Finally, A Post!

The grand adventure begins! Cycling, but also spending time with family and meeting new people. Kick of the rust from the old French language "skills", eat and drink as much as possible, and generally love live.

The travel was quite long. You forget how removed the west coast is from Europe, really - or at least I do. So after a sleepless night across county and ocean, here we are smiling because we are about to start the last leg of travel . . . at least for the day. If you ever wondered if Hethrow was really as busy as "they" say it is, we were just shuttled by bus to our plane since there weren't any available terminals.

Our first french meal . . . caesar salad and pasta - not too much adventure on a few hours sleep.

Breakfast was a little more in the French mode, though.

A few hours in Lyon and we jumped on the TGV. We have some photos, but none worth sharing with the world. I have to say, we are crazy as Americans not to love rail transport when done like the French. The TGV was about seven times faster than BART, 10 times more quiet, and a 100 times more comfortable. Seriously, light rail, baby. Go Obama, All Aboard!

The TGV left us off at Grenoble, or base camp for the day before cycling begins. Grenoble was just about as beautiful a place as you could imagine. The photos don't do it justice, but as an attempt . . . enjoy:

The view from our hotel window (above), and one of the many no-car walk/rail- yes, rail, All Aboard boulevard (below).

The view from the Fort Bastille, high above the city - one protecting during the 1500s, now just offering beautiful views and hiking trails.

And, since it's getting late . . . . here are some more photos from Grenoble.

Waiting for the train back to the hotel . . . call it a night (above, obviously). First official day starts tomorrow. Our van picked us up at the hotel in the morning, and we were off to the Alps. La Mur, a little town, classically alpine. Stone houses, columbine flowers blooming, deep blue streams flowing down . . . and classically French. Folks having drinks under awnings, chatting away. It starts to dawn on me both what is in store over the next week and how damn lucky I am to be here.

La Mur:

In case you didn't get that we are in France. How about a little patissarie money shot:

OK, but wait. Aren't you supposed to be riding a bike? Why yes, hello mon velo.

After the bike is together, just a short jaunt around the town and a quick preview of the first climb of the day. Le Col de Mallisol. Going up:

Getting to the top:

Time to hold on tight:

Becks couldn't let the guys have all the fun. Time to pull out her kit and put it to use. No sense in bringing it all this way and not use it, is there?

And to finish off the day's post (It's almost mid-night here!), a little taste of suffering to come: