Greg on the Go

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!

Well, Steve left and now it was all up to me to make my own way forward.

The initial thing I wanted to do was to figure out the way to ride toward Albertville. This is to the northeast of Chambéry. I mentioned earlier that I had tried years ago to ride in that direction only to be forced onto a busy highway that left me uncomfortable to say the least. But, as Steve and I were driving toward Tignes and Val d’sere on one of our non-riding days, I noticed what appeared to be a bike path along the highway. There had to be way to get on that path from Chambéry! I just needed to figure it out! I started by looking at maps and using the internet to look for bike paths in the area. Et voila! If I started out in the general direction of Grenoble, I could detour into a village of Montmélian and connect to a bike path that was brand new to me. The trick is always getting through the village and typically is a trial and error thing, getting lost and backtracking until you find your way to the bike path. But finding the new route was worth it.

The path (chemin in french) was nice! And it was nice to again be exploring new routes around the area. At one point, the path did briefly merge onto a lightly traveled roadway, but I discovered something amazing, to me anyway!

As you got onto the roadway, there was a sign directing vehicles to follow and not pass cyclists who were on the road! Cyclists are not on the road very long before they turn off again onto the dedicated bike path so it wasn’t a huge deal to motorists, but this amazed me. This was a first!

About that time, I was starting to get a little tired so I ventured off the bike path and pedaled up a fairly steep road to the hamlet of Saint-Pierre d”Albigny looking for a market or someplace to get a drink and maybe some food. But alas, no luck. So I went back toward the bike path but came out a little further down the path than where I left it. Riding backwards on the path, I almost immediately came to a snack bar that seemed a bit out of place.

But I stopped there anyway and had a Coke and a sandwich. Afterwards, I started back to Chambéry but realized that the snack bar was part of a park. And the park had a nice looking lake. It appeared that cars had to pay an entrance fee, but bike were allowed to pass through the gate for free. Nice!

At that, I figured that was enough exploring for one day since I really had no idea where exactly I was in relation to Albertville and I wasn’t in very good cycling shape anyway. So back to Chambéry I rode, and I didn’t even get lost.

My next ride was a brief ride to Aix-Les-Bains, a ride I had done many times in the past. It travels a nice bike path until it comes to the lake which Aix-Les-Bains is next to, Lac Bourget. I turned around after that since it was only a training ride, trying to get into riding shape.

The next ride would serve more of a purpose. I would continue to explore the route to Albertville. I planned to ride past the first lake and find my way further toward Albertville. I had not made to yet to the portion of the bike path I had seen from the highway, so that would be the next goal for me. I rode past the first lake and tried to follow bike path signs. I was mostly successful, but there was some missed turns here and there. But eventually, success. The path came to the Isere river and then to the highway that went to Albertville. After crossing the river bridge and going under the highway, a quick left turn and I was on the path that I had seen! And it led to another lake. So I stopped.

This lake was more of a boating lake where you could rent motorboats and such. No one was on the lake at this time so it was nice and relaxing sitting out on the deck enjoying a nice cold drink. But this too would be my turn around point. I did make it further than the previous ride, so I took that as a sign that my fitness was going in the right direction.

With Mont Ventoux added too Steve’s palmares, we headed out on our way to the Pyrenees. We did make one planned stop on the way. We drove into Arles to see an ancient Roman amphitheater that we had seen in some literature we had reviewed.

The amphitheater is right in the middle of town and is still used to this day. It was built about 2000 years ago, but has been retrofitted with modern seating and hi-tech lighting. 2000 years ago was just around the same timeframe as the building of the Pond du Gard aqueduct. It must of have been the golden age of the Roman occupation of France.

After visiting the amphitheater and having some lunch at a persian restaurant, we set out for the Pyrenees. We drove near Montpellier and actually briefly saw the Mediterranean Sea. We arrived in Saint Gauden in the early evening, just is time to grab some food for dinner.

The next day, we headed for the base of the Tourmalet, the most climbed mountain in the history of the Tour de France. As a matter of fact, the riders of the Tour would be riding over it in two days and the crowd was already starting to accumulate along the route.

After the summit and a few photos, we headed down the other side to Luz Saint Sauveur. We parked in the parking lot of the Carrefour grocery store and got some lunch. Parking anywhere in Europe is always an adventure, but we got to draw on my previous experience here. I had parked in the Carrefour parking lot before and knew right where it was and that it was free to park.

Tomorrow would be Steve’s last summit ride of his trip. He would ride the Hautecam in the Pyrenees. It has some history in the Tour de France, but to me, it where Bjarne Riis earned the nickname Mr. 60%. Bjarne Riis won the Tour de France in 1996 but was proven to have cheated by using the banned drug EPO. He looked like he was on a training ride as he ascended the Hautecam when I watched videos it. Note: 50% is consider high, but an acceptable level for a hematocrit level. Steve would have no such advantage tomorrow!

The Hautecam is a ride I had not ridden before so both Steve and I would discover it together. Usually, there are A LOT of riders on the climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees. Maybe it was the weather or the fact that the Hautecam has not been featured in the TdF as much as the other climbs that we have planned to ride, but Steve would climb this one without much challenge from other riders.

But there were some other challenges to overcome on the ride. Like horses in the road!….Which Steve managed to maneuver around without any difficulty.

And like all of the other climbs, Steve was able to reach the top, with panache of course!

Once the Hautecam was under Steve’s belt, I talked Steve into doing another ride. I thought he still had gas in the tank after the Hautecam and Steve readily agreed. It did not take much much persuasion on my part. So we drove back to Luz Saint Sauveur to get some lunch and plan for Steve to ride to the ski station at Luz Ardiden. Luz Ardiden has some Tour de France history. Greg Lemond secured his third Tour de France victory there in 1990 by burying his main competition. He still trailed by 5 seconds to the leader but all acknowledged that he would easily make that up in the final time trial. He may have won the Tour there, but he only finished second on the stage, losing to Miguel Indurain in the last few kilometers. Anther famous Luz Ardiden stage occurred when Lance Armstrong was contesting the stage when he hooked a musette bag from a young spectator and took a tumble on the pavement. He recovered and eventually won the stage, but that was later expunged from the record after his fall from grace due to his EPO doping.

Steve rode Luz Ardiden with almost no problems. It is a fun climb (if climbing steep slopes is FUN) with a lot of switch backs to zig zag the way to the finish. The only problems for this ride was the constant swarm of flies that drafted Steve to the top of the climb and the fog that rolled in and continued to the summit.

Now, it was time for a break from the bike for Steve. Luckily, tomorrow would offer a fun alternative to riding. The Tour de France! It was Stage 8 and we would be there!

We arrived fairly early and planned to ride to the top to be there for the summit finish! Well, live and learn. We thought that if we started up too early that we would have to wait forever for the race to arrive, so we stayed in the car for a while. Well, the police and security closed the road while we were in the car so we had to walk and could only get up the the 5K to go mark. It was still a good spot to watch. We were on the climb so when the first riders arrived, they were actually accelerating up the hill. Mere mortals like us hope to survive these climbs and they were accelerating! At one point before the racer arrived, I told Steve we should text our friends back in the USA that we were right at the 5k banner. Someone took a photo of their TV during the race and saw us! Not US TV, Worldwide TV!

Now, it was almost all over but the shouting. We would head back to Chambéry the next day, but stopped in Nïmes to see an old Roman coliseum. It was is quite good shape for it’s age, again about 2000 years old.

Once back in Chambéry, I talked Steve into one more ride to again help me get some more saddle time. We rode out through Aix-les-Bains and out to a village named Albens. Along the way, we stopped to get up close and personal with the classic sunflowers fields of France.

Back on the road, we arrived in Albens and this is where Steve would make a final and lasting mark on my trip. Steve bought me an Eclair! Well, Steve pretty much had to buy it. I entered the patisserie without my cycling shoes on and was unceremoniously told that I needed to wait outside the shop.

After that, I had a hard time passing up any opportunity to buy and enjoy an eclair! I’m not saying addiction, but….Well, thanks Steve.

With all the riding over with, Steve’s time in France had come to an end and was all set to go home. I enjoyed Steve’s company so much on this trip. Both admiring his cycling ability, but mostly his comradeship. We’ve known each other for a long time and I see no reason for that to ever end. À bientôt mon ami!

Today, we would begin the final phase of Steve’s epic visit to France. We drove to Avignon which is famous for their Bridge if you are familiar with the french song! By the Way, the Bridge doesn’t go anywhere. It originally spanned across the Rhone river, but mostly washed away by floods many centuries ago. There are only 4 or 5 of the original spans remaining, but ends about a quarter of the way across the river now.

On the way to Avignon, we did stop to visit another famous bridge. The famous Pont du Gard which is an ancient Roman aqueduct that was built over the Gard River to provide water to the town of Nimes. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site and most people probably have seen a photo of. It was built about 2000 years ago, but still stands to this day. The Romans may have been a pretty hedonistic society, but they had some fine engineers! I was surprised about a few things at the aqueduct. First, you can actually walk across it! And second, most people who were there were going to swim in the river, not sight see. There must have been about a thousand people swimming, tanning, and just hanging out in general there. It was pretty hot that day, so it was pretty tempting, but we did not have swim suits with us.

Afterward, back in Avignon, Steve and I found a Pub for dinner. Had a nice dinner and a craft beer. Not bad. Steve would need the calories. Tomorrow would be his ascent of Mont Ventoux, the most difficult of the climbs he would attempt in my opinion.

Steve would have the advantage of starting the ride up Mont Ventoux in the morning when the weather would be cooler. When I did this ride 4 years ago, I rode it in the late afternoon when the temperature was about 100 degrees F. Not a great decision on my part. But, once again, I would have Steve ride this beast of a mountain from a different route that would be slightly more difficult than the side I rode. I did not tell Steve about this, yet again! We drove out to Bedoin where the ride would begin. Mont Ventoux is a mountain that stands alone so you can see it from a long way away as you drive there, and see the giant antenna structure at the top as well. We picked a good starting point for Steve’s ride, but again, I could not drive the car along the initial part of the route due to a street market going on that day. So I drove around trying to negotiate my way onto the route while Steve had a pretty straight forward way out of town. We were both successful and I soon took my place behind Steve (as usual) and paced him up the road. I had developed a system of staying behind Steve until a car would come up from behind. Not wanting to upset a trailing car since I was only going around 10-12 miles an hour, I would pull around Steve and then pull over up the road to wait for Steve to catch up again and then do the whole thing over again until another car would come up from behind. It actually was a nice break from watching Steve’s backsidel all day!

Steve rode through the forested portion of the ride and then entered into the open “moonscape” part of the mountain that you can see from such along way away (along with the antenna). The good part of this part of the ride is that you can see the end of the ride, plus see some amazing views too. Seeing the summit of a ride is always great for finding the energy to get to the top of a climb. This was certainly the case and Steve finished in fine fashion, although he was passed by this younger woman who trailed him for the entire ride until the last few kilometers. No shame though, She was young, fit and a strong rider in her own right. She gave Steve a “high five” at the summit since she also recognized a good rider when she saw one!

Just like the Col de la Croix de Fer, after a rest and photos, Steve continued over the top to ride down the back side of the mountain to Malaucene which was the town I started from years ago. For this reason, I knew where to park to meet Steve and get him sorted out after the ride. Then, it was on to find some food and to find a shop where Steve could buy a souvineer jersey to remember his epic ride!

Bloggers Note: I apologize for the huge time gap in the progress of this story. My only excuse is that I lost focus. I blame my ascending aging process! I had set a goal of finishing this by the end of the 2024 winter… but turned out to be th early summer of 2026. But here we are! I hope you enjoy it. My memory of all of these events is pretty good, but after all, I am getting older and my memory is not what it used to be. Luckily for me, the only person who can contradict my account of these events is Steve Barson, but you will have to take that up with him! Now, on with the story of our adventure in France in 2023!

Steve was really finding his rhythm after riding the Col de Madeleine. But it was time for another rest day. A rest day for Steve, but not for me! I (easily) talked Steve into a recovery ride so I could get some miles in on my bike. I proposed an easy ride out toward Crolles and Grenoble, but for only an hour out and an hour back. This was to help me continue to regain some cycling form after my time away from cycling. It was going to be my second real ride so I wanted to begin to add more miles from the previous ride. Hopefully it will go well.

This ride was one of the routes I rode often 4 years ago when I was in Chambery last time. It is a route that primarily follows a dedicated bike path and only occasionally is shared with vehicles. I would have to try to navigate the route from memory, but I felt confident that it would all come back to me once I was on the ride. One of the really nice things about my AirBnB is that it is right at the beginning of the Voie Vert 63 bike route heading south from Chambery. I had been here many times before so the start was off to a good start. Actually, the entire ride went off without a hitch. I actually remembered all of the turns on the route and never got off route or lost, a major accomplishment for me since I can get turned around on a bike as well as anyone. Ask any of my riding friends! So I had a very successful ride and Steve got in a nice recovery ride. Good thing too since he would again be tested the next day.

Today we would head to St. Jean-de-Maurienne to ride the Col de La Croix de Fer. St. Jean-de-Maurienne is just up the road from La Chambre so getting there was easy enough. I had ridden the Col de la Croix de Fer before, but from the other side. My original plan was to ride from this side since it was new, but still give Steve an opportunity to also ride it. It was also a more difficult direction to ride it from, but I never told Steve that. I figured ignorance is bliss, right? A more difficult route proved to be only one of the challenges of this ride….

The ride started off simple enough, heading out of St. Jean-de-Maurienne to the west along a creek coming out of the mountains. We traveled past the Opinel Museum, but did not stop. Opinel is a company that makes quality knives right in the French Savoie and has their Headquarters now in Chambery. Only a few kilometers outside of town, we encountered our first bit of adversity of the day. The road was closed to vehicular traffic, but appeared to be open to bicycles. Steve continued on the dedicated route while I had to detour. Steve’s route would take him right up the valley and up to the Col. My route would take me to destinations unknown and I could only hope to see Steve at the top of the Col…. hopefully. Driving on the detour, I could see the road Steve was riding from across the valley. It was a good thing Steve was only looking at the road ahead, because from my perspective, I could see the road was built above a shear drop of several hundred meters. I could only hope that there was a good guardrail system along the route!

My route ended up going over the Col du Mollard just above the ski area of Albiez-Montrond. After I drove over the Col, I headed down a nice valley toward St. Jean d’Arves which was where I theoretically would reconnect to the original route that Steve was riding. Once in St. Jean d’Arves, I found a nice place to pull over on the road in hopes that Steve would be riding by soon. I began to have second thoughts about if I would have enough gas in the Peugeot for this drive so I decide to drive back to St. Jean-de-Maurienne once I figured out there wasn’t any gas in St. Jean d”Arves. I made it back to town pretty quickly and once again started up toward the Col du Mollard. About half the way back up, I ran into Steve! It turned out that the road that we both thought was open to cyclists was NOT. Steve had ridden many kilometers up the road until he met some road workers who informed him (with lots of pointing and arm motions) that the road was blocked by a large slide and not traversable by any mode. So Steve had to back track and then ride up the Col du Mollard as well. I fell into my mode of following Steve on his bike up the Col where we stopped and took photos and had some food. Then down to St. Jean d’Arves and then the final climb up through St. Sorlin d’Arves (which was pretty steep!) From there, it was about 10k to the summit. There were again a lot of cyclists on the route since it is pretty famous so Steve had a lot of people to draw inspiration from. He made it to the summit just fine, even with the additional climb of the Col du Mollard. Good job again Steve!

Now, I talked Steve into some additional riding and another Col to add to his Palmares. (Palmares is a french word for your list of awards and accomplishments) After a rest and photo ops, Steve would continue from the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer and go down valley for a few kilometers, then ride up to the Col du Glandon. Luckily for Steve that the Col du Gland was only a short ride uphill and not very much elevation gain at all. Mostly, just another photo opportunity! Then a long steep downhill back to St. Jean-de-Maurienne and packing up the car with bikes and gear. The additional challenges of the day included many extra kilometers of riding for Steve…. and two additional unplanned summits. The Col du Mollard and the Col du Glandon.

The next day it was raining! Not a bad thing since it was a planned rest day for Steve and the day we were going to explore Lyon, the third largest city in France. Actually, it stopped raining early on and it turned out to be a nice day. We visited a few beautiful cathedrals and had lunch at the 1-2-3 Cafe which severed a really great bowl of “French Onion” soup I might add!

With another rest under Steve’s belt, we headed once again into the mountains. This time, it would be the mighty Galibier, the highest point of most Tour de France races and also the highest point of Steve’s riding itinerary. We drove to St. Michel-de-Maurienne, another village further up-valley from La Chambre and St. Jean-de-Maurienne. This ride was potentially tricky. We had been monitoring the weather at the Galibier summit. There had been rain and the forecast still had a chance of more rain. At least any snow had held off. We were able to verify this since there was a webcam at the summit we found on the internet.

The weather was actually pretty good to start the ride. There was a brief flat warm up through the village before the road began to pitch up. As Steve began his ascent of the Galibier, I headed back down valley to get more gas for the car. I caught up with him in due time. The road would go through another village, Valloire which was just past the Col de Telegraph, a Col which Steve would ride over on the way to the summit of the Galibier, a nice little bonus for this who enjoy riding uphill!

While the weather started off pretty good, it deteriorated little by little over the course of the ride. Steve rode the Galibier well and reached the summit in a good strong effort, but the temperature was getting cool and dropping as time went by. For this reason, Steve and I took our summit photos and did not stay on the summit very long. We headed down, backtracking the route Steve rode up, down to St. Michel-de-Maurienne and the end of the ride. The Galibier would represent the end of the Alp’s portion of the trip for Steve. It was a great way to end his tour of the Alps.

The next day was mostly about getting Nick to the airport and seeing him off. But they say when one door closes, a window opens up! So two days later, my friend Steve Barson showed up in Paris.

Steve is one of my oldest and best cycling friends. Steve, Paul Purmort and I started riding back in the days when I was a rocket scientist (and so were Steve and Paul). Those two taught me so much about cycling that I am for ever trying to repay them. More than a few times, they rode me into the ground, but as they also say, that which does not kill you makes you stronger. So …… thanks?

I met Steve at the airport in Paris where we rented a Peugeot (the car, not the bike) and headed back to Chambery. We made it in one day, but it was a long day. Whew. The next day after we got sort of settled into our respective AirBnB’s, we started assembling our bicycles. That was pretty straight forward and we were both happy that neither our our bikes suffered any damage during their flights overseas. Next was a shake down ride to make sure the everything was in proper working order. So Steve and I drove over to Lake Annecy. This is a ride that I have wanted to do ever since I was here before. I had ridden to Annecy and the lake, but never actually rode around the lake, so that is what we did for our shake down ride. It is an incredibly beautiful lake, about 23 miles to complete the loop. No problem for Steve, but I was really feeling it. You have to remember that I hadn’t ridden very much due to issues previously discussed, plus the fact that Nick and I did a lot of eating and drinking as we toured Amsterdam, Ghent, and Paris. So gaining more than a few pounds and out of shape, well, you can see the problem. But I made it, and it was’t too bad really.

So, now it was time for a real test for Steve. So, originally, Steve and I both were going to ride big mountains, but as I mentioned before, I was not really going to be able to do them now. So Steve had a support vehicle and dedicated photographer for his mountain assaults, starting with the famous Alps d’Huez.

Alpe d’Huez is “famous” because it has been the site of some epic battles in the Tour de France. But realistically, it was going to be one of the easier rides for Steve. It is only 8.7 miles long, but climbs about 3,500 feet or so. I am sure that Steve can tell you, to the foot, how much elevation he actually climbed. Strava! And it would only take him just over an hour to accomplish the ride.

To celebrate Steve’s first French Alp ride, we drove into Bourg d”Oisens and had lunch. We both had pasta, but Steve got the most benefit of the lunch since he did all of the effort riding to the summit. We also bought souvenir T-shirts. Got to be a tourist every once in a while….

With one summit in the books, Steve took a planned rest day. We drove the rented Peugeot through Albertville up into some of the famous ski areas of the Savoie. Tignes and Val d’sere were our sight-seeing goals for today. We were both surprised at how many cyclists were on the road. This area is very beautiful, but not really on our list of high priority riding destinations. But other riders had different ideas obviously.

We ate lunch in Tignes in the ski village at an outdoor cafe. An outdoor cafe in France? Surely you jest! But is was nice none the less.

So I mentioned that we drove through Albertville on the way up to the ski areas. Albertville was the site of the 1992 Winter Olympics and about 35 miles from Chambery. 4 years ago, I was interested in riding to Albertville, but I could never figure out how to get there by bike. The only time I really tired, I ended up riding on a heavily trafficked highway that was uncomfortable to ride on, even for me. So I abandoned that idea for the time being. But on the drive up through Albertville, I noticed that there appeared to be a bike path along the highway at some point. This gave me a new incentive to find a way to ride to Albertville this summer. There obviously had to be away to ride there. Now, I just had to find out how to do it. But that would have to wait for a few weeks.

Well, enough resting for Steve. After seeing Tignes and Val d’sere via car, it was time for Steve’s next cycling test. Today would be the Col de Madeleine, a nice 5,000 plus foot climb. Steve’s plan was to ride from La Chambre up Les Lacets, over the Col du Chaussy, and then up and over the Col de Madeleine and back down the more direct way back to La Chambre. This was a ride that was outlined by someone that had written an article that Steve had read about some years ago. That looked like an interesting loop, but I noticed that some of the route did not really appear to be real roads on the GPS. As much as Steve had his mind made up to ride this route, I convinced him that since we had an actual car, we should scout out the route ahead of time. Good thing we did. Part of Steve’s planned route turned out to be unpaved goat trails! Maybe paved at some point in time, but not these days. So we quickly developed a “Plan B”. Ride straight up to the Col from La Chambre and back down, then ride Les Lacets as a separate route.

All of the route finding took a while, so Steve got a late start and it was pretty warm to even start the ride. But no problem for super Steve. He managed the ride like the awesome rider that he is, not a problem. It helped that he caught up to a Czech rider in the last 10 K (who spoke very good english) so he had a compatriot to ride the summit with.

After summiting the Col de Madeleine, Steve mostly coasted back down the route that he road up back to La Chambre. Next, we drove to the bottom of Les Lacets for the second part of Steve’s riding agenda. We drove there because the road there was kind of sketchy for riding, but Les Lacets was worth riding, for sure. This is the one climb that Steve had identified as his priority, and how he discovered it is a story he call tell. But is was pretty impressive in it’s shear stunning visual. Its is not a long climb by any stretch. And not even really very steep. But 14 hair pin turns in one mile? That is some serious road engineering. Of course, Steve made it look easy, although he declined my offer to have him continue to the top of the Col du Chaussy. He said that he had had enough and it was time for some food. Food, yes I agreed. I am pretty sure that I had a more difficult time driving Les Lacets than Steve had riding it. It would be a game of chicken if I had met another vehicle on the roadway. Luckily, we all survived.

So Steve had a nice first week in France. Next week would offer new cycling challenges as well as more stunning scenery.

No trip to France is complete without a visit to Paris. I think it is the most visited city in the world and probably deserves to be.

Nick and I began our exploration of the great city by first getting familiar with the Metro (the Paris subway system) and how to figure out where we wanted to go by looking at the system maps. We were able to get to Les Halles-Châtelet which is a major station and walked to the Eiffel Tower via the Seine river. That stretch of the Seine goes past lots of well known museums and landmarks and helps get oriented for later places to visit. It took about an hour to walk there.

Once upon a time, you could walk right under the Eiffel Tower and have a picnic lunch on the grass there. Now, the area is fenced off with security gates to go through if you want to ride the elevator to the top (or walk 330 meters up). I think that was a result of 9/11 and the global terrorism threat. No matter what though, it is an amazing landmark and the true icon of Paris. To think that they were going to dismantle it after the World Expo it was built for way back when. Glad they came to their senses.

After seeing the Eiffel Tower, we got some lunch at one of the thousands of sidewalk cafes that Paris is famous for. I was on a mission to find the best bowl of French Onion Soup. Only on the english menus at the cafes did they call it “french” onion soup. Otherwise, just Onion Soup, right? Makes sense. The soup was pretty good! Mmm.

Next, we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and the crazy Round-About that surrounds it. I find it difficult to negotiate a 2 lane round-about in the US. The round-about that circles the Arc de Triumph is about 5 lanes, but they don’t even bother to paint lane lines. It is an automobile circus, but somehow it seems to work. Just glad I am not trying to drive around it. And the French are probably glad too.

From there, it was down the Champs-Elysees, maybe the most famous shopping street in the world after 4th Avenue in NYC. Just looking though. No Rolex’s or Gucci in my budget these days. I did see a couple of Ferrari’s on the street. I have now seen more Ferrari’s in France than I have in Italy! Not sure what that means…. That was about enough for one day.

The next day, we got an Uber from our motel and got dropped off in the Montmartre district of Paris. We took the Uber instead of the Metro because the station were we would normally get off the metro was closed for some maintenance and the subway was not running in that direction from the neighborhood we were staying in. That was a pain, but we eventually figured out a way to circumnavigate that problem by an alternate route.

We went to Montmartre to see the Scare Coeur cathedral. It is visible from most of the city since it sits on the top of a large hill and is bright white. Most old European Catholic churches are impressive and this one didi not disappoint. It was actually a Sunday, so they were having Mass. I made Nick sit in the pews for the beginning of the service, but only to hear the massive pipe organ play. After a few minutes of music, we left since neither one us is Catholic!

From there, we made our way through the cafes and art kiosks of Montmartre down the hill. We wanted to see the Famous Moulin Rouge. The cabaret shows are in the evening and a bit expensive, but we at least saw the exterior and now know where it is. After some lunch (and more onion soup) we just saw more of the city and sort of called it a day early. We were both tired from all of the walking that day. We did get some bad news though. We were talking to a couple of young american girls who said that tickets to the Louvre were sold-out for the week! We had every intention of going there tomorrow so that was a bummer.

The next day was to be Nicks last for his trip. We WERE going to go to the Louvre, but the ticket situation made us change our plans. But we at least wanted to go see the glass pyramid entrance to the museum and the surrounding Palais Royale buildings that the actual museum is in. I could see why the tickets were sold out. There were thousands of people waiting in line to get in the museum. After all, it is probably the most famous museum in the entire world so who could blame them. Just to make sure though, we asked one of the many Louvre staff who were guiding and monitoring the tourists. He said that we could actually get tickets if we stood in a particular line. And we did… and we got in! Amazing (but not a miracle). We got to see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and all of the other famous paintings and sculptures. Towards the end of our visit we took some time to navigate the museum and eventually found the section that held the Dutch Masters. They had a very nice collection of Rembrandt which I was appreciative. We were both pretty weary by then and decided we had seen enough (I think we saw almost everything anyway). As we were leaving the plaza, I had decided to take one last photo of the plaza and the crowd. But ….. my iPhone was missing! Somehow, I lost it. Either I was pick-pocketed, or I left it somewhere, but it was definitely gone. After a few moments of panic and being more than a little upset, I settled down and resigned myself that it was indeed gone. Nick and I decided to go get some lunch and I started trying to figure out what I was going to do next. Get a pre-paid phone and go from there I guess. After lunch (and more onion soup), we decided to just go back to the museum and check the lost and found there. Just to make sure. When I got there, I told them what happened and asked if my phone might have been turned in there. The staff just sort of rolled their eyes at me, but checked anyway. They had two phones in the basket. One was mine! A miracle at the Louvre! We were all pretty amazed, including the museum staff!

Lastly, we walked further down along the Seine River to see Notre Dame. It had caught fire years ago and sustained major damage. It has been under reconstruction ever since. It is scheduled to re-open next year, just in time for the Paris Summer Olympics.

So it turned out to be a pretty excellent day. Got to see the most famous painting in the world (the Mona Lisa) in the most famous museum in the world!

Today, Nick and I are going to tour the Rijksmusem in Amsterdam. This museum is one of the finest in the world and also one of my all time favorites as well.

I had considered coming to Europe earlier than the beginning of June because I had heard that the Rijksmuseum was having an amazing exhibit of Johannes Vermeer this year. The exhibit featured 28 of the 36 original Vermeer paintings the exist today (I am not completely sure on those numbers, but they are pretty close). The museum had assembled the collection by having most of the known Vermeer’s loaned to them for the duration of the exhibit. The exhibit ran from February through 3 June, 2023. I inquired about tickets, but the exhibit was completely sold out by the time I found out about it. So instead of coming to Europe in May, I ended up coming in early June instead to better align with Nick and Steve’s respective visits.

All was not lost however. The Rijksmuseum has a number of Vermeer’s as a part of their permanent collection, and had arranged to keep a few of the loaned paintings for a while longer. The most famous of the Vermeer paintings, The Girl with the Pearl Earring was only loaned to the museum until late March, so I was not going to be able to see that regardless, unless I would go to The Hague where the painting is originally from. Alas, this did not come to pass, but the Museum is always worth going to visit regardless of the loaned exhibits.

The most famous painting in the Rijksmuseum is the “Night Watch” by Rembrandt. I knew that this painting was restored, but I miss calculated since it was still being restored and not yet finished. So the painting was surrounded by scaffolding and machines and other equipment for the restoration effort, but still offered a view of this amazing work of art.

Even with the restoration equipment, the Night Watch is still pretty amazing. It takes up an entire wall it is so large.

Nick and I toured the entire museum before I realized that somehow, we missed the Vermeer’s! So we backtracked and found them. There were still six Vermeer’s that were either part of the Rijksmuseum permanent collection or still on loan from their home museum.

It was a fantastic day at the museum. Tomorrow, we would head for Belgium, but not before we checked off the last thing on our to-do list for Amsterdam. We had to visit the Red Light district! Only to visit though. We were not remotely in the market for anything they were selling. The Red Light district is the famous part of Amsterdam where the Ladies of the Night “advertise” their services in the windows of their “work places”. These ladies of the night actually work all hours of the night and day except for the mid morning. It turned out that we had a difficult time finding the exact location of the Red Light district. We searched quite a while before we found it and were a little disappointed after we did. We were there in the early evening and not many of the “ladies” were advertising. We did see a few, and more of the empty windows where they would be later that night, but we came away with a general idea of the goings-on there. Besides the ladies who were in the side alleys, it was a vibrant neighborhood with lots of restaurants and tourist shops (along with lots of sex shops too). It was all very interesting, a true part of Amsterdam worth the experience.

Belgium wasn’t on the original agenda. But, since Nick and I did not have a rigid schedule, we decided that it was possible to go to Belgium and still see the other things Nick wanted to see. And I wanted to go since I had never been to Belgium and I wanted to drink Belgian ales (my favorite!) IN BELGIUM.

We had the additional benefit of discovering Ghent! We had decided earlier that we did not want to go to Brussels, their capital, but rather go to a smaller city. I am not really sure how we chose Ghent, but I am glad we did since it was a very nice city. It had lots of old buildings including churches and a castle. It had a canal system too, but nothing to rival Amsterdam, but still very nice.

We really liked Ghent. We found a nice, convenient hotel right across from the rail station that made getting around pretty easy for us. It was about a 15-20 minute walk to the older, historical area of town. But as much as we liked it, it was time to move on. Tomorrow, we would invade Paris.

After normandy, we headed back toward Paris and then on to Chambery. I wanted to go to Chambery so I could drop off my bicycle and not have to schlep it around for the next weeks. Nick and I spent a few days based in Chambery.

The first day in Chambery, we just walked around the city as I tried to remember things about the city, where things were, etc. The next day, we took a trip to Chamonix, a famous ski town in the Alps. I had been there a few times before, but I never really spent any time there since I was primarily hiking. I didn’t not remember it being so big and with so many tourists. But it was filled with tourists, no doubt. And for good reason. The French Alps are pretty impressive, Mont Blanc rising immediately above the town.

We spent much of the day there and then drove back to Chambery enjoying the scenery back through the mountain valleys down along the rivers.

On the third day, we decided to rent bikes and ride along the Voie Vert 63 bicycling trail to Aix Les Bains, a town I had ridden to many times 4 years ago. It is a fairly flat route, almost entirely on a dedicated bike path with no vehicles, and finishes riding along the Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake in France.

I had my carbon fiber Cervelo, but it was still in the box, and it would have been unfair to Nick if I rode that bike when he would have to ride the rental that more closely resembled a tank! It was only a twenty mile ride, but it was my first since having my cardiac “event” as I began to call it. I didn’t feel all that great at the finish of the ride, but I did recover this time, so I took that as a positive.

The next day, we said goodbye to Chambery and drove the rental car back to Paris. We stayed the night in Paris before leaving for Amsterdam in the morning. It was a quick trip riding the bullet train. We found a hotel about 20 minutes from the train station called the Sphinx. I say we found it, but the truth is that I had stayed there many years ago and found it to be a nice place, although the stairs were NOT ADA compliant. Saying they were steep would be an understatement! I guess they don’t have an Americans With Disabilities act in Holland.

The first thing you would notice about Amsterdam is the bicycles. EVERYONE rides bicycles. It helps that the city is completely flat, except for the bridges that go over the canals. They commute to work, go shopping, go to the park, everything. No one wears a helmet and the bikes are not very fancy. But so, so many. At an intersection, there will be 100 bikes waiting for the green light and maybe 5 cars. And the bikes come in all sorts of varieties too……

After wandering about the first day and seeing the bikes, canals, old churches and other things, we ended up in Rembrandt Plein (one of the town squares) to have a beer and watch people. Mostly to have a beer though….

The next day we were more focused. I had seen that there was a windmill on the city map so I wanted to go see that since windmills are iconic in Holland. When we first got there, we were looking at it from across a canal and it appeared that there was some construction going on around the mill. Seeing that, I thought maybe we might be able to sneak through the work zone and get an “up close” look at the mill. The construction workers were pretty unconcerned about us, but it wasn’t clear how close we could get. Then I noticed Nick was off to the side talking to a guy so I wandered over. It turned out that Erik was the apprentice “miller” and he wanted to show us the windmill.

He showed us the wind propellers and how to rig them with their sails and then took us inside the mill itself to see the inner workings. This particular mill was set for sawing lumber, as opposed to most that were for milling grain or pumping water. It was one of only 5 lumber “mills” remaining in Holland. They released the brake and we saw the windmill blades actually turning. Unfortunately, the wind was not strong enough to mill any wood that day, but it was pretty incredible to see this ancient work horse come to life. We were fortunate because they only work on the mill on Tuesday and today was in fact Tuesday. We spent hours there, but eventually decided to go get some lunch and see more of the city. But we did tell Erik that we would be back around 4PM to go buy him a beer as thanks for taking the time to show the windmill. It was a great and unique experience.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city looking at whatever caught our attention. Old churches, canals, and Bikes. Amsterdam is one of the great cities of the world.

Ever since I said I was going to France, my friend Nick Covey said he wanted to go since he had never been to Europe. That was great news for me, to have company for the first 2 weeks of the trip. Nick wanted to see some specific things, but was generally accepting of anything interesting that would come up, just enjoying the experience. We rendezvoused at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris on June 7th having taken different flights to get there. Once in our rental car, we decided to first go visit Omaha Beach on the Normandy coast, the site of the Allied Invasion of France known as D-Day. We made it to Caan before running out of day. We got a motel and ate at some American Themed burger/malt shop restaurant. So much for experiencing great french cuisine, right? But it was fine. The next morning, we drove to Omaha Beach. We arrived there on June 8th, just two days after the anniversary of the invasion. There are lots of memorials and a museum to learn about this special place (although the museum was not open while we were there).

The beach at Omaha is very wide. There are high hills just above the beach. It was intimidating to think of all of the young american men running through the shallow water after leaving their landing craft and onto the beach during the invasion. With german troops holding the high ground above the beach and having a clear view of these American troops. The landing had to be at low tide so they could see all of the obstacles and traps that the germans had installed on the beach so they had a long way to go on the beach with virtually no cover until they would reach the base of these hills. We learned all of this because later, we listened to an english historian who was leading a tour group. He also said the the British troops at Sword, Juno, and Gold beach had much easier time of things, and even the American troops at Utah beach as well. Omaha beach was the beach where things did not go well due to many factors according to this particular historian. To say it was emotional would have been an understatement!

If seeing the beach itself was emotional, the cemetery was even more so. Acres and acres of graves. Thousands! I really think these men were part of the Greatest Generation!