Greg on the Go

There are a few things I needed to do before my next significant ride.

First, I needed to do a short recovery ride. This would be to just go out and have an easy spin and loosen up my leg muscles. I’d try to kill two birds with one stone today. An easy ride out to Rumilly while figuring out all of the correct turns to make to get onto the correct roads for when I return to Annecy. I thought I would try to increase my odds of success by looking at some maps. So that ride went just great. Got it all figured out! Except for not exactly recognizing the correct turns to make for the ride back. I ended up on the wrong road back toward Saint Félix, but made a couple of turns and got back on route. Friends who know me and ride with me know this is not uncommon at all, for me to get off-route!

Next thing I wanted to do was to figure out how I might ride up Mont Revard. Mont Revard is a simple 4,000 foot climb to the top of a mountain that is right above Grésy-sur-Aix.

There are multiple routes up Mont Revard. It is pretty straight forward, except for a section between Grésy-sur-Aix and the village of Trévignin. The route gets a little complicated with a maze of roads in this 5 km section (5 Km is about 3 miles if you don’t speak metric). Plus, it was a little on the steeper side so I decided to actually walk these 5 km up to the village of Trévignin, both to just get some exercise, and to judge the actual steepness of the roadway. It turns out that there is pretty good signage along the route to guide you to Trévignin. And while it had some steep sections, it wasn’t anything that was impossible.

So now, the only thing left to do was to actually ride it. I made my first ascent of it by riding the easiest route first. This route goes the long way around the mountain and comes up from the back side. Most of this route was familiar to me. I followed the route to the Col de Plainpalais via the Parc Naturel du Massif des Bauges, which I had ridden before. I did this three years ago when I had defied my doctors orders and rode to the top of this Col. From the Col, the route went up an easy grade for 9 km to the top of Mont Revard.

The grades were not extremely steep so not bad. From the top, I made a loop out of the ride and rode the 19 km down through Trévignin and then right into Grésy-sur-Aix. This way, I got to preview the route above Trévignin to the top. All in all, it was a pretty easy ride for a 4,000 foot climb. The grades were all reasonable but made for a longer ride to climb that much. It was a good start to get ready to ride the huge mountains of the Alps that were in my near future.

With the Freemans now gone, and Steve Barson arriving in 3 weeks, I needed to get back on my bike. I hadn’t turned a single pedal stroke in 3 weeks and Steve might just kill me if I don’t regain some cycling form before he gets here.

But first of all, I had to see Julien, the Hotel Manager and my friend. He was away on holiday in Greece when I was here before. I should briefly mention that the Freemans and I had been staying in Chambéry the last couple days. The Freemans had made their reservations there before I found out that Julien did not manage the Budget Ibis Hotel there anymore and that he was now in Grésy-sur-Aix, about 10-15 miles away. The Freemans dropped me off at the B&B Hotel in Grésy-sur-Aix before they left for Paris. Anyway, Julien and I had a big reunion when we got there. It was great to see him again.

I had previously assembled my bike before the freemans had arrived in the 5 days that I preceded them. So I was all set. My first ride was just to ride up to this village named Cusy and then drop down into the Parc Naturel du Massif des Bauges, the equivalent of a State Park in the US. Not quite a National Park, but very scenic. I had previously ridden there in past visits to France so I knew the way. Since I hadn’t ridden in a few weeks, I thought that would be enough for the first ride. Especially since here was only a short, not very steep climb out of the bottom up to Cusy, then a nice downhill all the way back to the Hotel. It was a nice part to my training.

My next ride, I would try something a little more challenging. I would try to ride to Annecy, a very scenic touristy town that I had been to a few times before. Riding to Annecy from Chambéry was about a 90 mile ride and it was difficult the time I did that (once), but starting from Grésy-sur-Aix, it would be shorter, and easier, right?

I was pretty sure I knew all of the tricky parts of the ride getting to Annecy. Finding the right road from Saint Félix to Rumilly, finding my way through Rumilly to get on the correct road to Annecy, etc. Well, I did not get on the right road to Rumilly. I found my way onto a busier roadway that I had not remembered, so I had to deal with some traffic getting Rumilly which I did NOT enjoy, Then, it took me a while to get my bearing and get through Rumilly to the Rue des Annecy (the road to Annecy). All this took time, and it was starting to get hot, well I mean HOT (remember the heatwave?)

The road from Rumilly starts with a moderate uphill climb for about 30 minutes up to Marcellaz-Albanais, some rolling hills to Chavanod, then flat to Seynod, and finally a downhill to Annecy. I made it to Seynod! That was it. Too hot, not enough fluids, not enough calories. I stopped at a Boulangerie and had a coke and an eclair to get some fluids and calories, but there wasn’t much I could do about the heat.

The return ride was tough. And I still couldn’t find the right road from Rumilly to Saint Félix! I got on this road that was going in the approximate direction I wanted to go, but after a while, I didn’t have the slightest idea where I was or where I was going. About the time I was going to panic, I saw a road sign for Aix-les-Bains (which is next too Grésy-sur-Aix) so I started to feel better. I still wasn’t quite sure about where I was or how far I needed to go, but all of a sudden, I popped out in Grésy-sur-Aix. I made it. Whew! I spent the next 5 hours fighting off leg cramps and was generally miserable. I re-learned a valuable lessen today. More fluids, more calories.

The next day, I went to the sporting goods store and bought a lot of Cliff Bars and other nutritional bike food! I would not make that mistake again I hope. And I also figured out that part of my recovery for any longer ride was going to involve Beer! Ooh la la

Leaving Arles, we set out for Chambéry. I needed to show the Freemans my “home away from home”. Plus, they needed to drop me off since they would be taking the car back to Paris in a couple days so I needed to get back to Chambéry, of course!

We arrived in town pretty early, early enough for lunch. After lunch, we just walked around the old village of Chambéry, looking at the shops and trying to find shade since we were still having the heatwave. We got a sense of what the village was like, but many of the shops were closed since it was a Monday and that is the culture of France, that many businesses are closed on Sunday and Monday after being open on Saturday (and maybe part of Sunday). We did manage to find an outdoor restaurant/bar that served Belgian style ales, so we had to stop (or rather I had to stop).

The next day, we headed for the mountains. Everyone needs to see Chamonix and that is exactly where we went, Chamonix in the shadow of Mont Blanc. And this is what I told the Freemans… that they needed to see Chamonix. I think they were a little bit skeptical of my enthusiasm.

We drove the route that goes through Megève which is a twisty, curvy road. It is a slow drive with the windy roads and slow moving traffic along the way. But it is French ski country, so it was scenic. Eventually, we arrived in Chamonix, but I convinced them that we should keep driving up valley toward the border with Switzerland. We did stop at one of the small villages along the way to get something to tide us over until lunch later in the day. We drove up to a small pass and had a short downhill drive until we came to the Swiss border. Technically, we were not allowed to drive the rent-a-car across any borders, so I parked the car in a wide spot in the road and let Lee, Mary, and Nicole walk across the border so they could brag that they went to Switzerland too. They didn’t do much except to say they went there.

Returning to Chamonix, we found one of the main tourist areas which consisted of carless streets with restaurants and shops of all kinds. One of the shops was a sun glasses shop which happened to sell Ray Ban’s. And it just happened that I had a pair of Ray Ban’s that had lost a screw on one of the frame bows (which Lee did a total MacGiver temporary fix). I asked if they had a proper screw to repair them and they said to leave them and come back in 20 minutes. That was just enough time to stroll along the tourist streets and see what Chamonix had to offer. After 20 minutes, we returned to the sun glasses place and they indeed had my glasses repaired. At no cost even. Who said the French were rude!

Time for lunch! There were a lot of choices in Chamonix as you would expect. We chose the Rose Du Pont which turned out to be an excellent choice. It was right next to the Arve River which flows right through the village. It was pretty early in the year, so the river was flowing pretty fast. We saw a few rafts go by as we ate as a matter of fact. During lunch, I think we all agreed that everyone needs to see Chamonix! and they certainly were glad they did.

Well, it was all over but the shouting as they say. We drove back to Chambéry, had dinner and went to the hotel in Chambéry for one last night. Lee, Mary, and Nicole would be leaving in the morning and I would be on my own for a while.

I think we accomplished a lot on our France Road Trip. We saw some of the most well known sights in France, and a few that were off the beaten path (which is always fun). I think the Freemans enjoyed it. I know I did, and it is aways good to see my great friends, especially on an epic vacation!

The next stop on our whirl-wind trip around France as to visit the Famous Pont du Gard. The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman Aqueduct built by their engineers around 2000 years ago. I visited it 3 years ago, but it is worth another visit, especially since Lee is an engineer and would appreciate seeing it. I think Mary and Nicole will enjoy it as well. The biggest reason why we wouldn’t is because it is still blazing hot each afternoon with the current heatwave!

The Pont du Gard crosses over the Gard River and was constructed to provide water to the Roman city of Nîmes. The aqueduct structure is built with several tiers, but the water was carried at the very top tier for engineering reasons.

As part of our visit to the aqueduct, we visited the museum and learned a lot more about it than I had previously known. The Pont du Gard was only one of many structures built as a part of an entire conveyance system to carry water to Nîmes. There are remnants of the rest of the system, but they are not in very good condition and in some instances, not even recognizable anymore. The roman engineers of 2000 years ago had many challenges to this project, mostly that the grade of the channel was very slight and required very precise construction to have any chance of getting the water to flow to Nîmes. The upper channel of the Pont du Gard was even raised slightly after the construction was finished to improve this flow rate.

But even with this modification, the entire system was only operated for 150 years before it was abandoned because of low flows and the resulting high maintenance. When you view the aqueduct today, you notice that one of the ends of the structure seem to be in disrepair. This is because after the water conveyance system was abandoned, the romans began repurposing much of the stone work for other projects. The aqueduct was partially dismantled for this reason. So, as wondrous as the Pont du Gard is to see today, it was considered a failed project in the long run.

After visiting the aqueduct and accompanying museum, we set out for Arles where we had plans to stay. It wasn’t a long drive from the aqueduct, at least in theory. We used our modern technology to guide us to our destination, GPS. We followed the directions the GPS was instructing us to follow, but as we got to town, the directions were guiding us into smaller and smaller streets, and then into small alleys until we reached our destination….. Which wasn’t our planned destination at all. It seemed that we had arrived at the correct address, but not the correct town! And to make matters worse, we were wedged in pretty tight in the alley we were in. And the way forward was blocked by bollards, steel poles set in the ground to prevent cars from entering the alley from the opposite way we came from. The prospect of backing out of the alleys and streets was not very promising, but we were going to have to try it though. What choice did we have?

Just as a wild notion, I got out of our car and went to see if there was any way around the bollards, but the openings were just too narrow for the car. So I did the next best thing. I checked to see if the bollards could be removed by just pulling them out of the ground. And they were! We were simply able to pull them out of their post holes and drive right into a parking area and then exited into the adjacent street. Whew!

I think we ended up in Beaucaire, but I’m not completely sure. But it looked nice a nice town and had a nice restaurants and shops that looked inviting, but we had to backtrack and find our way back to Arles.

Once in Arles (finally), we easily found our real Hotel where we had our reservation. It was right on the Rhone River, the large part of the river with large river cruise boats lining the river banks. But there were not any river side restaurants nearby so we went into the old town and found a nice area with lots of places to choose from to eat. Afterwards, we strolled around the town and saw the ancient Roman coliseum that was built there. But one other thing I wanted to see was the place where Vincent Van Gogh painted one of his most famous paintings, The Café Terrace at Night.

Supposedly, the existing café was recreated to look like the painting, but once we found it, the location looked run down and not anything close to what the painting looked like. But now I know! The silver lining was that we found a section of Arles that looked very upscale with lots of nice restaurants. A place to consider the next time we are in Arles, for sure.

Three years ago, while Steve Barson and I were driving back to Chambéry after Steve had cycled some of the famous mountains of the Pyrenees, we spotted a huge castle in the hills to the east of Toulouse. In the years following, I learned that this castle was called Carcasonne and was a UNISCO World Heritage site. it also happens to be located in the town also called Carcasonne. Huh…Go figure!

Since having seen it from the highway three years ago, I had since wanted to visit it and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. It wasn’t hard to talk the Freemans into it. Mary booked an AirBnB in Carcasonne that was within walking distance to the Castle. But it turns out, it was more than just a castle. It was a complete ancient village similar to Mont Saint Michel, but much bigger and amazingly well preserved. And also just like Mont Saint Michel, the village was full of tourist shops and restaurants although I did not see any hotels within the walls.

We spent most of the afternoon exploring the Village and the area surrounding the castle. It was hot, part of the second major heatwave that hit France for the year, so we had lots of cold beverages and some other treats to cool us off (as much as possible anyway). Nicole and Mary explored some of the many shops looking for gifts for their friends back home while Lee and I walked around along the protective outer wall of the village. We did not go into the castle but saw the outer walls though. It was pretty impressive.

We were getting pretty worn out with the heat of the day beating down on us, so we headed back toward our place,

The next morning, we again walked toward the village, but this time were looking for a place for breakfast before continuing our road trip. We were successful and left Carcasonne with full stomachs.

After leaving Mont Saint Michel, we drove to the town of Dinan. We did not do much there except have dinner, but it looked like it might be an interesting place to further explore. The La Rance River flows through town and our AirBnB was right across the street from it. There were a lot of boats moored along the banks and a local kayak club even had a race while we were there. Looking down river, there was a very interesting bridge that looked like it might have Roman history behind it, but I did not get a chance to research it.

My lasting memory of Dinan is that while it may be an interesting place to visit, it is not place that I enjoyed driving in, at least along the river. There wasn’t much in the way convenient parking and there were lots of places in the roadway where only one vehicle at a time could go through. Timing was everything here. We ended up having to park on the other of the river in a vacant field.

Leaving Dinan the next morning, we drove to the town of Amboise for some much anticipated wine tasting! Amboise is in the Loire River Valley, famous for their fabulous wines they have there. The first thing on our agenda though was lunch! Our reservation at the winery was not until 4 O’Clock. We spotted a nice looking restaurant with a nice outdoor eating area that looked perfect. And it was! We had a very nice lunch there. After getting into our AirBnB, we started looking into the wine tasting reservation we had and how to get there and realized the it was the same place we had lunch. The Caves Ambacia!

The winery is called Caves Ambacia because the winery stores all of it’s wine in man-made caves that were dug into the existing hillside. And it was done centuries ago, and I assume by manual labor. I am taking a bit of creative license here since Caves in french actually means Cellars, but it is more interesting to use the english meaning for “Cave” in the case of Caves Ambacia!

Our wine tasting experience was interesting. We were part of a very International group here. Maybe 15-20 of us from all over. We tasted 3 whites and 3 reds. They explained about various elements of wine quality that was mostly lost on my limited palette. But what was really interesting to me was the cheese and salami pairings that went with each wine we tasted. Various cheeses can drastically change the way you taste white wines and the various salamis we had had a similar effect with red wines. Don’t ask me to explain it, because I cannot, but it was interesting none-the-less and something to consider for further study in the future.

Afterwards, we explored the city a bit. There was a nice part of Amboise that had lots of restaurants and shops that were nice to explore. We settled on a restaurant for dinner, then found an ice cream shop for some dessert. Mmm!

Next on our itinerary was Lourdes. This was a request from Mary and Nicole. Lourdes is a famous place in the Religious world. In 1858, a 14 year old girl named Bernadette Soubirous claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared before her a number of times at the Grotto de Massabielle.

The water found in the Grotto is said top have healing powers. Afterwards, Lourdes has become a historic pilgrimage site with people coming from all over the world to see this famous Grotto and drink water from the emergent spring.

The Virgin Mary had many things to say to Bernadette as a part of her appearances. One of them was an instruction that a Cathedral should be constructed at the site.

We arrived in Lourdes early enough to see much of the Basillica that was thus built. and to go through the Grotto de Massabielle. Mary and Nicole wanted to see more of it the next day, but Lee and I decided that we had seen enough so we made a plan to drop Mary and Nicole off at the Basilica and we would go explore the Cirque de Gavarnie in the nearby Pyrenees mountains.

We drove through Luz-Saint-Sauveurs. This is the way to the famous Col du Tourmalet, but we would not go up there on this trip, but instead went straight south towards the Cirque de Gavarnie. Before we did anything serious though, we had to stop and get a beverage to help prepare us for some moderate hiking in the forest.

After our beverage stop, we took a couple mile hike into the forest to get a closer look at the high peaks and the spectacular waterfall in the area.

When looking at some maps of the Cirque, we also realized that the border with Spain was on the ridge line right above us. I’ve never been to Spain, but i’m getting closer! Just not quite there yet.

By now, Mary and Nicole had seen enough of the Basilica so we cut our hike a bit short and headed back to Lourdes. Just in time for lunch.

We still had a lot of the day left after our lunch, so we consulted our guidebook and found that there were some wineries in the area, namely around the town of Madiran. It actually took a while to drive there but we found the Crouseilles Winery and to our good fortune, they also had wine tasting available. We tasted 6 wines and thought enough of them that we bought 4 of them to enjoy over the next several days of our road trip.

After a full day, we decided to just go to the store and buy something for dinner and eat at our AirBnB for a nice change. Salad and a charcuterie of cheeses and crackers to enjoy. And local wine!

With Normandy and the D-Day Beaches in the rear view mirror, we next went to see Mont Saint Michel. This not to be confused with Chateau Ste. Michel which is a winery in Washington. Mont Saint Michel is an Abbey built just off the French coast and is one of the most visited sights in France.

When I say that it was built just off the coast, that is literally where it is. You can walk to it at low tide and many people do as a matter of fact. They even offer “sand tours” where you see lots pf people walking through the tidal flats and sand, but I honestly have no idea what they are looking at.

Most people including us took a bus to the island. You can either walk or take the bus. No cars especially since there is no place to park or even a place to turn around.

So how do the buses do it? Turn around? They don’t! They have a drivers seat at each end of the bus. When they get to the abbey, they just get up and go to the other end of the bus and drive out the opposite way. Genius!

As I mentioned, the Abbey is situated on the off-shore island. The abbey occupies the upper portion of the island, but there is also an ancient village that surrounds the lower part of the island below the Abbey. This village now is home to tourist shops, restaurants, hotels and whatever else is needed to support the thousands of tourists who visit each day.

The village is free to visit and walk around, but the Abbey charges a fee. And there are lots of stairs to hike up to get there too, so we even got to work on our fitness!

As you walk through the Abbey, you learn a lot about the history of it. The abbey was not always the majestic structure that exists today. It started off as a very simple church and has evolved over many centuries of expansion and increasing religious significance to the area. We very much enjoyed our visit to the Abbey and surrounding village. But I still have no idea what everyone is looking at in the tidal flats!

We all had a fabulous time in Paris. How could you not as long as you like history, sight seeing, wine, and good food. But as much as we liked Paris, we had more to do and see in France. So we all piled into a taxi and headed back to the CDG Airport where we would rent a car and go on a road trip around western and southern France. We would try to hit all of the destinations that Lee, Mary and I had come up with for an itinerary.

First stop, the Normandy Coast. Nick Covey and I had been there in 2023, but I thought the Freemans should see and experience the emotions that are unavoidable at the site of the WWII D-Day invasion. We first went to a sight west of Omaha Beach where there was a battery of German artillery guns. There were part of an entire defense system the Germans had established from Norway to France.

After hiking to several of these artillery installations, we continued eastward to Omaha Beach where we walked through the American Military Cemetery where thousands of American Servicemen are buried. The buried were from the entire post D-Day part of the war, not just those who died on D-Day itself and the subsequent days afterward. I asked one of the docents if there was a portion of the cemetery that was dedicated to the D-Day casualties, but she said that there wasn’t such an area: that it was somewhat random.

Next was a visit to the Omaha beach itself where American soldiers landed at one of two beaches on the Normandy Coast. The tide was in so we could not fully experience the vast distance these troops had to negotiate to get to the slightest bit of cover from Germans firing at them.

After a lunch at one of the restaurants in the area, we traveled again easterly around a headland to Utah Beach. Utah Beach was the other beach that American troops landed at. By this time of day, the tide was going out so we all got a sense of what these troops were up against.

Utah Beach was difficult, but nowhere near as difficult as Omaha Beach was. The Germans flooded all of the nearby fields to make it harder to advance past the beach, but progress was easier. If you ever watched the series Band of Brothers, Utah Beach was the operation that Easy Company was supporting, although inland from the beach itself.

There is a museum at Utah Beach that is Excellent! Lots of the history and strategy of the Utah Beach landing and lots of displays and maps.

We all left Normandy with a sense of history and feeling somber.

I drove to Paris a day ahead of time to meet the Freemans. That was because they were arriving early in the morning. We had a big reunion at the airport. It was even bigger since Nicole, their daughter was joining us for the trip.

Mary had booked a hotel on the left bank of Paris for three days of sight seeing. I was never sure what the “Left Bank” was all about but it is regarded and the more Bohemian area of Paris. It turns out to be defined as any part of Paris on the south side of the Seine River. The hotel was centrally located close to most of the popular attractions in Paris so we didn’t have to take the metro too often. But we did take it the first day since we were headed to Euro-Disney. Nicole and Mary are big Disney fans and wanted to go through the Disney Village and see the shops. We also ended up having lunch there. After Disney, we headed back to Paris and started looking for a place to get some dinner. It turns out we were just a few blocks away from Rue Cler, an area of Paris made semi-famous by Rick Stieves and his European travel books. It indeed was a nice part of Paris with lots of good restaurants and interesting shops and markets along the street. And almost in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

The next day, we wanted to go to The Louvre, the most famous museum in the world (in my opinion), but reserved tickets were all sold out. This turns out to not be a problem since in the past, you could just get in a long line and eventually get in without a reservation. For some reason, the museum was closed in the morning til about 11:00. I found this out by asking a museum docent who also informed us that they had changed their entrance policy for the Summer months to only allow entrance to those with reservations. I guess it wasn’t going to workout to see the Louvre! Or Versailles either for that matter since those tickets were all sold out as well. So we scrabbled and came up with a Plan B. Plan B was the Musée d”Orsay, the second most popular museum in Paris and where we could get in. And frankly, I think it is a really fantastic museum in its own right, including the building itself which is a remodeled train station. It also happens to have as part of its collection my favorite Van Gogh painting, the “Stars Over the Rhone in Arles”

The museum also has an impressive collection of French Impressionists as well. It was a nice day at the museum.

Next, it was off to see the Notre Dame Cathedral. This was special since it had only recently reopened after years of restoration that was necessary after the huge fire that burnt much of it. And the restoration was amazing! You really could not tell what might have been damaged and what wasn’t they did such a fantastic job with precise attention to detail.

By this time, we are getting pretty worn out from a busy day sight seeing. On to dinner, a popular theme for us on our French Tour!

The next day, we braved the excessively long line and rode to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It is an impressive view of the city from up there. Worth the 2 hour long wait in line.

Our last day in Paris, we took a stroll down the Champs Elysées, the famous avenue that ends at the Arc de Triomphe. It is very high rent! We even saw a Bugatti Chiron, a car that sells for over 3 million dollars! By this time, I think we wore Mary and Nicole out so they headed back to the hotel. Lee and I went on a walk to the Saint German area to find the Abbott Used Book Store, an English only book store! I wanted to get some more books to read since my used book store in Chambéry was not there anymore. We found it, but only with the assistance of GPS! Then we had a late lunch and wine at one of the MANY (thousands?) sidewalk restaurants in Paris. And later, on to dinner on Rue Cler!

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.