Greg on the Go

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.

Last year, I was thinking about getting older. Not a fun thing to contemplate. I know in the back of my mind that the ability to ride a bike at a high enough level to ride in the mountains is not going to last forever, and really, I’m not not nearly as competent as I used to be in that regard even today.

So I started thinking about another trip to Europe since I still have some things I would like to accomplish while I still have SOME ability. Namely, riding the Passo dello Stelvio and the Passo Gavia in the Italian Alpes. These are famous, and very difficult rides, for people of any age. Also, in the back of my mind, I was also thinking of the rides that I wanted to do in the French Alpes that I was unable to do 3 years ago due to a medical condition. And lastly, I thought doing these rides when I am 69 sounded easier than when I would be 70! So, I started thinking more seriously about another trip to France and also to Italy.

Once I sortta got it in my mind, I casually mentioned this to my friend Steve Barson who went with me to France 3 years ago. I did not think for a minute that he would be able to go since his last trip I would consider a ONCE in a lifetime trip. But I had to at least let him know what I was thinking and let him at least say no, but thank you. But Steve’s wife is pretty amazing in her own right and said that it would be alright. Well, I guess I need to REALLY think about this seriously.

Next, another really good friend of mine, Lee Freeman who I knew from my Rocket Scientist days at Rocketdyne had come up to Wenatchee to visit. I mentioned to him that I was probably going to France and we starting thinking that Lee and his family might be interested in a car tour of France as a part of my trip. Lee went home, talked to his wife Mary and they liked the idea.

Looks like I am going to France and Italy this year.

Once back in France and Chambéry, I found myself in the midst of the first heatwave of the summer. French heatwaves are pretty brutal…because no one has air conditioning.

I spent the last of my rides going out to the park with the first lake I found on the way to Albertville and would go swimming to cool off.

This turned out to be a double edged sword for me. While the water was extremely refreshing, the hour long ride back to Chambéry was brutal in the 95-100 degree heat.

I noticed something else. The sunflower fields were drying up.

With the sunflowers wilting, I took it as a sign that my time in France was drawing to a close. Plus, I was approaching my 3 month tourist visa limit!

I went down to the train station and purchased my train ticket to Paris. The lady at the ticket desk told me that if I bought a senior citizen discount pass for 25 Euro, I could save 45 euro on my train fare. Deal! She told me that I would have to show my passport along with my ticket to the train conductor.

I got the bike all packed up and my backpack loaded with all my clothes and got a taxi ride to the train station. It was a Sunday and my flight left the next day from Paris Charles DeGaul (CDG) airport. First I took the commuter train from Chambéry to Lyon. From there I would take the Bullet Train to the Gare de Lyon Train station in Paris, then take the metro (subway) out to CDG and get a hotel near the airport. Simple enough, right?

On the train to Lyon, the conductor came by to collect tickets and I had my passport ready for inspection. He never looked at it so I laid it down on the table in front of me to show my ticket. It is a relatively short ride to Lyon and we got there without incident. I had about an hour to kill before the next train got to Lyon so I figured I’d get something to eat at the train station. That’s when I figured out that I LEFT MY PASSPORT ON THE TRAIN! And the train had already left the station. $#&* ! And you cannot board an international flight without a passport! $#&* !

I Sulked for a few minutes and then started to put together a plan on how to resolve this HUGE problem. The American Embassy in Paris. They would help!

The next morning, I got up at my airport hotel and headed for the Embassy. I followed the signs to the entrance for Visas and Passports and found it to be closed. What? How could this be? This was not part of the plan. Turns out, it was Labor day. Even though I was in France, American Embassy employees still observe American holidays.

The next morning, I again went down to the Embassy. Today, there was a huge line to get into the Visa and Passport entrance. Finally, I got to the gate and the guard asked for my passport. I explained that was the reason that I was here, because I had lost it and needed to get a replacement. He asked if iI had an appointment and said that I did not. He gave some information and said that I needed an appointment. Great. Another day lost. This was Tuesday and the first appoint available was on Thursday. I went back to my airport hotel and filled out the appointment paperwork and submitted to electronically to the embassy and got an appointment for 8:30 Thursday morning. Now I had nothing to do until Thursday so I took advantage of the free day to do some things I had never done in Paris before. I guess it you are struck somewhere, Paris isn’t too bad a place. I found a Monet museum that I hadn’t been to before so that was a nice start to the day.

Next was the Pierre and Marie Curie Museum. It was the actual lab where Marie Curie conducted her experiments on radiation (that eventually led to her demise).

The last thing I did was to explore the Latin Quarter. I had heard about it, but never had been there. It was a vibrate area with shops and restaurants and lots of people just hanging around. It looked like a place to explore further in the future.

Thursday morning, I was early to the Visa and Passport line. I got in right away. The first thing was to get photos taken in the little photo, self serve, kiosk. I eventually got it all figured out how to use it, then helped another woman who was also having some problems with it. Mostly, she did n to the exact change to operate the machine so I gave her some coins and got her going with the process.

Next, I had my appointment. That part went very smooth. They informed me that I would be issued a temporary passport, good for one year and I could pick it up after one o’clock that afternoon. Really? That was pretty fast after all. So, I had to pass a few hours, so I walked through the famous Jardin desTuileries. Next, I found a place for lunch. By then it was one o’clock so I went to pick up my brand new, temporary passport. It was ready as promised! And the lady who I helped was waiting for me so she could thank me again for helping her out with the photos and the rest of the process. She was going to Le Mans to see family. We wished each other Bon Voyage (Good travels).

I immediately got on the metro and headed for the airport where I knew I could have internet access to start looking for a flight home. I found an actually reasonably priced flight on Tahitian Airlines for the next day! 10 hours to Los Angeles, then a connecting flight to Seattle, and finally a shuttle ride back to Wenatchee. I had overstayed my visa by 5 days, but no one mentioned it as I went through all the checkpoints, etc. My seat on the Tahitian Airlines flight was in the next to last aisle on the plane, but they served free drinks for the entire flight. That could get interesting, but I controlled myself.

And finally, I was back, safe and sound in Wenatchee. An end to another nice trip.

POST SCRIPT: The staff at SNCF (French Rail) found my passport and mailed it too me in the USA. Of course it was null and void, but I had about 60 US dollars in it. That was nice of them to do that for me.

Since I am in Europe, I wanted to take the opportunity to go visit some friends who had moved to Germany a few years ago. I met Nick Chambers through my work at Link Transit and my electric trolley project. Nick was a freelance journalist at the time who specialized in Electric Vehicle technology and actually lived right in Wenatchee. He wrote a fabulous story about our project for Scientific American (on-line version) and actually make me sound pretty intelligent with his editing. Thank you Nick!

Nick is married to a German wife and has 2 children. They decided to move back to Germany, mostly to take advantage of the country’s policy of providing a FREE college education to their citizens. What a concept. Anyway, they live outside of Augsburg in Bavaria and I went to visit them.

My trip trip started with the always exciting trip on the Bullet high speed train to Augsburg. I stayed in Augsburg, but made arrangements to meet the Chambers the next day. My visit happened to coincide with Augsburg’s local version of Oktoberfest so that is where we went! Not nearly as big as the huge festival in Munich, but very enjoyable. The weather was a little rainy so that kept the crowds down which as OK with us.

We did what you are supposed to do at Oktoberfest, the celebration of beer making….We drank beer, and ate pretzels too. Nick also explained to me the German Beer Purity Law of 1516. This states that beer can only be made with water, malt, barley and hops. Other than that, it cannot be called “Beer”. So Germans just call other variations something other than “Beer”. A “Shandy” is beer and lemonade. A “Diesel” is beer mixed with Coca-cola. That sounds rather disgusting, but we tried it and it was actually pretty good.

Next, we went to the Riegele Wirtshaus for some authentic German cuisine and more beer! Nick said the the Riegele Wirtshaus was the last brewery in Augsburg that had not been bought by corporation and was still family owned since 1884. Good all the way around.

Lastly, we went to the Chambers house to see where thy lived. It was on the outskirts of Augsburg in the country. Very nice. The visit was too short, I was hopping on the train the next day, but it was great to have seen them and know that they are doing well.

Riding around the roads and paths to Albertville and Grenoble was getting me in better cycling condition, definitely. I was feeling pretty good and it was now approaching the 3 month mark since I had experienced the inflammation of my heart. My doctor said that was how long I had to take it easy for a full recovery. So, I am going to try a small pass (Col) to ride. Don’t tell my doctor!

Having ridden out past Aix-les-Bains and out toward the Parc des Bauges in the past, I know there is a route that goes up to the Col de Plainpalais and makes it round trip back to Chambéry. This I would now try. From Aix-les-Bains, you ride up a pleasant tree-lined road to the village of Cusy, then down a slight grade to the next village of Le Pont. From there, the road starts going upward through a short series of switchbacks that I had ridden before to the village of Lescheraines. Then a simple 11 Kilometers to the Col de Plainpalais. It is not a very steep climb, but the first I have attempted for the entire time I have been in France (Doctor’s orders, remember?). You ride through a series of 4 switchbacks before the final straightaway to the Col.

After the summit, it is a moderately steep descent down to Chambéry for 15 Kilometers, but with some nice scenery along the way. This turned out to be a nice route to ride. If I had to say one negative thing about it, it was that there are no bike paths along this route, but the roads are lightly traveled. There are probably more cyclists than vehicles along the way past Lescheraines.

So that went pretty well, all in all. No heart attacks or even discomfort. I am taking that as a good thing and that I am basically fully recovered from my cardiac event! WooHoo! But still, don’t tell my Doctor!