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 … [Read more...]
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: 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 … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]
Sitting in the Saddle
For years I've been watching the supreme athletes of the Tour de France pedal up the passes in the Pyrenees--and been awestruck by the scenery that surrounds them. Tomorrow, I'm heading to France with my bike (and my husband) to cycle up some of those same summits. I won't be racing, but rather, basking in the natural wisdom of mountains, the pleasurable grit of a challenge, and the daily succor of French food and wine. I'll be discovering a part of France I've never been to before. I'm not sure what I'll be moved to write about yet, but I've been thinking that if bicycles … [Read more...]