Duck, duck, goose!

Yes, chateaus and castles everywhere!

It's a family affair!

We are now in the beautiful Dordogne region of France, in the wildly popular town of Sarat a Caneda.  You cannot swing a dead cat without hitting a) a tourist b)an English tourist c) a dead duck and all of its parts. And if you ever thought Truckee had more than it's share of realtors, this town will give you a run for your money! (or euro)
We are enjoying our warm days here, and especially while number one daughter was visiting on her way through France.
She and her delightful traveling companion, Lindsey, spent 3 days with us.  We canoed on the river, toured castles and chateaus and tried our luck with foie gras.

What a wonderfully relaxing and fun day!

 

It is very green here.  This is along the Voie Verte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Voie Verte!

 

 

     

We have still been riding our bikes, but this picture is more indicative of our activity level for the past 10 days. 

I finally tried some good foie gras, after being surrounded by it for the past 2 weeks.  Got that out of my system..... Sorry foodies.... not my thing.  This area is also know for walnuts and alfalfa.  My allergies know the alfalfa crop is a huge success, and we have really been enjoying those walnuts on the front porch before dinner. 

It is so wild that it is light until 10:30 at night, and light by 6.  Makes for a short night!  The little 2 year old across the street could really use a little more dark time.... just sayin'.

Night, all!

Le météo

If the weather was sunny and 75 every day of your vacation, the days would be unremarkable, right?  Well, we have had a number of very remarkable days.  We left Argeles-Gazost, and drove about 1.5 hours to Luchon.  Leaving the Haute Pyrenees (their tag-line is Ha-Py.  Get it?) for the Haute-Garonne, in the Midi-Pyrenees region sent us further east, and a little lower in elevation.  There was still plenty of water in the rivers and rain clouds, and lots of mountains to climb. So back to the weather reports.... On our first day we decided to charge up the Superbageneres, a big mountain ski resort that has a lift that starts in town and ends at the base area, 2600' above.  We left in warm, muggy conditions, which lasted about 3/4 of the way up. It got a bit cooler as we climbed above the tree line, then we turned a corner and were literally (grammatically correct usage here) blown off our bikes.  We managed to get back up on our bikes and slog up the hill to the next corner, where it was now a tail wind.  We were SO close to the top, we didn't want to stop.  Once we made it to the summit (parking lot), we could barely stand up, and it started to rain, of course.  We started down, but had to walk for about 1/2 mile, and then for another mile we rode with one foot out of the pedal so we could catch ourselves if the wind knocked us over again.  I felt like that guy on the weather channel that is always standing out in the hurricanes with his jacket flapping and leaning into the wind to stay upright! I will also admit to being very worried about our safety for about 30 minutes.

Too bad the wind is not photogenic.

                             

The town of Luchon is going to be hosting the Tour de France as both a finish and start town, so it is decked out in TDF everything.  Every shop window is painted, banners are hung and wonderful streamers of the four leader jerseys are strung from trees and buildings.

La Marie (town hall) Luchon

Not every person in the area is there for the bike riding.  Luchon, like many, many towns in the Pyrenees is home to a Thermes. Luchon also has a "vaporium" where you breath in the steam from the underground steam rooms.  Many people come here for a week of  "cures" and to do some hiking and relaxing.  You see them walking or biking over every morning, carrying their plastic bags with their swim suits and rubber shoes. The demographic of that group is mid-70's, and most often French.  We are close to the age where we will now become thermes travelers....

 We had an uneventful ride on the Col de Portillon.  Lovely ride directly out our front door.  It was fun to ride it again after visiting this area in 2007.  The next day was up the Peyresorde.  It is a stinker of a climb at times, and just when you look up and see the 4 large and long switchbacks across the side of the mountain, you think you just can't do it.  And then suddenly, you are at the top!  And it was the most fabulous down hill of the entire trip so far!

One of the 4 large switchbacks

But I was supposed to talk about the weather! Not just about the weather, but how it can create memorable moments on a trip.  One afternoon we were on our daily pilgrimage to town for our bread fix.  Just as we were starting back, the sky opened up. We happened to be outside the hotel where we had stayed on our first trip with Thomson Bike Tours in 2007, so we popped in.  We started talking to the owner, telling him we were former guests, etc.  He invited us to have a drink, and we did, and Ziggy decided she liked it here, and was going to stay.  It was still raining after we finished, so the owner packed us up in his car and drove us the  mile home. 

A room with a view, s'il vous plait...

Our final weather memory of our stay in Luchon occurred on the Port des Bales.  We were finally going to do a loop ride, and I was promised some gentle gradients.  Again, warm and muggy as we left.  We got to the ski area, which consisted of one small hotel and about 6 houses and a ski rental place.  Absolutely deserted. I did get my gentle uphill for about 2 miles, which was luxurious. Just as we were ready to saddle up for the "other side of the mountain" portion of the ride, it got dark, the wind whipped up, and the first drops started to fall. We tore down about 3 miles, and suddenly it was as if nails were being rained on us.  We came upon another 5 home village and we ducked under someone's deck.  About 2 minutes later 2 other riders joined us.  They were two very handsome French riders doing a 3 day tour.  We chatted with them for about 15 minutes, then the owners of the house came home (from the thermes!) and they were amused by our predicament, but left us to our own devices.  After another 5 minutes or so, we were on our way again.  We don't have any pictures, as the camera was tucked away out of the rain.

Luchon in the rain

We are now in Sarlat, in the Dordogne.  Rolling hills, big rivers, green grass and it is all about the duck.... It is beautiful countryside, but I am already missing the mountains and all the sheep and cows!  But we did a lovely ride on the Voie Verte (rails to trails, French style) and only got lost 3 times.  I will remind you this is a bike trail.... sad.

Peak Experiences!

Our first peak in the Pyrennes!

We have been in the beautiful town of Argeles-Gazost for the past 2 weeks.  The first week gave us lots of rain, and consequently I got a lot of reading done... And then the sun came out, and I had to bring out the animal in me.  meowww?

This area is renowned for its cycling, and even in early June, which is a good 2 weeks before the season starts, the place is teeming with cyclists.  Young, old, SKINNY and not so calorie challenged; they are all there to bag the big ones: Hautecam, Tourmelet, Aubisque, Soulior, Spandelles, Port de Espana, Luz d'Ardienne, just to name the ones right out of this town. Every day was over 3500', with the Tourmelet much more, and often just around 20 miles.  That was usually enough, with about 2.5- 3 hours for each ride.  Every day Larry would tell me what we were to expect according to the published stats on the climbs. After the 3rd day of being told to expect only 7-8% average, with a maximum of 10%, I lost me cool on mile 6 of a constant 11-14% climb. I was fuming, and wanted to question Larry's source materials; fact checking had to take place! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hzkBihaew . This was today's earworm.  (All Men are Liars)
The tourist office puts out the maps, and they are usually correct on the distance, amount of meters climbed, but NEVER on the gradient.  I have stopped looking.

The Pain-o-meter. This one was a big lie!

Tourmelet event

say cheese!

We were able to participate in a free event on Saturday. This is an annual event to remember Lauren Fignone, a famous French cyclist from this area.  There were about 300 people, about 25 women, and a lot of TOFF's..(Tough old French Farts)

One thing about Europe is the massive amount of small businesses that dot the countryside and towns. Almost every farmer sells honey, cheese, jams or cakes. We stopped on our way off the Sandelles to buy some fromage de brebis (sheep) from the farm.  Very good!

                                                          

Bread dispenser

 

 

  And to show you just how important bread is to the French diet and everyday life, you never have to go without, even when the patisserie est ferme. We have seen them in a few places now.




 And the sheep parade is just the constant reminder of just how much of an agricultural economy it is over here.




 

Outside our door, this morning!

Pont de Espana, raging waters!

Top of Col de Spandelles

     

Holy Crap!

Dateline, Lourdes, France

This is not meant to offend any of my friends and family that have deep religious beliefs.  Most of you know what a heathen I am and some of you still love me despite this fact.  However, I think all of you would choke on your communion wafers to see what religious tourism has come to in this town.

There are blocks and blocks of this crap.  I have finally found a place that gives Venice a run for its money on tourist tackiness. It is such a shame, IN MY OPINION, to prey on people that have come here as a last resort, to try to find supposed healing powers in the water and to sell every conceivable form of religious artifact and water container you could possibly imagine.  But, they obviously have customers to buy what looks like a hospital male urinal and fill it with water from the fountain; miles of rosary beads and crosses, plastic figurines of Saint Bernadette and the Virgin and the most incongruous of all, the "Provisions de Voyage", which is mostly beer, wine, sausage and cheese!

On another note, it is very green in this area, with rushing rivers of lime filled waters.  That is the positive spin I am trying to place on the fact that it has been cold, wet and raining for the entire week.  We are in the beautiful town of Argeles-Gazotte at the base of the Tourmelet,  Abisque and Hautecam, 3 of the iconic climbs in the Tour de France, and climbs that we have done in the past.  We have even gone out and ridden in the rain, but coming down those cols in the cold and wet is not something we enjoy. 

Fresh snow....

Biking culture here

So, while we can't ride too much, we make pilgrimages to the boulangerie, patisserie, weekly market and local bike shops. We have been eating our way through the pain tradionale, chevre, pain au chocolate and enjoying way too much cafe au lait and les vins regionale.... And to keep myself and those poor defensless
neighbors amused, I try to talk to them in French.  We did have a very lovely exchange last evening.  They are in their 70's, speak no English, and loved sharing their love of the surrounding area with me.  I thought my head was going to explode from the strain I was putting on my few remaining brain cells as I tried to convey my thoughts and understand what they were saying; all in French.  Ziggy, as always, is the universal icebreaker and conversation starter.  Merci, Zigs.

For all of my biking friends, this really is a fantastic place to test your limits.  And for the hikers, they have so many miles of trails to explore, you could hike for weeks before you would have to retrace a step.  I would guess there is also a lot of fishing, but right now the waters are too high to allow for that.  And there is always that religious tourism available.....
Check out our beautiful spot.... www.bonrepos.com

Hasta Luego, Espana... Bon Jour la France!

We have spent the past week in the beautiful Picos de Europa park, in Cangas de Onis, Spain.  This area, Asturias, is noted for its wonderful cheese and milk products, sidra (cider) and of course, pork.  The lovely green farm and pasture land has a stunning backdrop of the snow capped Picos.  It really is a remarkable area!

This scene was repeated everywhere!

It must have been an awesome parking experience to warrant a souvenir!

The area is also know for its wonderful recreation.  There are 2 rivers for fishing, canoeing, kayaking and swimming in the warmer months.  It is only 25 miles from the Atlantic, so the climate is fairly mild, and the valleys are at low elevation, and the peaks climb to over 8,000'.  There are many hiking trails in the parks and lots of bike riders trying to scale 2 of the most difficult climbs in Spain.  The area is very sparsely populated and looks a great deal like Austria at times.  Small villages dot the area, and the "big" town of Cagnas was probably about 5,000 people.  But in that small town there were more restaurants and shops selling the foods of the area than I have ever seen.  The other interesting business model of the area is Rural Turismo.  We stayed in one ourselves, and it was a lovely little apartment on a farm.  In the tiny village next to us, which consisted of about 15 homes, there was one bar/restaurant and about 5 Rural Turismos.  That was the case everywhere.  We just could not imagine what the area must be like during the summer months when all of these places would be full.

The roads were pretty quiet this time of year, but I did a little tailgaiting.

Our new friends at the cafe where we got our

 internet fix

We did some sightseeing when the weather was
not suitable for cycling.  One day we went to the
famous prehistoric cave paintings.  The entire talk was in Spanish, of course, so we got very little out of it, but he did translate two phrases for us:
Three meters.  and 20 million..... We are guessing size and age....

Checking out the high peaks

We are now in Bayonne, France.  A beautiful town just north of Saint Jean de Luz and Biarritz. Tomorrow we head to the Pyrennes.

Oporto and beyond!

I am in love with Portugal.  The people, the food, the sights and the entire "off the beaten track" of it. We left our little slice of heaven in the Alentejo and headed north and west about 3 hours.  We stayed in a great little apartment in Porto for 3 nights while we took in the sights, tasted some port and again tried to blend into the local culture.  Porto is also under siege by tourists like Paris, but not as many Americans.  Mostly French and Scandinavians.  Very interesting city with a rich history, but after 3 days we were ready to head to the quiet places again.  We drove an hour north to a beautiful beach town, called Afife.  Just north of Viana de Castillo, which is another lovely historical town complete with beautiful beaches and an active arts and tourist scene.  One thing that has dominated our time here in Afife is the wind.  It has been incessant until today, when it finally died down, and the weather heated up about 20 degrees.  I can tell summer would be tough in Portugal for this heat phobic gal.

Ziggy has discovered the beach.  And she loves it!  This is one of the most beautiful stretches of beach I have ever been on.  My pictures cannot do it justice.

We have been riding our bikes every day; battling the wind in one direction, and loving the tailwinds in the other!  Yesterday we did a longer ride, and decided to stop for a bit of lunch.  Normally we stop for a tosta and a coke, but this time we landed in an authentic restaurant which was doing an amazing lunch business.  No English, no menu, just rattled off the 4 dishes available.  I had seen the fish go by, and it was fried, which doesn't go well with another 15 miles of riding, so when I heard the word for chicken, I nodded yes.  I asked for only 1 entree for the 2 of us, as the portions were huge!  This is what we ended up with....

Firstly, it was all chicken gizzards, so a total fail for me, but also 2 huge servings of rice, fried potatoes, veggies, salad.  Everyone else at the restaurant was also consuming a bottle or two of wine or a beer.  BTW, grand total with a Coke was e15.  Too bad I didn't like it too much.

And finally, my mother Ruthmary has met her match.  This woman has been hoeing this field for the past 3 days.  This morning she was out there before 8 a.m, and last night she was there until after 8 p.m. This is another thing I love about Portugal; all the small farms that dot the side of the road, no matter where you are.  Even community gardens in the heart of the city.  What makes it even more amazing is how cheap

vegetables already are in the grocery store.  It must just be in their blood!

A few more pictures from Porto....

Lunch by the river.

Art is a big part of the culture in Porto. A phone booth...

The Porto trolly

Cyclepaths

This has been such a wonderful 2 weeks of cycling and exploring the slow lane in this part of the world.  If you ever want to take 7-10 days to just relax, cycle, hike, wine taste and explore, then you have to visit this area.  It is so off the beaten track that most of the towns we enter into GPS can't be found.  Today we were on our bikes for over 13 miles before we met a car. 

Imagine everything you love about cycling in Sonoma, Napa, Monterey and the Sierras; challenging climbs, beautiful views, pleasant temps.... then REALLY use your imagination and have the roads be smooth, zero traffic and a place to find a drink and a snack every 10k, and you have made it to the Alentejo. 
Today we stopped about 5k from "home", and split a coke and a "tosta", all for 2.85e.  Not going to happen at Jimtown store....

The colors of Portugal are white, gold and blue.  Every building is whitewashed (no paint) then trimmed in gold, and then the blue and white Azulejos that adorn every home and business.

Casa, sweet casa

We have also done some sightseeing off the bikes.  We spent an afternoon trying to find the very famous menhir found outside of Balletos. Just FYI, we drove around for over an hour in search of it, and voila, in all of its glory...

Is is the biggest one on the Iberian peninsula.....

A few final shots of our rides around this area this week.

Painted bridges

Marble everywhere!

Just, ahhhhh

Cork trees

We are headed to Porto for 3 nights tomorrow.

Later.....