Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

I had just seen David and Roger off at the train station as they left on their bike trip from Evian-les-Bains to Lyon.  It

Lovely, historic Gare Perrache -
 where David & Roger caught the train

was a lovely sunny day, and I had no real commitments until my lunch date with Estelle, our "French daughter,"on

Roger took this picture of me taking a picture of
David and Roger at the train station.

Thursday.  So I wandered around our neighborhood enjoying our belated spring, and then settled in for a nice, relaxing couple of days of shopping, chatting with friends, reading, etc. – nothing too taxing. 

Thursday morning I took a tram to Place Carnot and strolled and window-shopped my way to Place Bellecour.  Then I stopped in at a bookstore and ordered David’s Fathers’ Day present. (I was feeling very proud of myself because I asked the clerk to look for the book for me in the store, to check with other of their stores, and to order it – all in French!)  Then I went in search of a needle work shop I had seen last year when I was out with Dominique, our landlady.  I had an idea of the general area but not the street or the name of the place.  After wandering around several blocks in the area, I found it and bought a needle point pillow kit - a nice project to start while David's on his trip. Then I made my way down the pedestrian shopping avenue towards the business area and my bus stop.  I caught my C3 and got off and cut through Les Halles Paul Bocuse and came back to our apartment.  Why am I telling you all this?  Because what happened next is in total contrast to this lovely morning.

As I was walking to our apartment, I became aware that my left hip was hurting a bit.  (I have mild arthritis-type pain in the hip periodically – no big deal.)  Since I had time before I needed to leave for my lunch date, I took a couple of aspirins, sat down and went through my needle point kit. My hip still hurt a bit when I walked over to meet Estelle.  In fact, I noticed the pain seemed to be increasing through lunch, and, by the time I got back to the apartment after lunch, it was all I could do to take a Tylenol 3 and climb into bed.  (How dramatic!) That was how David found me the next day when he called a lunch to tell me when he would be home.

To be continued...

Part III, The Second Day – In Which We Discover That as Old Men, We Can Still Get It Done.

The next day June 13, dawned bright and clear – although I certainly did not see the dawn.  I actually slept until 8AM.  Roger was up earlier and had had a look about town, which sits on both sides of the Rhone.  It had once been two towns in two countries – France and Savoie, complete with border posts. 

Sign near the hotel

 After breakfast we decided to cross the river and go down the right bank, as this was the first time we had actually been right on the river this trip.  We were both pretty fatigued as we had never done anything like the previous day’s trip.  But, we were in flatter, more populated territory and planned to take it easy, pedaling leisurely along the river and stopping in the late afternoon, probably at Groslée, about 60 kilometers away. 

Bit of scenery along the way

 

Dam on the Rhone

We started on the paved road in Seyssel, and soon struck out along the flat gravel path along the top of the river levee.  Lots of scenery, no hills, no trucks and cars, some runners and other bikers - great for relaxed biking.  We made reasonable time and arrived at the town of Belley for lunch.  There was a bit of a hill right before the town, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

Rhone with bike path

 Nice lunch outside at a small brasserie with lots of wine and good food.  When David went in to pay the bill, the man behind the bar offered him (free!) two glasses of Chartreuse, a liqueur made from a centuries-old recipe at a local monastery in the town of Chartreuse.  Very interesting, and lethal, stuff.   Another twenty minutes later, we finally wobbled out of town on a paved bike path along the river.

Decommissioned nuclear power plant at Malville

Again, the going was fairly easy and we arrived in Groslée, a fair-sized town, a bit after five, with about 70 kilometers done.  We searched around for a hotel and finally asked a woman if there was one in town.  No hotel here was the response, nor did she know of one nearby.  Great consternation on our part, it was very warm, the skies were starting to look threatening, and a nasty headwind was picking up.   The woman consulted with her friend, looking at our maps and finally came up with a place about 15 kilometers away.  Roger’s cell had no service, so we could not make any calls – we would just have to push on and take our chances. 

Flower baskets on the wall - note clouds thickening

 We came to another small town, Flévieu, shortly – again, no hotels.  A few drops began to fall, so we took shelter in the building that housed the old community ovens, and waited to see what the weather would do.  The drops stopped so we decided to press on.  We now had a very stiff and steady headwind that made progress very difficult.  Any upslope reduced our progress to a crawl – it sometimes was easier and almost as fast to get off and walk on the hills.  We checked out a couple of places that used to be hotels or inns – no longer operating as such.

Community oven in Flévieu

Old community laundry

 We got onto the town of Les Granges around 7:30 and there was the hotel at the crossroads.  The women at Groslée had thought that it was located just before the town so we were a bit concerned when we didn’t see it.  Roger checked his odometer – 85 kilometers – second most ever – so much for our easy day!  An average of about 100 kilometers a day for two days - we were feeling it, but we had gotten it done.

Hotel Rolland in Les Granges

But again, a very nice hotel with a pleasant and efficient woman in charge. It's been in the same family for four generations!  

We had a great dinner with a nice bottle of Mercurey [red burgundy].  While we ate, it began to rain, hard - a very narrow escape.  We talked about the next day and figured we had only 60-70 kilometers to go to Lyon and would be home by evening, a day earlier than expected.

Dominique, Roger’s wife, was returning from a two-week visit in Ireland to see her daughter and grandchild.  I had not called Anna the night before as it was a bit late, and tonight Roger’s cell had no service.  Oh well, two peaceful days for Anna, or so I thought.

Part II - The First Day

After a scenic train trip from Lyon we arrived at the station at Evian-Les-Bains, on Lac Leman, at 9:30AM, June 12, ready to go.

David had been to Evian-Les-Bains two years before and thought he knew the layout of the road out of town towards Geneva.  One wrong turn later, after we had ridden down a hill, turned around and pedaled back up, we were truly on our way.  The weather was cool, partly cloudy, light breezes, good biking weather.  We admired the lake and surrounding mountains, confident that we had everything under control.

Turn-of-the-Century Station, Evian-Les-Bains

 We passed through small towns along the lake, trying to avoid the most heavily traveled roads.  Then – about five miles out of Evian-Les-Bains, after having stopped at a gas station to check our tires, we were pedaling along a frontage road by a small shopping center when David’s bike seat fell off, pieces strewing onto the roadway!   We stopped and picked up the parts, making sure we got everything.  Inspection revealed that the clamp bolt had snapped off.  We looked around, and there, 200 yards away, was a Decathlon sporting goods store, and it had, what luck, a bike repair department.  The technician managed to find a bolt that would serve, and in 45 minutes we were again on our way.  The technician refused payment – we would have been dead in the water without him.

David and the repaired seat outside Decathlon

 Off we went again, admiring the view, sure that our troubles were behind us.  We reached Douvaine, near the Swiss border a bit after noon, with no further problems.  We were feeling pretty good at this point, as Douvaine had originally been our first day’s goal.  With our early start, we would now have no trouble getting through Geneva after lunch and then finding a place to stay in one of the small French towns on the other side of Geneva.  We enjoyed a nice, leisurely lunch at an outside table at the Brasserie ‘Le Sarde’, with David having roast pork with a mild curry sauce and Roger enjoying a huge salade Niçoise. 

Lunch in Douvaine

Geneva is a gorgeous city, set at the end of the lake, with an old side-wheel excursion steamer cruising the area, a fountain and the many large estates and public buildings along the land side of the water front.  There is a lot of money in Geneva both from the Swiss banking industry and the many high-paid United Nations positions based in Geneva.  

David with Geneva and its fountain behind

Geneva harbor with side-wheeler in background

 Roger had a nice map of the city, so we managed to thread our way through downtown, dodging trams, buses, Porsches, Ferraris, and Maseratis.  After a bit of a climb, we emerged into a semi-rural area with small newish housing developments interspersed with fields planted to various agricultural crops.  We were headed for Chancy near the French border, where the internet had said was a hotel.  We arrived there about 5PM, certain we were done for the day, or close to it.   We sat down for a beer, talked to the gentleman running the place and quickly learned that there was no longer a hotel on the premises.  We were informed that there was a hotel in a nearby town, so off we went; at worst, we would need to go to Seyssel, about 35 kilometers away, but figured that we could do that in 2-1/2 hours.  A tough day, but doable. 

After again going down a hill in the wrong direction, we reversed course and reached the next town only to find another hotel that no longer was in the hotel business.  By now we had covered about 80 kilometers, farther than ever before.  Ever optimistic, we thought we still could be done by 7:30 or so.  We reckoned without narrow, steep, winding roads, and the delays caused by stopping in every town to look at maps and enquire after hotels.  Some of the hills were tough – my legs were cramping and I found it was a lot easier and almost as fast to get off and walk up the hill.  Roger did not have as tough a time as he has been biking longer, and has regularly taken 40-45 kilometer trips around Lyon.  

Finally, about 7:15PM, he called his brother-in-law, Gerard, who managed to get us a reservation at a great hotel in Seyssel.  After struggling up and down a few more hills, we hit a fairly flat stretch for the last six miles or so, arriving at the hotel at about 8:45PM, more than 11 hours and 110 kilometers after stepping off the train. 

A couple of hotel staff were taking a break outside, and Roger asked if the kitchen was still open – ‘no, sorry’ was the reply and Roger’s face fell about four feet before he caught on to the joke. 



David at dinner - sunburned



 

The hotel was great – run by a man and his wife, with assistance from their two-year old daughter, right on the river, with an open-air dining area. 

Rhone bridge Seyssel

Hotel in Seyssel; dining area in center, bridge is to right

Bridge from dining area

I extracted a promise from Roger that I could sleep in ‘til 9 the next day if I wanted and we agreed that we would not push it the next day….

Part I - The Next Great Bike Adventure, or, Roger and David bite off more than they can comfortably chew.

After the successful trip by bike last year [see blog posts in June, 2012], along the Rhone from Lyon to Arles, we talked about doing the other end of the Rhone bike route, from Lac Leman [Lake Geneva] to Lyon.  The route is a bit shorter – about 270 kilometers as opposed to about 330 kilometers, but parts are more urban [through Geneva], and parts more isolated and remote than last year's route. Last Spring we spent five days on the trip, an average of 60-70 kilometers per day.  As I was the least fit, least experienced member of the crew, and handled it reasonably well, I entered into this year’s edition with more confidence and comfort than last year.  We decided to take the train out and ride back, so as to be generally going down-valley.

We had planned to get under way in May, but this Spring has been unusually wet in Europe, with much rain and some flooding on the rivers.  After adjusting schedules and weather predictions, we finally caught the train for the lakeside town of Evian-les-Bains, about 40 kilometers east of Geneva, on the shores of Lac Leman, Wednesday, June 12.  We had originally talked of going to Geneva, but decided to start at Evian-les-Bains so we could do some scenic riding along the lake.  Further complicating matters, we had decided that we were going to avoid staying overnight in Switzerland, as the prevailing opinion was that it is too expensive.  We had, we thought, located some towns with hotels before we left.  We were going to be the same three as last year – Tony, Roger, and David, but just days before our departure, Tony fell heavily on his side, resulting in some painful bruising that forced him to drop out.  Not a good omen, as it turned out – not a serious thing, but certainly something that one would prefer to not have happen.

Originally, we had planned to catch the 8:25AM train at Gare Part-Dieu, near us, getting us, with a change of trains, into Evian-les-Bains at about 11:30.  We would then have lunch and ride about 35 kilometers to the border town of Douvaine and stay the night.  That way we would not have to tackle Geneva at rush hour and then find a place to stay on the other side.  However, after consulting with SNCF, the French national railway company, we were advised to catch the 6:25AM train from Gare Perrache in Lyon in order to be sure to be able to get our bikes aboard comfortably.  We then naively assumed we could, with the earlier start, get through Geneva the same day, and still easily find a place to stay in a French village on the other side.  Seemed like a great idea, as we started off from Gare Perrache for the scenic train trip to Lac Leman.  The best laid plans….

Roger and David at Gare Perrache - note the Time!

Ready to Leave

 

And, here are the Pix!

Somehow, I knew Brigitte would send the pictures as soon as I published the recipes!  And, here they are:

Taking care of "business" before we get to work (with the help of a little Japanese wine).

Here we are at work in Misa's lovely kitchen. 

Sueli and the first course.  As you can see they are works of art, so Brigitte took more than one picture.

 

Cooking the main dish (with saki and other interesting ingredients).

 

 

On to dessert.

Keep stirring the caramel, Ling!  Now that we have everything ready, what do we do with it?  (It never occurred to me that they wouldn't know how to "build" a sundae.)  So, I demonstrated - then there was a friendly competition to see who could build the best one.  This one in the picture is Misa's.

 

 Misa's lovely table in the dining room.

Our last get-together of the year will include husbands.  Should be interesting!