Greg on the Go

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!

It was nice to see the Tour de France again, complete the ride to Albertville, and start to feel comfortable on the bike for longer distances. So the rest of my stay would be focused on just riding around the area and enjoying the French summer.

I hadn’t made it all the way to Grenoble just yet: only as far as Crolles and the Ninkasi Brewery. I made the 70 mile ride to Albertville, so 80 miles to Grenoble and back seemed within reach. Thus, I would make this a goal for these latest rides. And stop at Ninkasi for lunch of course!

The next ride out past Crolles, I was delighted to discover that a part of the path was newly paved. I thought it was awfully nice of them to do that for me!

Later on, I found a familiar sight. I was surprised that I had never noticed before, but there were some apple trees growing right along the cycling path. Being from Wenatchee, the Apple Capital, I was right at home. [Note: Wenatchee calls themselves the Apple Capital, but there are other places that grow more apples. Just sayin….]

I think I probably mentioned that the ride to Grenoble is almost solely on a dedicated bike path, the Voie Vert 63. The Voie Vert is a national system of bike paths throughout France and a wonderful amenity for riding in France (and Europe for the matter). These bike paths are well marked with signs so even I can (mostly) find my way without getting too lost. Even when there are not any signs, they let you know you are still on the route!

Made it to Grenoble without any real problems since I remembered the route pretty well from 3 years ago. I did make one change to my arrival in Grenoble. Before, I would end up in this park along side the Isére River and just turn around and head back to Chambéry, but this time I figured out how to get into town and find a boulangerie to get a drink and an eclair! Gotta have the eclair now, of course.

The ride back to Chambéry was LONG! It was starting to get hot and stopping at the Ninkasi was a big help although I probably shouldn’t have had the Barrel Aged Belgian Quadruple Ale! (But how can I say no to Belgian style ale?).

The heat of the French summer was now upon us.

Before I took this trip, I looked at the Tour de France route. I guess I didn’t look at it very carefully. First, I did not realize that it was going to go past Lac de Bourget and go through Culoz. Then, as I was walking through Chambéry later, there was a banner saying that the race was going to go right through Chambéry! How did I miss that?

The day before the Chambéry stage, I watched work crews start their prep work for setting up for the race. They marked obstacles in the road and set aside barriers and other necessary safety equipment along the route. The next day, they set up all of those barriers, temporary fencing, and other necessary things before the approximately 2:00 o’clock time when the racers were estimated to ride through town.

I took a position along the route where I could get a good look at the riders as they went past. It was at one of the many round-abouts that exist everywhere in Europe. I measured it… It was exactly 60 steps from my AirBnB to my position along the race course. How amazing is that?

Riding through Chambéry was pretty early in the race, so I didn’t expect that there would be any breakaway riders. They usually wait until further in the race to try to attack for the stage win. So when the riders came through, it was without any breaks and the peloton was pretty relaxed. But exciting to see as usual.

Two hours later, there was not a trace that anything had happened, except for some paint on the road surface. I guess it’s not their first rodeo (or TdF). The race has been to Chambéry many times, even hosting starts and finishes. But I think the biggest cycling event that has ever been in Chambéry was the 1989 World Championship Road Race. And won by Greg Lemond!

Today, I would try for Albertville.

Although I did not complete my ride to Grenoble the other day, I felt that I was riding well enough to make the roughly 70 mile round trip. Plus, there weren’t any steep mountains in the way, only some short, small hills to negotiate getting through Montmélian on the way there.

Since I had ridden a lot of this route already, all I really had to do was to just continue on the bike path and it would go all the way into Albertville. Easy Peasy. And for once, it was easy and I could just ride and enjoy the scenery on the way there.

I rode past the lakes I had previously stopped at and took in some new scenery.

At last, I rode into Albertville. I had mentioned before that Albertville had hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics. Albertville is NOT a large city. Only about 35,000 people live there. They erected a temporary stadium for the events, and took it down right after the Olympics were over. You cannot find any evidence that the Olympics were ever there except for a small park that now exists at the stadium location.

But there are more pressing matters to attend to. Before setting out on the ride, I googled places to get something to eat in town and found the Boulangerie Raphael, close to the bike path. I was starting to get a little concerned about the weather. As I was eating my Ham and cheese baguette sandwich and my eclair(!), it started to sprinkle rain a bit on me, so the ride home might get interesting.

I did manage to get home pretty much dry, but it was a fast paced 35 mile ride. I did stop to take a few photos on the way back though.

So I finally made it to Albertville. I felt pretty satisfied with the 70 mile ride. Mission accomplished!

With some rest days under my belt and having gone to Culoz to see the Tour de France (again), I thought it was time to get back on my bike. My recent rides had gone pretty well for me, so I thought I would attempt a longer ride and revisit one of my old favorite routes, the ride to Grenoble.

Steve and I had ridden part of this route when he was here so I knew the I could find my way to the route easy enough. Now, I just had to remember the rest of the route. It goes through a town named Crolles, and then on to Grenoble. Crolles is an interesting town. It is the European headquarters of Petzl, a company that makes lights for hiking and other products, but that is not the reason I find it interesting. It is about the pronunciation of its name. The french say “Colles” and not pronounce the “R”. Something about the combination of “C” and “R”. They pronounce the “R” in FRANCE for instance. But i digress!

I turns out that I missed a turn that I normally take on the way to Crolles (big surprise, right?) and entered town in a place that I wasn’t familiar with. I stopped to try and get my bearing at one point and noticed that I was right next to a Brew Pub. I was getting hungry (and thirsty) , so what the heck, let’s give this place a try. Well, what a find! The Ninkasi Brasserie had good Pub food and Belgian style ales (my favorite) to boot. It was like being back in the USA, except people were speaking this weird language and drinking a lot of wine, besides the beer!

Ninkasi threw me though. There is a Ninkasi Brewing in the USA, in Eugene, Oregon to be exact. But I could find no relationship to the one in Crolles, a mystery that will go unsolved.

As I was trying to make my order, I was having to trouble communicating that I wanted a plain, simple hamburger, but the french server and I were having trouble. Another server came over to help. She was a young woman, who it turns out grew up and went to school in Connecticut, but was french. And she spoke english without any accent. Well, after all that, the burger and my Belgian Quadruple Barrel Aged Ale were both excellent.

Now, the only real problem was that I had lost all of my cycling momentum and decided to forego the rest of the ride to Grenoble and head back to Chambéry. But I would return to Ninkasi, that is for sure.

All during this time, I had been renting an AirBnB in Chambéry, staying with this nice lady Helene. She did not speak much english and my french has much to be desired, so we did a lot of communicating with cell phone translation apps! But she had a boyfriend who spoke pretty good english and he told me that the Tour de France was coming close to Chambéry. It was going to go through a village called Culoz and was at the north end of Lac de Bourget, the lake that starts along Aix-Les-Bains. Well, how could I pass up this opportunity, being so close and everything.

I starting looking at maps to see exactly how far it would be and how I might get there, not having a car. At first, I thought I might be able to ride my bike to Culoz. It would be a long ride, maybe 40 mile just to get there, and have to ride back, possibly later in the evening. I took a ride out to Aix-Les Bains to take a look at the road to Culoz . I pretty quickly decided against this idea. Parts of the road looked pretty sketchy for riding. Little to no shoulder and lots of traffic.

So next, I looked into a boat shuttle. I had heard there was a boat that traveled up lake. I had known about it because I had (and still do) think about riding the Via Rhona bike trail which is a dedicated bike path that goes from Geneva, Switzerland to the Mediterranean Sea. The Lac de Bourget boat ride connects bike riders to the trail. I went to the ticket office to inquire about it, but quickly found out the schedule was not going to work out, at least to get to Culoz to see the Tour.

But wait! The train goes there. And European trains are awesome. This turned to to be the perfect solution to my problem of getting there, and back. On the day of the TdF stage in Culoz, I got on the train around noon. In one of those small world things, I was sitting across from 2 young women who it turns to were Americans. So I asked where they where from and the were from Bellingham, Washington. And had very recently been to Lake Chelan and Leavenworth, both towns in the county I live in.

Once in Culoz, I, and everyone else on the train started walking to where to race would go through. I was only about a ten minute walk. The race would itself would be exciting, but not until it passed through Culoz. The crux of the day’s stage would be the climb up the Grand Colombier. It was a climb rated Hors Catégoire. (beyond Category) which is the highest rating for climbs. And it would also be a summit finish which are always exciting. It was too far to walk to get there, so we would all just have to read about it later.

But it was a fun atmosphere none the less. The clown parade went through and I got some candy and a few hats that were given out, from the sponsor cars. I even got some dish soap? Did I mention it is a clown parade? Note: It’s not really with actual clowns. The floats and cars in the parade are just ridiculous looking. Anyway, we all had some fun waiting for the riders to go by.

And then, in a while after the clown parade, the tour officials drove bye, then an endless escort of motorcycles, and finally, just like that, the riders and their team cars came through and then were gone in an instant.

The nice thing about this stage of the Tour compared to the stage that Steve and I saw was that there was no waiting to leave. We all just walked back to the train station and got on the train and we’re heading back to Chambéry. Just like that!

Well, Steve left and now it was all up to me to make my own way forward.

The initial thing I wanted to do was to figure out the way to ride toward Albertville. This is to the northeast of Chambéry. I mentioned earlier that I had tried years ago to ride in that direction only to be forced onto a busy highway that left me uncomfortable to say the least. But, as Steve and I were driving toward Tignes and Val d’sere on one of our non-riding days, I noticed what appeared to be a bike path along the highway. There had to be way to get on that path from Chambéry! I just needed to figure it out! I started by looking at maps and using the internet to look for bike paths in the area. Et voila! If I started out in the general direction of Grenoble, I could detour into a village of Montmélian and connect to a bike path that was brand new to me. The trick is always getting through the village and typically is a trial and error thing, getting lost and backtracking until you find your way to the bike path. But finding the new route was worth it.

The path (chemin in french) was nice! And it was nice to again be exploring new routes around the area. At one point, the path did briefly merge onto a lightly traveled roadway, but I discovered something amazing, to me anyway!

As you got onto the roadway, there was a sign directing vehicles to follow and not pass cyclists who were on the road! Cyclists are not on the road very long before they turn off again onto the dedicated bike path so it wasn’t a huge deal to motorists, but this amazed me. This was a first!

About that time, I was starting to get a little tired so I ventured off the bike path and pedaled up a fairly steep road to the hamlet of Saint-Pierre d”Albigny looking for a market or someplace to get a drink and maybe some food. But alas, no luck. So I went back toward the bike path but came out a little further down the path than where I left it. Riding backwards on the path, I almost immediately came to a snack bar that seemed a bit out of place.

But I stopped there anyway and had a Coke and a sandwich. Afterwards, I started back to Chambéry but realized that the snack bar was part of a park. And the park had a nice looking lake. It appeared that cars had to pay an entrance fee, but bike were allowed to pass through the gate for free. Nice!

After that, I figured that was enough exploring for one day since I really had no idea where exactly I was in relation to Albertville and I wasn’t in very good cycling shape anyway. So back to Chambéry I rode, and I didn’t even get lost.

My next ride was a brief ride to Aix-Les-Bains, a ride I had done many times in the past. It travels a nice bike path until it comes to the lake which Aix-Les-Bains is next to, Lac du Bourget. I turned around after that since it was only a training ride, trying to get into riding shape.

The next ride would serve more of a purpose. I would continue to explore the route to Albertville. I planned to ride past the first lake and find my way further toward Albertville. I had not made to yet to the portion of the bike path I had seen from the highway, so that would be the next goal for me. I rode past the first lake and tried to follow bike path signs. I was mostly successful, but there was some missed turns here and there. But eventually, success. The path came to the Isere river and then to the highway that went to Albertville. After crossing the river bridge and going under the highway, a quick left turn and I was on the path that I had seen! And it led to another lake. So I stopped.

This lake was more of a boating lake where you could rent motorboats and such. No one was on the lake at this time so it was nice and relaxing sitting out on the deck enjoying a nice cold drink. But this too would be my turn around point. I did make it further than the previous ride, so I took that as a sign that my fitness was going in the right direction.

With Mont Ventoux added too Steve’s palmares, we headed out on our way to the Pyrenees. We did make one planned stop on the way. We drove into Arles to see an ancient Roman amphitheater that we had seen in some literature we had reviewed.

The amphitheater is right in the middle of town and is still used to this day. It was built about 2000 years ago, but has been retrofitted with modern seating and hi-tech lighting. 2000 years ago was just around the same timeframe as the building of the Pond du Gard aqueduct. It must of have been the golden age of the Roman occupation of France.

After visiting the amphitheater and having some lunch at a persian restaurant, we set out for the Pyrenees. We drove near Montpellier and actually briefly saw the Mediterranean Sea. We arrived in Saint Gauden in the early evening, just is time to grab some food for dinner.

The next day, we headed for the base of the Tourmalet, the most climbed mountain in the history of the Tour de France. As a matter of fact, the riders of the Tour would be riding over it in two days and the crowd was already starting to accumulate along the route.

After the summit and a few photos, we headed down the other side to Luz Saint Sauveur. We parked in the parking lot of the Carrefour grocery store and got some lunch. Parking anywhere in Europe is always an adventure, but we got to draw on my previous experience here. I had parked in the Carrefour parking lot before and knew right where it was and that it was free to park.

Tomorrow would be Steve’s last summit ride of his trip. He would ride the Hautecam in the Pyrenees. It has some history in the Tour de France, but to me, it where Bjarne Riis earned the nickname Mr. 60%. Bjarne Riis won the Tour de France in 1996 but was proven to have cheated by using the banned drug EPO. He looked like he was on a training ride as he ascended the Hautecam when I watched videos it. Note: 50% is consider high, but an acceptable level for a hematocrit level. Steve would have no such advantage tomorrow!

The Hautecam is a ride I had not ridden before so both Steve and I would discover it together. Usually, there are A LOT of riders on the climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees. Maybe it was the weather or the fact that the Hautecam has not been featured in the TdF as much as the other climbs that we have planned to ride, but Steve would climb this one without much challenge from other riders.

But there were some other challenges to overcome on the ride. Like horses in the road!….Which Steve managed to maneuver around without any difficulty.

And like all of the other climbs, Steve was able to reach the top, with panache of course!

Once the Hautecam was under Steve’s belt, I talked Steve into doing another ride. I thought he still had gas in the tank after the Hautecam and Steve readily agreed. It did not take much much persuasion on my part. So we drove back to Luz Saint Sauveur to get some lunch and plan for Steve to ride to the ski station at Luz Ardiden. Luz Ardiden has some Tour de France history. Greg Lemond secured his third Tour de France victory there in 1990 by burying his main competition. He still trailed by 5 seconds to the leader but all acknowledged that he would easily make that up in the final time trial. He may have won the Tour there, but he only finished second on the stage, losing to Miguel Indurain in the last few kilometers. Anther famous Luz Ardiden stage occurred when Lance Armstrong was contesting the stage when he hooked a musette bag from a young spectator and took a tumble on the pavement. He recovered and eventually won the stage, but that was later expunged from the record after his fall from grace due to his EPO doping.

Steve rode Luz Ardiden with almost no problems. It is a fun climb (if climbing steep slopes is FUN) with a lot of switch backs to zig zag the way to the finish. The only problems for this ride was the constant swarm of flies that drafted Steve to the top of the climb and the fog that rolled in and continued to the summit.

Now, it was time for a break from the bike for Steve. Luckily, tomorrow would offer a fun alternative to riding. The Tour de France! It was Stage 8 and we would be there!

We arrived fairly early and planned to ride to the top to be there for the summit finish! Well, live and learn. We thought that if we started up too early that we would have to wait forever for the race to arrive, so we stayed in the car for a while. Well, the police and security closed the road while we were in the car so we had to walk and could only get up the the 5K to go mark. It was still a good spot to watch. We were on the climb so when the first riders arrived, they were actually accelerating up the hill. Mere mortals like us hope to survive these climbs and they were accelerating! At one point before the racer arrived, I told Steve we should text our friends back in the USA that we were right at the 5k banner. Someone took a photo of their TV during the race and saw us! Not US TV, Worldwide TV!

Now, it was almost all over but the shouting. We would head back to Chambéry the next day, but stopped in Nïmes to see an old Roman coliseum. It was is quite good shape for it’s age, again about 2000 years old.

Once back in Chambéry, I talked Steve into one more ride to again help me get some more saddle time. We rode out through Aix-les-Bains and out to a village named Albens. Along the way, we stopped to get up close and personal with the classic sunflowers fields of France.

Back on the road, we arrived in Albens and this is where Steve would make a final and lasting mark on my trip. Steve bought me an Eclair! Well, Steve pretty much had to buy it. I entered the patisserie without my cycling shoes on and was unceremoniously told that I needed to wait outside the shop.

After that, I had a hard time passing up any opportunity to buy and enjoy an eclair! I’m not saying addiction, but….Well, thanks Steve.

With all the riding over with, Steve’s time in France had come to an end and was all set to go home. I enjoyed Steve’s company so much on this trip. Both admiring his cycling ability, but mostly his comradeship. We’ve known each other for a long time and I see no reason for that to ever end. À bientôt mon ami!