We knocked on Edouarad’s door after wrangling our bikes into a contorted position that would prevent them from rolling down the sloped gravel driveway.  After a short time, Edouard answered the door with a smile on his face as usual.  Aude came to the door shortly after, with their two children alongside.  The graciously helped […]

Having had little in the way of camping options the last night, we woke up on the side of a mountain which for once required not much more than a descent to arrive back in the river valley that we so enjoyed yesterday.  We rolled out of our campsite to the sound of the sheep’s […]

After a good breakfast this morning  and a slow packing up process after being stationary for a few days, we rolled out of our camp at the base of the Alpe d’Huez.  Although the mountains had caused me a fair bit of angst, I was actually sad to be leaving their towering majestic atmosphere and […]

Bree: Waking up this morning, it was once again ‘race day.’ Time to do yet another ride that seemed pretty far beyond my abilities, but I suppose that has become the new normal since we left our comfortable suburban life to ride our bikes full time.  We were in no hurry to get on the […]

I woke up with the sun- pretty much as always these days, but today we gratefully had nowhere to go.  I rolled over and went back to sleep  for two solid hours.  By the time I finally crawled out of the tent, I realized that I felt more or less like I had been run […]

As an addendum to Ben’s post yesterday, I just wanted to mention that the alps have been on Ben’s Europe list from the get-go, and as we planned this trip, we put lots of stars on the map regarding places we thought we’d like to make it to.  Of course, the Alp d’Huez was one […]

Our first views of the Alps last night had me excited for todays ride.  Add on the fact that we were not so fond of our capmground as well as the heavy cotton that surrounds seemingly every riverside campground, and we were ready to hit the road. After the arduous process of waking up (Bree […]

I slept a bit fitfully last night, all night wondering where I was and where Ben was, but I suppose that is part of the territory when you change locations as often as we have been lately.  For whatever reason,  I woke up just before dawn and when it was finally light enough outside to […]

Today began with 2 croissants, a baguette, and some cheese from our favorite mini market just outside of our campsite.  When I checked in at reception, I failed to note that we couldn’t check until after 9:00 am, which completely thwarted our plans to get on the road early which seems to be working out […]

After a very long night without a single breath through my nose, I was ready for the day to start.  Sitting up did not prove a better position to clear my sinuses, though, so I headed off to take a shower at the block that actually WAS functional but nowhere near our tent.  I was […]

Monday morning we awoke to what might have been the best sound ever heard.  Silence.  The wind had abated in the night, so we counted ourselves as fortunate and hit the road as early as we could. We had anticipated a stiff climb into the gorges today and were glad to know we had a […]

As we gratefully watched the clouds roll out, we had high hopes for improved weather tomorrow. Instead, I laid awake most of the night listening to the wind howl through town and across our little campground. With everything making so much noise, I just wanted it to be morning so that I could get up […]