Tourmalet trounce

We heard Tourmalet was a fiercely challenging climb and that many a Tour de France has been decided on it. Well, climbing is believing, apparently. We saved this monster pass for last on accident, and it lived up to its reputation yesterday.

I didn’t take many photos since my energy was going towards getting myself and my heavy but trusty touring bike up the hill. Here are a few images:

John on last switchback before summit of Tourmalet

John on last switchback before summit of Tourmalet

image

The view down the other side of the pass--in the Tour they climb both approaches, sometimes in one day!

The view down the other side of the pass–in the Tour they climb both approaches, sometimes in one day!

Pedaling backwards in time, the day before Tourmalet, we tackled the Col d’Aspin,another Tour mainstay, but a much gentler climb.

Encouragement for the pros is still visible as the amateurs ride by

Encouragement for the pros is still visible as the amateurs ride by

Almost there!

Almost there!

Team Berkeley

Team Berkeley

After descending Col D'Aspin, we crossed this sweet, pastoral valley to the next climb, Col d'Hourquette D'Ancizan

After descending Col D’Aspin, we crossed this sweet, pastoral valley to the next climb, Col d’Hourquette D’Ancizan

Watch video clip

Morning light on Col d'Aspin

Morning light on Col d’Aspin

Posted in bike touring, pyrenees | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Photo moments from the Pyrenees

 

Me all geared up for the rain at Col d'Aubisque

Me all geared up for the rain at Col d’Aubisque

Kalima and Bill on a soggy summit

Kalima and Bill on a soggy summit

Traffic

Traffic

Beauties

Beauties

Pyrenees dog festival at Argeles Gazost

Pyrenees dog festival at Argeles Gazost

View from Terrace in Argeles Gazost, our base for many fabulous rides

View from Terrace in Argeles Gazost, our base for many fabulous rides

And then we drive to Bagneres du Luchon, another base. This was the view from our hotel room the first night, during which we hardly slept because of drunkards shouting and fighting in the square below.

And then we drive to Bagneres du Luchon, another base. This was the view from our hotel room the first night, during which we hardly slept because of drunkards shouting and fighting in the square below.

That's Spain, which we reached via the Col du Portillon

That’s Spain, which we reached via the Col du Portillon

Today, Sunday the 22nd, the autumn equinox, we rode to the Col du Peyresourde, climbed this July in the Tour de France. This is the valley we pedaled up.

Today, Sunday the 22nd, the autumn equinox, we rode to the Col du Peyresourde, climbed this July in the Tour de France. This is the valley we pedaled up.

 

And had lunch of omelettes and frites

And had lunch of omelettes and frites

Me, John, Bill at Peyresourde

Me, John, Bill at Peyresourde

Peyresourde pass cafe proprietor showing us his "casse têtes"-- brain teaser games...

Peyresourde pass cafe proprietor showing us his “casse têtes”– brain teaser games…

...which we weren't so good at solving

…which we weren’t so good at solving

...and back home to Luchon--time for laundry!

…and back home to Luchon–time for laundry!

 

Bread is as central to French culture as suffering is to Buddhism, so we enjoyed this sign!  OK, à bientôt mes amies!

Bread is as central to French culture as suffering is to Buddhism, so we enjoyed this sign!
OK, à bientôt mes amies!

 

Posted in bike touring | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pyrenees Act 1 Scene 1

What could be better than riding in France? Riding in France with friends!

Friends Bill Stewart and Kalima Rose arrived in Toulouse on Sept 14. On the 15th, we loaded up the bikes in Toulouse on the very narrow street outside our hotel. A tourist train snaked by, and several cars that I never thought would have fit without taking off a mirror, or a handlebar.

4 bikes and a Peugot

4 bikes and a Peugot

We arrived in Argeles-Gazost, a great place to base ourselves for rides over many well known Tour de France peaks.

 

Arriving in Argeles-Gazost

Arriving in Argeles-Gazost

Unfortunately, John had developed a nasty cough by then which is still lingering despite a visit to a local doctor and a prescription for antibiotics. Yes, maybe it’s viral, but with John’s myeloma, we don’t take chances. The cough sounds like it is coming from his feet.

He has been chauffeuring us to the starts of our rides, allowing us to do more manageable distances and getting out to see the views outside the hotel room.

imageHe is trying to keep a beneficial attitude, but we are here on this Pyrenees trip because he dreamed it up. We are riding, and he is hacking and lying in bed with muscle aches. I was sick like this on a bike trip we did once in Italy–also preceded by rainy weather–and it was only so consoling that we were staying in a castle and surrounded by Tuscan hills. He is with us in spirit, I know, but I miss him on the rides. We’ve been married twelve years and riding together steadily all that time, so his absence on these mountain passes is profound for me, down to my toes.

That said, I can’t really imagine riding anywhere more beautiful. The Tour de France riders can hardly take it in, they are in so much pain and so focused on their competitive goals. But I’m not competing with anyone, and it’s lovely. The first ride in our Pyrenees tour started at the top of the Col de Spandelles. Here we are with all of our clothes on, preparing to descend.

At Col du Spandelles

At Col du Spandelles

Here are the views from that descent. Imagine mountain stream sounds in your ears, the dinging of sheep and cow bells.

Descending Col de Spandelles

Descending Col de Spandelles

Then we rode up the Col du Soulor (altitude 1474 meters). The feeling is so expansive you are swept up the mountain by it, pedal turn by pedal turn.

Col du Soulor

Col du Soulor

Col du Soulor

Col du Soulor

Descending Col du Soulor

Descending Col du Soulor

Ride 2 in the Pyrenees was yesterday, the 17th, from a little town called Gédre, steadily climbing up a long valley to the Cirque de Troumouse, where I was astonished to find cows at that elevation, 2125 meters.

From Gedre to Cirque de Troumouse

From Gedre to Cirque de Troumouse

image

Cirque de Troumouse

Cirque de Troumouse

What will we do today? That remains to be worked out, but I am sure it will be spectacular!

Posted in bike touring | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Looking forward and back

I could list many favorite things about La France. The graceful language, fun to speak and even more fun to listen to, the relentlessly edible food and drinkable wine, the long history and beauty of the country. The joie de vivre par-tout.

Every day we pass through many small towns, and I’m always struck by how well cared for the homes are–even a crumbly hundred year old stone farmhouse will be dotted with flower beds and decked out with colorful shutters, blue and orange and red. It warms my heart as I pedal past.

Arriving in and exiting towns, however, is decidedly not one of my favorite things. Many people all trying to get somewhere on teeny, tiny streets. The leisure of the lunch hour is nowhere in evidence. It’s dog-eat-dog, or car-eat-bike. You muscle through, with a little prayer that you will emerge intact, pointed in the right direction.

Leaving Sarlot Le Caneda, after staying two nights to work around the rain, we managed to ruffle the feathers of a numbers of drivers, getting in their way as we tried to navigate to the bike shop for some air in our tires. The bike shop was closed, and just for good measure, a bee stung my ring finger to bid us farewell. Ouch.

Our days in the saddle have been great. We typically start around what we call “the crack of 11.” We ride through gorgeous countryside on relatively quiet roads. Castles pop up everywhere. Cows watch us, chewing their cud. Sometimes cars, or other cyclists, pass and give a thumbs up. Yesterday I rounded a corner and came upon a puddle of sheep, lounging in a pile, heads resting on flanks. I stopped to take a photo and they watched me cautiously but then decided I couldn’t be trusted and dispersed, to my disappointment. Once one of them turned tail, that was it, they all did.

I have a rear view mirror that attaches to my helmet–very helpful when touring. I’ve been thinking how it’s always important to see both in front of you and behind you on the road, and in life. You can’t just look in one direction. Well, you can, of course, but why would you want to? You’d miss so much.

Tomorrow is the last day of riding in this region–the Dordogne, Lot and Cele valleys–and then we return to Toulouse to meet friends and head to the Pyrenees! Woo hoo!

My ride, fully loaded

My ride, fully loaded

Let's see, I think we're here...

Let’s see, I think we’re here…

Descent to Rocamadour

Descent to Rocamadour

Castle #999

Castle #999

Sheep skedadeling

Sheep skedadeling

View from our room in a 14th century home in Figeac

View from our room in a 14th century home in Figeac

image

Limestone cliff house on the Célé river

Limestone cliff house on the Célé river

Posted in bike touring, cycling | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Quick hit

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3zBFoEkCoyo&feature=youtube_gdata_player&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3zBFoEkCoyo%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player

Day 7 of a 9-day ride. Too wiped to write much, but here is some footage captured of our climb out of a lovely medieval town called Rocamadour.

 

Posted in bike touring | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Castle in a Raindrop

Self service wine bar in Sarlat

Self service wine bar in Sarlat

And I guess I should include wine in that subject line, since you can even help yourself in Sarlat-Le-Caneda, where we welcomed the wine and dry hotel room after getting completely drenched on the road. So wet my shoes were squishy. We have rain gear, but with this grande pluie it didn’t matter. Dinner at the bistro across the street was delightful. We were famished, because in addition to the rain-drubbing, we had been unable to eat properly all day. One serious pleasure, and challenge, of bike touring in France is food. Riding 40 kilometers on coffee and a croissant has never worked well for me. I’m a Zen breakfast kind of girl—-three bowls, a mix of sweet and salty, and some protein.

Lunch hours here are kept to schedule–between noon and 2 or 2:30. By 3pm you are out of luck unless you can find a bar open that serves food. Of course, you could self-provision, but that requires organization and planning too, and adds weight.

image

Dinner in Sarlat

Dinner in Sarlat

Yesterday we left the bike bags at the hotel and rode a loop into the countryside, lousy with castles. We found ourselves in prime cyclist territory, in the middle of an amateur race of some sort.

Doorway to Domme

Doorway to Domme

The technicolor view from Domme

The technicolor view from Domme

image

…and out the door to DommeApproaching Castelnaud la Chapelle -- note the rain clouds overhead

Approaching Castelnaud la Chapelle — note the rain clouds overhead

 

The sky threatened, but it didn’t unleash on us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Animal spirits

This kitten made my morning yesterday in Les Eyzies

image

Chasing his tail and playing

image

After that we visited a PreHistoric Parc, with replicas of scenes from the daily life of Cro Magnon man. I jumped into one of the dioramas to defend this poor wooly mammoth (sorry, blurry pic–John is good at putting together bikes, not so good at framing and focusing photos).

image

The parc was a cool way to interact with a distant time period, and it was blissfully uncrowded. Plus, there were kittens there too:

image

Then there were random magnificent chateaux sightings, like this one along the Vezere river

image

Grey skies and wet conditions this morning in Montignac. A good day to visit nearby Lascaux II, the replica of the famous prehistoric caves. The real site can no longer be visited because, surprise surprise, they were becoming degraded by human presence. I learned at the PreHistoric Parc yesterday that Cro Magnon man “gave nothing to his environment–he exploited it for his use.” Definitely our ancestor.

After Lascaux we push on in rain gear. A bientot….without proper accents until I can figure out how to add them in WordPress!

Posted in bike touring | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Intimacy with all things (on a bicycle)

Our first day in the saddle–a 70km loop starting and ending at Les Eyzies, where there’s a fine restaurant named after Cro-Magnon man and a hotel with a piscine:

image

Here’s a little collection of images and video from the ride, which rolled up and down all day through quiet countryside. Of the many crops being grown we saw corn and more corn, sunflowers, grapes (the three treasures?) and tobacco, a fourth treasure in France. It’s amazing to me how many people still smoke in the world outside of Berkeley, California, which is a lot of world!

I think one of the reasons I’m so enamored of riding a bike is the feeling I have of no separation from my surroundings. I breathe the local air, smell the smells, commune with the cows. In a car, on the other hand, it’s easy to feel removed from others, to feel a sense of opposition and distance. I like the speed of the world from a bike. I like hearing the world. I don’t love the late summer heat (and either do my legs, judging from the heat rash), but I accept it, doing its heat thing.

The photo of John thumbs-down at the street sign is leaving a town called “Mouzens.” Those of you schooled in Zen might appreciate the pun…No Zen in the Dordogne?

Tomorrow we pack up and leave Les Elyzies with panniers full–no more loops but a point-to-point ride from this point out. I’ll say more about that in my next post. Thanks for tuning in. If you have friends who might enjoy the blog please send them along for the ride!

May all beings ride bicycles.

Posted in bike touring, cycling | Leave a comment

A birthday train to Les Eyzies

I woke at 4 a.m. this morning, jet-lagged and hungry, and remembered in a wakeful fog that today is my birthday. Forty four! Perhaps appropriately, we head to Les Ezyies, where there is a Museum of Pre-History. I love the notion of a time before history. In my 44 years, my own personal pre-history, that would be before my parents met, or even before either of them learned to ride a bicycle. There’s something encouraging about pointing towards a place on one’s birthday that is rich with archeological finds from the Paleolithic period–some 10,000 to 200,000 years old. Makes 44 years seem like nothing to get too excited about.

In the late 19th century, during the first bicycle boom, at the age of 53, Francis Willard learned to ride a bicycle. “There’s more taught by the bike than meets the eye & ear,” wrote the leader of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Willard looks a little brittle in this pic of one of her early rides, before she’d mastered balance:

image

But her writings about learning to ride are far from tight. “I began to feel that myself plus the bicycle equaled myself plus the world, upon whose spinning-wheel we must all learn to ride.” May we all be so inspired as to never become brittle of mind, considering ourselves too old to take up something completely new and challenging, as the bicycle was in Willard’s day.

Posted in cycling, women and cycling | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bike-in-the-Box

If only it worked like a Jack-in-the-box and sprung out of the box put together. This is what my Surly steed looks like when it travels to France:

image

And this is what it looks like reassembled and ready for riding:

image

I was the sous-mechanic all morning, cutting off zip ties with nail clippers and handing John the allen wrenches. Midday, we pedaled away from Hotel Croix Baragnon and wandered into a restaurant serving crepes and cidre–cuisine we can’t resist, having sampled much of it on a prior bike tour in Brittany. After that we toured the old town a bit, with plenty of bike riders for company, albeit looking much more stylish than us. I counted exactly three other cyclists wearing helmets.

The church bell is tolling 5pm. Everyone’s out and about. The city has a very lively feel. Our host at Croix Baragnon, after finding out where we live, called Toulouse the San Francisco of France. Unfortunately we move on tomorrow, but we’ll be back!

Posted in bike touring | Tagged | Leave a comment