely, riding the Passo dello Stelvio and the Passo Gavia in the Italian Alpes. These are famous, and very difficult rides, for people of any age. Also, in the back of my mind, I was also thinking of the rides that I wanted to do in the French Alpes that I was unable to do 3 years ago due to a medical condition. And lastly, I thought doing these rides when I am 69 sounded easier than when I would be 70! So, I started thinking more seriously about another trip to France and also to Italy.

Once I sortta got it in my mind, I casually mentioned this to my friend Steve Barson who went with me to France 3 years ago. I did not think for a minute that he would be able to go since his last trip I would consider a ONCE in a lifetime trip. But I had to at least let him know what I was thinking and let him at least say no, but thank you. But Steve’s wife is pretty amazing in her own right and said that it would be alright. Well, I guess I need to REALLY think about this seriously.

Next, another really good friend of mine, Lee Freeman who I knew from my Rocket Scientist days at Rocketdyne had come up to Wenatchee to visit. I mentioned to him that I was probably going to France and we starting thinking that Lee and his family might be interested in a car tour of France as a part of my trip. Lee went home, talked to his wife Mary and they liked the idea.

Looks like I am going to France and Italy this year.

Once back in France and Chambéry, I found myself in the midst of the first heatwave of the summer. French heatwaves are pretty brutal…because no one has air conditioning.

I spent the last of my rides going out to the park with the first lake I found on the way to Albertville and would go swimming to cool off.

This turned out to be a double edged sword for me. While the water was extremely refreshing, the hour long ride back to Chambéry was brutal in the 95-100 degree heat.

I noticed something else. The sunflower fields were drying up.

With the sunflowers wilting, I took it as a sign that my time in France was drawing to a close. Plus, I was approaching my 3 month tourist visa limit!

I went down to the train station and purchased my train ticket to Paris. The lady at the ticket desk told me that if I bought a senior citizen discount pass for 25 Euro, I could save 45 euro on my train fare. Deal! She told me that I would have to show my passport along with my ticket to the train conductor.

I got the bike all packed up and my backpack loaded with all my clothes and got a taxi ride to the train station. It was a Sunday and my flight left the next day from Paris Charles DeGaul (CDG) airport. First I took the commuter train from Chambéry to Lyon. From there I would take the Bullet Train to the Gare de Lyon Train station in Paris, then take the metro (subway) out to CDG and get a hotel near the airport. Simple enough, right?

On the train to Lyon, the conductor came by to collect tickets and I had my passport ready for inspection. He never looked at it so I laid it down on the table in front of me to show my ticket. It is a relatively short ride to Lyon and we got there without incident. I had about an hour to kill before the next train got to Lyon so I figured I’d get something to eat at the train station. That’s when I figured out that I LEFT MY PASSPORT ON THE TRAIN! And the train had already left the station. $#&* ! And you cannot board an international flight without a passport! $#&* !

I Sulked for a few minutes and then started to put together a plan on how to resolve this HUGE problem. The American Embassy in Paris. They would help!

The next morning, I got up at my airport hotel and headed for the Embassy. I followed the signs to the entrance for Visas and Passports and found it to be closed. What? How could this be? This was not part of the plan. Turns out, it was Labor day. Even though I was in France, American Embassy employees still observe American holidays.

The next morning, I again went down to the Embassy. Today, there was a huge line to get into the Visa and Passport entrance. Finally, I got to the gate and the guard asked for my passport. I explained that was the reason that I was here, because I had lost it and needed to get a replacement. He asked if iI had an appointment and said that I did not. He gave some information and said that I needed an appointment. Great. Another day lost. This was Tuesday and the first appoint available was on Thursday. I went back to my airport hotel and filled out the appointment paperwork and submitted to electronically to the embassy and got an appointment for 8:30 Thursday morning. Now I had nothing to do until Thursday so I took advantage of the free day to do some things I had never done in Paris before. I guess it you are struck somewhere, Paris isn’t too bad a place. I found a Monet museum that I hadn’t been to before so that was a nice start to the day.

Next was the Pierre and Marie Curie Museum. It was the actual lab where Marie Curie conducted her experiments on radiation (that eventually led to her demise).

The last thing I did was to explore the Latin Quarter. I had heard about it, but never had been there. It was a vibrate area with shops and restaurants and lots of people just hanging around. It looked like a place to explore further in the future.

Thursday morning, I was early to the Visa and Passport line. I got in right away. The first thing was to get photos taken in the little photo, self serve, kiosk. I eventually got it all figured out how to use it, then helped another woman who was also having some problems with it. Mostly, she did n to the exact change to operate the machine so I gave her some coins and got her going with the process.

Next, I had my appointment. That part went very smooth. They informed me that I would be issued a temporary passport, good for one year and I could pick it up after one o’clock that afternoon. Really? That was pretty fast after all. So, I had to pass a few hours, so I walked through the famous Jardin desTuileries. Next, I found a place for lunch. By then it was one o’clock so I went to pick up my brand new, temporary passport. It was ready as promised! And the lady who I helped was waiting for me so she could thank me again for helping her out with the photos and the rest of the process. She was going to Le Mans to see family. We wished each other Bon Voyage (Good travels).

I immediately got on the metro and headed for the airport where I knew I could have internet access to start looking for a flight home. I found an actually reasonably priced flight on Tahitian Airlines for the next day! 10 hours to Los Angeles, then a connecting flight to Seattle, and finally a shuttle ride back to Wenatchee. I had overstayed my visa by 5 days, but no one mentioned it as I went through all the checkpoints, etc. My seat on the Tahitian Airlines flight was in the next to last aisle on the plane, but they served free drinks for the entire flight. That could get interesting, but I controlled myself.

And finally, I was back, safe and sound in Wenatchee. An end to another nice trip.

POST SCRIPT: The staff at SNCF (French Rail) found my passport and mailed it too me in the USA. Of course it was null and void, but I had about 60 US dollars in it. That was nice of them to do that for me.

Since I am in Europe, I wanted to take the opportunity to go visit some friends who had moved to Germany a few years ago. I met Nick Chambers through my work at Link Transit and my electric trolley project. Nick was a freelance journalist at the time who specialized in Electric Vehicle technology and actually lived right in Wenatchee. He wrote a fabulous story about our project for Scientific American (on-line version) and actually make me sound pretty intelligent with his editing. Thank you Nick!

Nick is married to a German wife and has 2 children. They decided to move back to Germany, mostly to take advantage of the country’s policy of providing a FREE college education to their citizens. What a concept. Anyway, they live outside of Augsburg in Bavaria and I went to visit them.

My trip trip started with the always exciting trip on the Bullet high speed train to Augsburg. I stayed in Augsburg, but made arrangements to meet the Chambers the next day. My visit happened to coincide with Augsburg’s local version of Oktoberfest so that is where we went! Not nearly as big as the huge festival in Munich, but very enjoyable. The weather was a little rainy so that kept the crowds down which as OK with us.

We did what you are supposed to do at Oktoberfest, the celebration of beer making….We drank beer, and ate pretzels too. Nick also explained to me the German Beer Purity Law of 1516. This states that beer can only be made with water, malt, barley and hops. Other than that, it cannot be called “Beer”. So Germans just call other variations something other than “Beer”. A “Shandy” is beer and lemonade. A “Diesel” is beer mixed with Coca-cola. That sounds rather disgusting, but we tried it and it was actually pretty good.

Next, we went to the Riegele Wirtshaus for some authentic German cuisine and more beer! Nick said the the Riegele Wirtshaus was the last brewery in Augsburg that had not been bought by corporation and was still family owned since 1884. Good all the way around.

Lastly, we went to the Chambers house to see where thy lived. It was on the outskirts of Augsburg in the country. Very nice. The visit was too short, I was hopping on the train the next day, but it was great to have seen them and know that they are doing well.

Riding around the roads and paths to Albertville and Grenoble was getting me in better cycling condition, definitely. I was feeling pretty good and it was now approaching the 3 month mark since I had experienced the inflammation of my heart. My doctor said that was how long I had to take it easy for a full recovery. So, I am going to try a small pass (Col) to ride. Don’t tell my doctor!

Having ridden out past Aix-les-Bains and out toward the Parc des Bauges in the past, I know there is a route that goes up to the Col de Plainpalais and makes it round trip back to Chambéry. This I would now try. From Aix-les-Bains, you ride up a pleasant tree-lined road to the village of Cusy, then down a slight grade to the next village of Le Pont. From there, the road starts going upward through a short series of switchbacks that I had ridden before to the village of Lescheraines. Then a simple 11 Kilometers to the Col de Plainpalais. It is not a very steep climb, but the first I have attempted for the entire time I have been in France (Doctor’s orders, remember?). You ride through a series of 4 switchbacks before the final straightaway to the Col.

After the summit, it is a moderately steep descent down to Chambéry for 15 Kilometers, but with some nice scenery along the way. This turned out to be a nice route to ride. If I had to say one negative thing about it, it was that there are no bike paths along this route, but the roads are lightly traveled. There are probably more cyclists than vehicles along the way past Lescheraines.

So that went pretty well, all in all. No heart attacks or even discomfort. I am taking that as a good thing and that I am basically fully recovered from my cardiac event! WooHoo! But still, don’t tell my Doctor!

It was nice to see the Tour de France again, complete the ride to Albertville, and start to feel comfortable on the bike for longer distances. So the rest of my stay would be focused on just riding around the area and enjoying the French summer.

I hadn’t made it all the way to Grenoble just yet: only as far as Crolles and the Ninkasi Brewery. I made the 70 mile ride to Albertville, so 80 miles to Grenoble and back seemed within reach. Thus, I would make this a goal for these latest rides. And stop at Ninkasi for lunch of course!

The next ride out past Crolles, I was delighted to discover that a part of the path was newly paved. I thought it was awfully nice of them to do that for me!

Later on, I found a familiar sight. I was surprised that I had never noticed before, but there were some apple trees growing right along the cycling path. Being from Wenatchee, the Apple Capital, I was right at home. [Note: Wenatchee calls themselves the Apple Capital, but there are other places that grow more apples. Just sayin….]

I think I probably mentioned that the ride to Grenoble is almost solely on a dedicated bike path, the Voie Vert 63. The Voie Vert is a national system of bike paths throughout France and a wonderful amenity for riding in France (and Europe for the matter). These bike paths are well marked with signs so even I can (mostly) find my way without getting too lost. Even when there are not any signs, they let you know you are still on the route!

Made it to Grenoble without any real problems since I remembered the route pretty well from 3 years ago. I did make one change to my arrival in Grenoble. Before, I would end up in this park along side the Isére River and just turn around and head back to Chambéry, but this time I figured out how to get into town and find a boulangerie to get a drink and an eclair! Gotta have the eclair now, of course.

The ride back to Chambéry was LONG! It was starting to get hot and stopping at the Ninkasi was a big help although I probably shouldn’t have had the Barrel Aged Belgian Quadruple Ale! (But how can I say no to Belgian style ale?).

The heat of the French summer was now upon us.

Before I took this trip, I looked at the Tour de France route. I guess I didn’t look at it very carefully. First, I did not realize that it was going to go past Lac de Bourget and go through Culoz. Then, as I was walking through Chambéry later, there was a banner saying that the race was going to go right through Chambéry! How did I miss that?

The day before the Chambéry stage, I watched work crews start their prep work for setting up for the race. They marked obstacles in the road and set aside barriers and other necessary safety equipment along the route. The next day, they set up all of those barriers, temporary fencing, and other necessary things before the approximately 2:00 o’clock time when the racers were estimated to ride through town.

I took a position along the route where I could get a good look at the riders as they went past. It was at one of the many round-abouts that exist everywhere in Europe. I measured it… It was exactly 60 steps from my AirBnB to my position along the race course. How amazing is that?

Riding through Chambéry was pretty early in the race, so I didn’t expect that there would be any breakaway riders. They usually wait until further in the race to try to attack for the stage win. So when the riders came through, it was without any breaks and the peloton was pretty relaxed. But exciting to see as usual.

Two hours later, there was not a trace that anything had happened, except for some paint on the road surface. I guess it’s not their first rodeo (or TdF). The race has been to Chambéry many times, even hosting starts and finishes. But I think the biggest cycling event that has ever been in Chambéry was the 1989 World Championship Road Race. And won by Greg Lemond!

Today, I would try for Albertville.

Although I did not complete my ride to Grenoble the other day, I felt that I was riding well enough to make the roughly 70 mile round trip. Plus, there weren’t any steep mountains in the way, only some short, small hills to negotiate getting through Montmélian on the way there.

Since I had ridden a lot of this route already, all I really had to do was to just continue on the bike path and it would go all the way into Albertville. Easy Peasy. And for once, it was easy and I could just ride and enjoy the scenery on the way there.

I rode past the lakes I had previously stopped at and took in some new scenery.

At last, I rode into Albertville. I had mentioned before that Albertville had hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics. Albertville is NOT a large city. Only about 35,000 people live there. They erected a temporary stadium for the events, and took it down right after the Olympics were over. You cannot find any evidence that the Olympics were ever there except for a small park that now exists at the stadium location.

But there are more pressing matters to attend to. Before setting out on the ride, I googled places to get something to eat in town and found the Boulangerie Raphael, close to the bike path. I was starting to get a little concerned about the weather. As I was eating my Ham and cheese baguette sandwich and my eclair(!), it started to sprinkle rain a bit on me, so the ride home might get interesting.

I did manage to get home pretty much dry, but it was a fast paced 35 mile ride. I did stop to take a few photos on the way back though.

So I finally made it to Albertville. I felt pretty satisfied with the 70 mile ride. Mission accomplished!

With some rest days under my belt and having gone to Culoz to see the Tour de France (again), I thought it was time to get back on my bike. My recent rides had gone pretty well for me, so I thought I would attempt a longer ride and revisit one of my old favorite routes, the ride to Grenoble.

Steve and I had ridden part of this route when he was here so I knew the I could find my way to the route easy enough. Now, I just had to remember the rest of the route. It goes through a town named Crolles, and then on to Grenoble. Crolles is an interesting town. It is the European headquarters of Petzl, a company that makes lights for hiking and other products, but that is not the reason I find it interesting. It is about the pronunciation of its name. The french say “Colles” and not pronounce the “R”. Something about the combination of “C” and “R”. They pronounce the “R” in FRANCE for instance. But i digress!

I turns out that I missed a turn that I normally take on the way to Crolles (big surprise, right?) and entered town in a place that I wasn’t familiar with. I stopped to try and get my bearing at one point and noticed that I was right next to a Brew Pub. I was getting hungry (and thirsty) , so what the heck, let’s give this place a try. Well, what a find! The Ninkasi Brasserie had good Pub food and Belgian style ales (my favorite) to boot. It was like being back in the USA, except people were speaking this weird language and drinking a lot of wine, besides the beer!

Ninkasi threw me though. There is a Ninkasi Brewing in the USA, in Eugene, Oregon to be exact. But I could find no relationship to the one in Crolles, a mystery that will go unsolved.

As I was trying to make my order, I was having to trouble communicating that I wanted a plain, simple hamburger, but the french server and I were having trouble. Another server came over to help. She was a young woman, who it turns out grew up and went to school in Connecticut, but was french. And she spoke english without any accent. Well, after all that, the burger and my Belgian Quadruple Barrel Aged Ale were both excellent.

Now, the only real problem was that I had lost all of my cycling momentum and decided to forego the rest of the ride to Grenoble and head back to Chambéry. But I would return to Ninkasi, that is for sure.

All during this time, I had been renting an AirBnB in Chambéry, staying with this nice lady Helene. She did not speak much english and my french has much to be desired, so we did a lot of communicating with cell phone translation apps! But she had a boyfriend who spoke pretty good english and he told me that the Tour de France was coming close to Chambéry. It was going to go through a village called Culoz and was at the north end of Lac de Bourget, the lake that starts along Aix-Les-Bains. Well, how could I pass up this opportunity, being so close and everything.

I starting looking at maps to see exactly how far it would be and how I might get there, not having a car. At first, I thought I might be able to ride my bike to Culoz. It would be a long ride, maybe 40 mile just to get there, and have to ride back, possibly later in the evening. I took a ride out to Aix-Les Bains to take a look at the road to Culoz . I pretty quickly decided against this idea. Parts of the road looked pretty sketchy for riding. Little to no shoulder and lots of traffic.

So next, I looked into a boat shuttle. I had heard there was a boat that traveled up lake. I had known about it because I had (and still do) think about riding the Via Rhona bike trail which is a dedicated bike path that goes from Geneva, Switzerland to the Mediterranean Sea. The Lac de Bourget boat ride connects bike riders to the trail. I went to the ticket office to inquire about it, but quickly found out the schedule was not going to work out, at least to get to Culoz to see the Tour.

But wait! The train goes there. And European trains are awesome. This turned to to be the perfect solution to my problem of getting there, and back. On the day of the TdF stage in Culoz, I got on the train around noon. In one of those small world things, I was sitting across from 2 young women who it turns to were Americans. So I asked where they where from and the were from Bellingham, Washington. And had very recently been to Lake Chelan and Leavenworth, both towns in the county I live in.

Once in Culoz, I, and everyone else on the train started walking to where to race would go through. I was only about a ten minute walk. The race would itself would be exciting, but not until it passed through Culoz. The crux of the day’s stage would be the climb up the Grand Colombier. It was a climb rated Hors Catégoire. (beyond Category) which is the highest rating for climbs. And it would also be a summit finish which are always exciting. It was too far to walk to get there, so we would all just have to read about it later.

But it was a fun atmosphere none the less. The clown parade went through and I got some candy and a few hats that were given out, from the sponsor cars. I even got some dish soap? Did I mention it is a clown parade? Note: It’s not really with actual clowns. The floats and cars in the parade are just ridiculous looking. Anyway, we all had some fun waiting for the riders to go by.

And then, in a while after the clown parade, the tour officials drove bye, then an endless escort of motorcycles, and finally, just like that, the riders and their team cars came through and then were gone in an instant.

The nice thing about this stage of the Tour compared to the stage that Steve and I saw was that there was no waiting to leave. We all just walked back to the train station and got on the train and we’re heading back to Chambéry. Just like that!