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.