jeudi

It’s Thursday evening and I’m back at the breakfast table, The Necks vibrating the keyboard at my fingers. We’ve just popped down the road in the puking snow to Lidl to get some groceries. In Bulk. We’ve cracked open one of the 3 bottles of wine we brought back – a cheery Bourgogne Pinot Noir. The white is already in the fridge and the other red (a tasty 1L for a Euro) is reserved for the vin chaud.

Things have been starting to kick off here in the Bourg. We’ve had our first few shifts of paid work – working for a chalet cleaning and maintenance company. Po has been making friends with lots of Frenchies, we’ve both had a bit of a bug, and I’ve been working myself in to fits of nervous anxiety waiting for some mailorder avo gear to arrive (I think sent by La Poste’s Extra Slow Shithouse Carrier Donkey).

The cleaning work has involved getting stuck in to 7 apartments up at Arc 1800 for the pre-season clean. Even with 4 people going at it it still takes about half a day to finish one apartment. Unfortunately I’ve missed 2 days this week due to a bug which may have slowed the process a wee bit, but we’re all back up there tomorrow for a full day and we should see them pretty much all finished.

This coming Saturday I have my first shift with a bus company. The shifts will involve ferrying people between a resort in the valley (Val d’Isere, Tignes, Les Arcs, 3 Vallees etc) and an airport (either Geneva, Grenoble or Chambery). It should be fun as its driving a long wheel base VW T5 Transporter …sick… and it’ll only be on Saturdays – Transfer Day. Anyway, when the season kicks in for good (in a week) we’ll both only be working 1 or 2 days a week. Enough to keep the funds topped. Still getting in 5 or 6 days skiing.

Skip forward a few days…

Its now Wednesday. The shift on Saturday was sweet. An early start at 4:45am; a hoon in 3-van-convoy up the valley to Tignes, just us and the snow clearers working the road; drop-off at Geneve; return.

Sunday, skiing at Val d’Isere with Chris and Myrah.


Bluebird day, not a breath of wind, cold (-15° when we stopped at 4:30pm) and unseasonally good snow had us in smiles all day. The vin chaud at lunch and skis-off might have helped a bit too.

mardi

Well today i had planned to sit outside on the steps of montee des Ecoles, looking down past our apartment, over the cobbled street of Grande Rue and up on to the snowy slopes of Arc 1600. But the rain has put an end to that idea. No worry, it should be snowing up top - freezing level is probably around the 1500m mark again today.

We're now sorted and settled here in our small 'studio' apartment in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The place, about 25sqm, came furnished and pretty cheap. It fills what was once a gap between a building of 4 apartments and a dance hall. It’s amazingly soundproof. The kitchen occupies about a quarter of the space and is well equiped with stovetop, bar fridge, sink, crepe-maker, lettuce spinner and coffee drip-o-lator (now retired in favour of a wonderful stovepot, thanks Soph!). Im sitting at, I guess, a breakfast bar, and I can count 18 wine corks lined up against the wall to my left.

The bathroom takes up about another quarter and has the things you'd usually expect to find in a bathroom. The shower, oh the shower, is Amazing. Our experience with showers in France to date has been quite shit actually, so the unbelievable shower that we have here is quite the highlight of the setup.

The rest of the space serves as the bed/lounge/dining/store room. There is a couch, cafe table and chairs, low store-box-thingy, a window and the door. One wall is completely cupboards and bookshelves – very handy. The couch unfolds in to the bed, and theres enough room left over to accommodate the skis, the bikes and me on the floor when Sophie came to stay.

The apartment is on montée des Ecoles, just off the awesome and pedestrian-only Grande Rue. We inevitably stroll the Grande Rue every day. Firstly, turning right and up hill to our favourite boulangerie for a fresh baggie each morning, the woman there having to wipe here fingers of fresh framboise to handle our baguette, pas bien cuit. About twice a week we’re in our favourite café opposite the boulangerie. Inside with petit café or vin chaud, theres either the cat to stroke or the furry dog pausing at your side for a bit of a cuddle.

Left down Grande Rue theres the usual French assortment of shops – café, pharmacy, optometrist, pharmacy, bar, pharmacy, newsagent, pharmacy,… The bottom end of the Rue ends at the cheese co-op and the Mediatheque. We’ve only been to the co-op once so far, but intend to make it a regular. Its daunting asking for a slice of cheese from a wheel about the size and weight of a car tyre. We’re inside the mediatheque though each of the four days a week its open. Po is speeding her way through their amazing collection of BD’s, while we’re both delving into the CD library for solid gold like: Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Peter Tosh and Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra.

Its now 2-days-less-than-a-month to go until the official opening of the ski season at Les Arcs. Thanks to the Bourse Aux Skis here at BSM the other week (good, but funnily not as good as the Cooma ski sale), we’ve now enough gear to see us through the 5 month season. Plus I am now the proud owner of a fluro yellow one-piece. Made in Paris apparantly. Actually I reckon I’d fit right in on the streets of Paris with this tight yellow number, such is the state of fashion there. Oh yeah it’s a snug fit. Not quite as snug as the Gibbon in his one-piece, but I’ll be thinking twice about getting in a tuck down the KL.

Also, if anyone would like to post themselves over for a bit, our address is as follows:

M. Jarrad Needham
21 montée des Ecoles
73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice
FRANCE
ph: +33 6 71 85 52 87

yumyums

back in seez

The task now is to find accommodation for the winter. After leaving the WWOOF place, and while riding back to Seez, we took the chance to check out some ski resorts. Firstly Serre Chevalier, then La Grave / Deux Alpes, Alpe d’Huez, Les Sybelles, Longchamp / Valmorel, Les Trois Vallees and finally Les Arcs / La Plagne. A lot of skiing to be had thereJ

The weather is now hitting the subzeros, meaning we timed the ride here to perfection, and that the mountains are looking very wintery (4-6 inches yesterday)…

Plus thanks to everyone for 30th birthday wishes, I had a great day getting stuck into the champagne, the wine, the bacon, the bangers & mash, the pressies etc etc etc (Po really is the raddest!!…)

wworking

While in Annecy we tried to score some vendage work (grape picking), but had to settle for lining up some WWOOFing work instead. The WWOOF hosts were close(ish)-by in Briancon and were into things like home-grown veggies, home schooling their 3 kids and installing the most complicated solar water heater / inslab hydronic heating / rain water collection and filtration system ive ever seen.



The ride there was amazing over the cols de Telegraph and Galibier, and while working we had the chance to ride another incredible col, the d’Izoard. Workwise, we started in the veggie garden, pulling carrots, cabbages and turnips, then we got on to the big task that kept us going until the end – burying about 400m of water pipe. Ooh and playing with the 2 goats, cheeky and neigey.

story of a car

The grand plan to end all grand plans was to hire a car to transport us and our bikes and skis (that were waiting for us in Auch) over to the Alps. We ended up hiring a schnazzy little diesel Yaris for a week. We managed to squeeze all our shit in to the car after only about an hour of packing and then we were fanging it across France faster than we knew where we were heading.

We took a pretty scenic route which brought us to the top of some amazing cols – d’Izoard and Galibier. We also checked out a lot of the valleys where we would most likely spend the winter – Tarantaise, Chamonix etc.

We dumped most of our gear in Seez (downhill from Les Arcs) and finished the drive to Annecy to leave the car.

pilgrimmage

“F**k the pilgrimmage, its sh*t”. This catchy little quote written on the under side of a bunk bed somewhere en route pretty much sums it up. Low lights included: fighting off aging, bed-hungry believers; industrial estates; highways – pedestrian; highways – vehicular. We ended up shifting routes from the Camino Frances (the one everyone does) to the Camino Norte (the one that, at least on the map, looks like it follows the north coast of Spain. In reality it follows the expressway, near the north coast of Spain).

At the end of the day though, it was a helluvalotta fun. Thanks to Heds, V, Nick, Deb, Edwin and Po for making it soJ – in pictures:

central massif

We said goodbye to evan in paris and boarded a local express train south to Clermont-Ferrand, the capital of the central massif. It was time (finally!) to put my money where my mouth was (or guidebook where my job was) and do a ride out of LP’s Cycling France. Didn’t actually work on this one, but the important thing is that I know who did, so I knew who to blame for any mistakes…

The 3 day ride through the Parc Naturel Regional des volcans d’Auvergne was awesome. Very different landscape to either the pyrenees or the alps. Very… idyllic farmland surrounded by massive volcanos. Not bad really.

Above is our first nights campsite in a paddock above the village of Le Mont-Dore. Actually I think it was at the Col de la Croix St-Robert. A parapentist kindly wafted his arse above this hill, and our heads, in the evening.

After a day of ambling along pleasant valleys, crossing the odd col and exploring quaint villages in lycra (among them, Besse, big sister of the super.. Super Besse), our final day saw us summount the Pas de Peyrol. The tour might have gone there this year but we havent got around to checking this yet (stages 5 or 6 were near here?). Anyway the climb was pretty rad. Here I am taking a breather at a very convenient mountain-side café, only 100 vertical metres from the col.

The col itself was swarming with tourists/walkers who go there to walk along the stunningly barren ridges and peaks of the volcanic region, the most popular of them is Puy Mary. The rest of the ride was down hill all the way to Aurillac where we caught a train to Toulouse. From there it was a cruisy (but f’n hot) ride to Auch where we are now – kicking it with Heddas Manou and waiting for the rest of l’equipe pilgrimmage to rock up.

last days in paris

pingpong... wind-induced back spin

new stuff...

old stuff...

museums...

ahem...

hmm, seems like a few things have happened since the last post. lack of a laptop has been the main offender... i thought i'd at least write something to keep the blog alive, and then when we're in our apartment with the 'puter and some internet, well look out, the posts will start firing.

heres the rundown...

last few days of Paris; meeting heds+nick+deb(+edwin+verity) in Auch for the pilgrimage de compostella; said pilgrimage; o'night bus outta Spain; 7 days of luxurious car hire, transporting our skis and bikes etc from Auch to Alps; drop car in Annecy; ride from Annecy to Briançon (via 2650m-ish Col du Glandon) to wwoof; currently wwoofing.

...plus it snowed yesterday:)

versailles + font

Versailles.

Generally known for a big castle, its garden and the thousands of people that visit it every day, we decided to go there for the slightly less popular singletrack.

There wasnt much, but it was quality. Leafy, flowy tracks cut up the regularity of the radial forrest roads that are such a defining feature of the forrests around here.

After the ride it was a short roll into Versailles for lunch and then hop the train back in to Paris.

Saturday/Sunday we spent rolling around the beautiful Foret de Fontainebleau. With our climbing shoes left back in Aus, the boulders were safe from a demolishing, but we still managed to barefoot our way up some problems throughout the weekend.

Saturday we spent exploring the Rocher Canon area, SW of Bois-le-Roi, and camped there overnight in a wee amphitheatre of boulders.

Sunday morning we rolled through the forrest into Barbizon for breaky, and then back in to the forrest eastwards to Cuvier. Listed on bleau.info as having 422 boulders sub-7, and 173 boulders at 7a and harder, this was more like font!

Po, above, has just rolled in to the Cuvier area. Smooth, clean landings. Font boulders. Beauty.

Me, below, with my 5.10 barefooters on.

paris in the 14e

for this month we've ditched the panniers, the bikes, the hills, the lycra and the tent, and we've got ourselves an apartment, a school, velibs, a pair of thongs and some trousers.

yep, we're subletting joe's apartment while he's back in Aus on holidays for the month of August. its a fit little 2 beddy, on the second floor of an apartment on reille avenue in the 14th arrondissement [about 100m from parc montsouris]. i bought a 12euro pair of runners and we're running a lot in the park, or over the road in the cite universitaire's park.

po and i have both enrolled at alliance francais for 3 weeks of language school [which is the reason why we're here]. po is doing 'intensive' [5 afternoons a week], while im slacking off and doing 'extensive' [3 mornings a week], and its been pretty rad so far. po's been meeting me after my classes with baguette and cheese for a pique-nique lunch in the courtyard, and after po's classes we've been getting out and catching some of the festivities that are happening as part of the summer festival; antibalas afrobeat orchestra, open air cinemas, random african street jams, pong-pong tournaments and wine drinking.

we're starting to explore outside the city a bit now aswell. yesterday i went for a ride down to roughly fontainebleau and back for a bit of a blat. this weekend we'll watch andy in l'hexagonal, etape 3, his last race before he and rosie head back to aus. next weekend we'll be muscling it up some problems in le foret de fontainebleau ala ben moon [albeit bare-footed], and then the weekend after we'll hopefully head north of Paris to see whats there.

update on the state of my ring[s]

ah yeah, thanks for reminding me mikey, unfortunately the granny has been getting quite the workout [sorry jen!]. i cant quite imagine doing 20+km ascents at 12+% without one!

end of the tour

on the eve of stage 17 it was time to hit the road. a quick blat down the pavement and we were being swarmed by unfriendly roadies, signaling our arrival at Le Bourg d'Oisans, the town at the base of the hill from Alpe d'Huez. we pitched our tent just down hill from bend 7; crazy dutchy corner equipped with pub, discotech and polkerdot-mini-bike.

we watched the race the next day from bend 1, the last hairpin before the finish, and it was pretty heart breaking to see Sastre powering up the hill with such a huge lead over Cadel and the other troopers. anyway, its meant we havent had to break our asses in getting back to Paris for todays final stage!

after Alpe d'Huez it was time for some cols. firstly Col du Glandon, which this pic is looking towards. we camped at the end of this lake, just before the col as the spot was just too good to ride past. the next morning coffee was only a few minutes away at the conveniently placed bar just before the col itself. not bad.

after the col, it was downhill with views over to Mont Blanc [a bit faint in this photo], down to La Chambre for an early lunch and then the most hot-arsed slog to the top of the next one, col de la Madeline at about 2000m [next pic].

we've got a bit of a thing going with Haribo's over here. they tend to feature quite predominantly on our up hill rides so we've started thanking the empty packets at the top.

and now we're lazing away in a campground just out side Albertville. we caught yesterdays final time trial of the tour in a bar in town and have been lazing it up today, soaking in the sun and getting ready for our return train to Paris, probably tomorrow.

good work blairy and matty [and barnesy!] on the transalp!

hilly bits

we have just managed some amazing days riding through some real hills. firstly a few days through the Pyrenees, following stage 11 of Le Tour. It took us 2 days to cover the route from Lannemezan to Foix. The second days category 1 climb over Col de Portel was luckily overcast and misty so we could happily spin our way to the top without overheating. and the view from the top was probably amazing!

the wildlife here is pretty threatening. this dude probably has the best job on le tour circuit.. fanging around in a furry lion go kart. he doesnt do too bad for speed either; certainly keeping up with the giant wheely bins no problem. it'll be an awesome sight to see this guy struggling up alpe d'huez in just a couple days time!

after a train ride from Foix to Toulouse (and a day hanging out by the river in Toulouse), we boarded another train to Valence. from here it was a beautiful 2 day ride to Grenoble through the Gorges de la Bourne area, although it was a pretty hard slog. the gradient wasnt too steep, but it did go on for 30km, and the day was still and about 35°.

anyway, we're now in Grenoble, surrounded by stunning hills, and getting ready to ride to Alpe d'Huez to for the 17th stage on wednesday. should be a winner!

bordeaux

im sitting in the cultural heart of Bordeaux, mcdonalds, sipping on the worst coffee ive had in france. i thought id give it a shot... anyway its cheap internet.

after a few days hanging out with joe in Paris we hopped on a train and shot across to Cholet to catch the tour. we had a great day watching the time trial, wandering the course and eventually settling on the finish straight [at about 200m to go] to catch the action. cadel 'le metronome' put in a strong showing as im sure you all saw.

next day we hung around to see the peloton head off before doing the same ourselves, riding in a roughly south, south-eastish direction. a few days on the bikes and we'd ridden via Parthenay and Le Vert, and ended up at St Jean d'Angely in the rain. The country here is pretty nice if not boring. Its very flat agricultural land, farming corn, sunflowers, wheat and a few other crops i cant pick. Our last day of riding it was raining and we had a headwind the whole way so it was time to jump the train and skip forward... to Bordeaux.

So this arvo we're training it south from Bordeaux to Lourdes. From there we'll be able to catch the end of the ninth stage in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, the end of the tenth in Hautacam, and the start of the eleventh leaving Lannemezan, before figuring out how we get over to the Alps.

Anyway it should make for a bit of a workout climbing some real hills in the Pyrenees:)

japan photos

I had this pose for most of the week.

Kyoto. Great city. The most amazing mix of old and new. We stayed at the Gojo Guesthouse for the first few nights, then were lucky enough to move up to their Annex for the last 2 nights where we had our own balcony with views over the city.

Had a great night down by the river downing tinnies of Asahi.

Possibly the best thing on earth, the sushi train. This place is pretty famous for its handrolled sushi. Went back here a second time cause it was so good. Managed to rack up 20 plates which made for a slow waddle home.

Cruzing the streets on the Gojo bikes. Po looking very wise.

Breakfast of champions. Coffee in a can and pastry goodness.

Onsen at Kurama, just north of Kyoto. Nude photography is the next big thing.

kyoto

well, plans of a fuji-san ascent have been ditched in favour for more onsen action and general kyoto goodness. this place is pretty rad... unfortunately i left the usb cable in the bike box back at narita airport, so photos will come later.

day 1 in kyoto and we struck gold. a couple of short subway/train rides north of the city and we arrived at kurama. a tiny little village with temple and, a short stroll up the main/only street, outdoor onsen. soaking nude with a couple of other japanese fellas under a red maple with a bamboo forrested mountain to look at is something else.

in the past few days we've wandered many an alley, eaten much much raw fish, visited some pretty awesome temples/shrines etc, drunk beer and eaten raw fish. everything we hoped for really. riding up along the katsura river yesterday to see some pretty spoilt monkeys, cute kids and thick bamboo forrest at sagano was choice too.

im pretty addicted to the bikes here by the way. theres a few pimped fixies floating around, nitto'd up, but the everyday bikes are the best. dynamo lights, squealy brakes, rattly fenders, and names like "captain stag" and "carrot", well they're all winners!

sushimi time...

i have a name

hooray.
i almost lost it there for a second.

anyway, things are on track. we are in a slightly emptier house now that the furniture fairy has come and gone. the beanbags are wrestling the clothes and po's orange boxes which is causing a slight cafuffle, but yeah, 5 days till we're busing it up to sydney, then next morning up up away.

now to get this blog ting looking good...