We Came, We Saw, Our Feet Hurt

Today we finally found all of the rude people in Paris, they are all of the tourists crowded around the Mona Lisa. Each one of them trying to take a blurry shot of their precious child in front of the famous painting. Yes, today was one of those cranky tourists days. Dave and I marched across the city and took in a lot of the must-see sights.

We started late, after sleeping in a little. But it was a good idea, because apparently there were some early-morning thunderstorms. A good reason to stay in bed an extra hour. Then we headed out, grabbed breakfast quickly at a coffee shop and worked our way toward our first stop of the day - Notre Dame.

The cathedral was as beautiful as I remember it. We were impressed with the towering ceilings and stained glass. And I think we both agreed that our favorite part was looking up at the flying buttresses from the small park behind the cathedral.




From there, we walked over to St. Chapelle chapel. The small chapel was a true gem and I'm glad we waited in line to go inside. All of the sides of the building were brightly colored stained glass windows. All of windows met at the ceiling which was painted blue with gold stars. It was enough to just sit on one of the chairs in the chapel and stare up at the colored lights and delicate ceiling.

We had already been dealing with tourists and crowds up until that point, but nothing could prepare us for what we encountered at the next stop, the Louvre. The building, while gorgeous, is large enough to house the population of a small country. It is massive. We walked into the main square with the famous glass pyramid - and we were thankful to have purchased tickets in advance so we didnt have to wait in the long lines. We went in a side door and right into the building.

Slightly overwhelmed, we followed the signs on the wall with the image of the Mona Lisa, winding our way through gorgeous marble hallways filled with Grecian sculptures and Italian paintings. To me, the building itself and the way that the art was displayed was more interesting than the actual art.

Finding the Mona Lisa was easy, just look for the massive crowd and the dozens of flashing cameras (blatantly ignoring the no cameras signs). I got a better view of the painting through other people's viewfinders than by looking at it directly!

We were starting to feel claustrophobic. The entire museum was absolutely packed with tours and people. The only section we were really interested in was the ancient Egyptian artifacts, so we worked our way over there. But the museum is such a maze that it took about 30 mins to find that section and then, when we decided we had enough, it took almost an hour to wind our way out to the exit. Yes, it was the Louvre, and yes it's full of priceless and important artifacts, but we've never been so glad to feel fresh air again!

By this point, it was 3pm and we were tired and hungry. We decided to limp our way to the Paris Opera House and to then visit the famous department store Printemps that is a few blocks behind it. We must have hit the urban city section of Paris. Which, on any other day, would probably be great - but we were tired and hungry and the place was packed with cars and people. We finally found a place to eat lunch and restore our energy. But it was only enough fuel for a quick visit to the department store (which was incredible. If I had energy, fresh legs and a lot of money to spend, I'd have a field day in there!). But Dave and I just looked at each other and we didn't even need to say it outloud: a nap was needed.

We we worked our way on the metro back to our hotel and arrived here around 5:30. Shoes off and in comfy clothes, I decided to write my blog entry now so I didn't need to worry about it tonight. The plan for the rest of the day is, first, a nap...followed by dinner out near our hotel. Then most likely it will be early to bed. First thing tomorrow, Dave will pick up our rental car and we'll start our 8 hours of driving into the alps. But for now, naptime!

Americans in Paris

Today we fell in love with Paris. I can't even count how many times Dave turned to me and said, "I really like this city." We have been going since 8:30 this morning and we milked Paris until midnight. We had so many great experiences today, from sights to sounds to taste - it will be difficult to share them all.

The day started after a solid 9 hours of sleep. The sun poured into the windows and I actually forgot that I was supposed to feel jetlagged. The first thing I did was get outside for a 5-mile run through Luxenbourg Park. I could get used to running there every morning. There was a nice path around the entire edge of the park along the fence. I ran for about a quarter mile and then the park opened up to a gorgeous garden with perfectly manicured lawns (with dozens of people lined up in perfect rows on pilates mats) and the most vivid pink and purple flowers I think I've ever seen. And at the end of the gardens was a huge palace that has been used as a home, a prison and as a Senate. Running around that park loop three times was a great way to start the day.

When I got back, I woke Dave up and we headed out to explore. First things first, we were starving, and Dave needed his coffee. We wandered into the heart of St. Germain des-Pres and found the famous Cafe de Flore (frequented by literary types in its early days). We sat out on the sidewalk and had a wonderful late breakfast. I had a vegetable quiche and cafe au lait. Dave had a ham and cheese omelet.




Fully fueled for the day, we headed along the Seine over to the Musee D'Orsay to soak in some great impressionist art. We spent about 90 mins there staring at works by Degas, Renior, Monet, Rodin, Van Gogh. It was wonderful.

Then we took a long walk through the Place de la Concorde (previewing where the Tour will be rolling in two weeks from now). From there, we took the metro up to Montmarte. We were spilled into hilly, narrow streets lined with stores, markets and cafes. Sure, it was touristy and crowded, but I loved it anyway. We wandered up to the famous square filled with painters selling their art. I vividly remember going there 11 years ago with my mom. She told me to wander around the square and find the artist that I liked the best and she would buy me a painting. I did that, and found a small canvas painting of a Paris city scape. My mom took a picture of me with the artist and we glued it to the back. Well this time, Dave and I wandered the square - and there he was, the same artist, selling the same paintings. And I still liked them best. I talked with him and he said that he's been painting there for 35 years. I told him the story of how I bought a painting from him 11 years ago. He was very kind and very happy that I came back. The moment made me realize how special it was that my mom took me to these places when I was young, and why the trip was so important to her. I missed her a lot and was very thankful for the memories we made together.

We headed further up the hill of Montmarte to the beautiful church of Sacre-Coeur that paints the sky in the hills high above Paris. The views of the city from the hill were spectacular. But it was toursity, with a street performer doing a not-so-good rendition of a Michaeol Jackson song in a big group sing along on the steps leading up to the church. Nevertheless, it was beautiful - and an important site to see.

We had long since burned through our breakfast, and so we did a typical Parisian thing and bought crepes and sat on the side of the road in the square and enjoyed our yummy treat.

From Montmarte we took the Metro back toward our hotel, and I took Dave over to see Luxenbourg Park. Apparently all of Paris enjoys that park in the afternoons. It was a gorgeous day and we sat with our feet in the giant fountain and people watched until it was time to go back to the hotel to change for dinner.




We had a 40-min break in the hotel room - which I used to Skype with my grandparents back home (where all is going well!). Then we headed out for a night on the town. I had made 8pm dinner reservation at La Boussole, a few blocks from our hotel. It was a wonderful little restaurant with stone walls, hardwood floors and cafe chairs. It's specialty was French food with a heavy use of spices. I orderd goat cheese wrapped with filo pastry, followed by a wonderful lamb tarine with couscous. Dave had carpacchio as a starter and poppy-seed crusted chicken with an avocado cream sauce. It was all really tasty.

The great thing about Paris is that it stays light until about 10:30 in the summertime. It was 945 when we were done with dinner and we headed over to the illuminated Eiffel Tower. It did not disappoint. We sat in the park under the tower and just stared up at the momument for awhile. Then we walked until we were standing right under it looking up. And all of a sudden we heard a huge roar of a crowd nearby. It turned out that on the other side of the tower the city had a giant screen set up and thousands of people were gathered to watch the final game of the World Cup. It was quite a celebration and it was great to be there. When Spain won, fireworks went off and people ran through the streets celebrating with their Spanish flags draped around them. The metro was pretty animated with Spain fans on the ride back to St. Germain des-Pres as well.




Back in our home neighborhood, Dave found some lemon ice cream and we wandered back through the side streets, holding hands, tired, but happy and found ourselves back at our hotel around midnight. All in all, it was a wonderful, very full, first day in Paris. Now, we're beginning to remember what jetlag feels like. Time for bed!

Paris in a Haze

Touchdown France. We made it. Dave and I are here in Paris and everything is great. After a few close calls and a long flight across the pond, we arrived in France in a jetlagged haze - and had a wonderful first day here, thanks to our good friend Anne and her family.

We got to the airport with no problem on Friday (thank you for the ride Kipp!). In fact, we got there three hours early and there was no line at the ticket counter. We rolled right up with our luggage and giant bike boxes and got checked in with no problems. In fact, they only charged us $100 to fly our bikes (which was less than expecetd...thank you, Air Canada!).

We then had two hours to kill at the airport, so we found a bar and took over a table. Dave kicked off the vacation with a few beers and we both made final check in calls with friends and family to say goodbye.

And just when we thought everything was going smoothly, our plane to Montreal was delayed. First by a few minutes, and ultimately by at hour. This did not bode well for our hour and 20 min connection time in Montreal for our plane to Paris. There went all of our early vacation buzz. We both sat on that hour-long plane ride completely stressed out about making our connecting flight. And as the plane hovered above Montreal for an extra 20 mins, we saw our chances of catching our flight slipping away.

When we landed, we had 20 mins until our flight was supposed to leave - which was all eaten up by the plane on the tarmac. There were about six of us on the plane trying to make the connection. They let us off the plane first and so began our sprint across the Montreal airport.

We took off running! First we found customs (yes, we had to go through customs for the five minutes we planned on staying in Canada). The six of us became fast friends. And after a long haul across the airport, out of breath and shaking, we made it to our gate where the plane for Paris (which was 40 mins delayed) was just starting to board. PHEW! Annoyance averted!

So then we started the next leg of our journey wide awake, heart racing and adreneline pumping. But luckily the flight to Paris felt very empty. Dave and I had a row to ourselves. We spread out, settled in and had a very nice, uneventful 7 hour flight across the ocean.

When we arrived in Paris the next morning, we were in the typical European flight sleep-deprived haze. The airport was very efficient - customs took all of five minutes and we found our luggage and bikes in another five mins. We rolled out of there and found our friend Anne who was picking us up with her family van.

And let me tell you...what a nice feeling it is to arrive in another country and have a friendly, familiar face there to pick you up. It felt like coming home to see Anne there to pick us up. We were tired, but very happy - and got our luggage in her car and headed out of the airport to see Anne's family home.

Anne grew up in Louveciennes, a western suburb of Paris. It's a very typical French town with narrow streets, a quaint downtown and nice neighborhoods. We drove by Anne's elementary school and to her very nice house with a red roof.

Her mom, dad and brother were there to give us a warm welcome. We felt badly because we were so jetlagged, but we still had a lovely visit with her family. Her mom made us a wonderful lunch. We sat outside in her garden and had tomatoes with mozerella, melon with ham slices, fresh bread, cheeses, wine and a homemade nectarine, apricot tart for dessert. Perfect.

After a nice visit, Anne drove us in to Paris to find our hotel. We arrived at Hotel Luxenbourg Parc around 5 in the afternoon and checked in. The hotel is lovely, just off the northern edge of Luxenbourg Parc. We have a great corner room with windows looking down into the quaint side alley and across the street to the park. We got here just in time to watch the end of Stage 7 of the tour on TV (watching it live on Eurosport was great!) and had a small, dangerous nap, that made us realize just how tired we were!

Anne got us to rally and took us out into Paris around 6. We walked to the nearest metro and took it up to Rue de Rivoli (a main shopping drag in Paris) and began our first walk to take in the sights of the city. We walked down to the Hotel de Ville (my favorite buidling in the city) and walked across a bridge over the Seine. And then we wandered through some neighborhoods behind the Hotel de Ville and looked at wonderful streets filled with shops and cafes. Then we headed to one of Anne's favorite cafes in Paris - where we just happened upon a table outside with a prime people-watching vantage point.


We had a wonderful dinner. I had a tomato tart follwed by a salad with ham, duck, goatcheese and other goodies. Anne had an avocado salad with the same salad that I had. Dave ordered onion soup (NOT called French onion soup here) and a tomato mozerella sandwich on a baguette. We were fading very fast and had no energy for coffee or dessert. Anne said she could see our eyes starting to close from across the table. She needed to get us home. So we paid our bill, walked back to the metro to take the train back to our hotel. Then, as far as I can remember now, we trudged back to our hotel, hugged our dear friend goodbye, stumbled up to our room and literally fell into bed.

Either it was all a dream - or we've actually arrived in France. But given the sun shining through our balcony windows this morning and the smells of fresh crepes from the alley below wafting up - I think we're actually here! Time to go explore!

Out of Office Message

Strategic Packing

We are up late tonight finally packing for the trip. I've never traveled somewhere for 18 days...this is going to take some serious thought. Each of us is limited to one carry-on bag, a suitcase and our bike boxes. And we have to pack for hiking, cycling, running, dinners out, the beach and summit and valley climates. We have to pack computers, ipods, cameras, bikes, helmets, water bottles, maps, guidebooks, voltage converters. Oh yeah, and shoes. Lots of shoes.

So far so good! We've managed to fit everything and keep it under weight limits. I'm almost glad that the weather is supposed to be in the high 80s/low 90s because we don't have to pack any cold-weather gear. Tank tops, sundresses and bike shorts thankfully don't take up too much room!

Well, this is probably the last blog post stateside. We are pulling everything together tomorrow morning and heading to the airport around noon. Then we'll be traveling through Montreal and then off to Paris. We arrive at the airport in Paris at 8:30 a.m. local time on Saturday morning. So...here it goes! We're off. Next time we post, we'll be jet lagged, but happily eating baguettes, cheese and wine!

Le Tour

On the eve of our trip across the pond to meet up with the Tour de France I thought it a good time to talk a bit about this year’s race and our plans to catch a few stages.

The Tour, a truly remarkable and grueling sporting event, will cover 3,642km (2263miles) over the course of 23 days and 21 stages. Starting in the Netherlands this year the Tour travels south into the Ardennes region of Belgium, across northern France and into the Alps. After four days in the Alps the Tour heads across south eastern France and the Massif Central and into the high peaks of the Pyrenees. Four epic stages traversing the long steep climbs bordering Spain will certainly determine the winner of this year’s tour with the decisive battle to likely unfold on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. If the outcome is still in doubt a final individual time trial in Bordeaux prior to the finishing stage into Paris will surely seal the victory.


Already five days in, the start to this year’s race has been memorable to say the least. The first three stages were crash-filled affairs consisting of rain slick roads, round-abouts, chaotic bunch sprints and 8 miles of Belgium and French cobblestones normally reserved for the great one-day spring classics of Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Oh and we can't forget the dog. Two of the overall favorites are already out of the tour and several others have lost considerable time, including unfortunately Nicole’s man Lance Armstrong (resulting from a flat tire on the cobbles at the worst possible time). My favorite rider, Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream), crashed on stage 2, broke 2 ribs, received 5 stitches over his eye and was forced to abandon. Terrible luck for a rider that finish 8th in the 2009 Tour and was a favorite for the podium this year.

Despite the bad turn of events early on we are still headed to France on Friday excited to meet up with one of the greatest sporting events in the world. It is the Tour de France after all – and with more than two weeks left, anything is possible.

Our plan is to do the touristy thing in Paris for three days before heading east to the Southern Alps to meet the tour when it finishes in Gap (Stage 10) on Bastille Day. This stage finish has a significant history as those familiar will remember the career ending crash by Joseba Beloki and Lance’s amazing shortcut through the field on the decent into Gap in 2003. video of crash They will travel that same road 7 years later.

The following day we will watch the start of stage 11 in Sisteron (Stage 11) before heading south to Antibes on the coast for a few days of lounging by turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

We again meet the tour in the Pyrenees during the finish of stage 15 into Bagnerès-de-Luchon. (Stage 15) This stage features the monster climb of the Port du Balès, coming only 21km from the finish. Nicole and I plan on being at the top of the Port du Balès as the riders begin their mad descent into Luchon.

The following day the epic stage 16 begins in Luchon and we will watch the riders roll out for a staggering 6 hrs in the saddle covering 200km, 4 mountains and 15,000ft of climbing. (Stage 16) The following day is a rest day for the Tour and we plan to do some exploration of the high Pyrenees by bike and by foot. A jaunt across the border in Spain just may be in order.

Stage 17 is considered the queen stage of the 2010 tour as it finishes on top of the highest pass in the Pyrenees, the 2115m (6,900ft) Col du Tourmalet. The final standings could very well be decided on top of this grand col. We will ride up the 12k west side of Tourmalet and the tour will be coming up the east side. Here are some pictures from the ‘09 tour as it climbed the same side we will be climbing. Tourmalet I’ll have more on our Tourmalet plans as we get closer.

Finally we will head back to Paris to spend a few days with our good friend Anne and meet the tour one last time as they finish on the Champs-Èlysèes.

I’ll post updates on our planned viewing spots along the route so that just maybe you can tune into Versus coverage that day and keep an eye out for us. I’ll also have more posting and pictures of bike rides we take during the trip. All assuming we have working Internet!

David

Training for a Vacation

Around the same time that Dave and I decided to travel to the Tour De France, I also decided that I wanted to be in shape for it. In fact, I was determined to be in the best shape of my life. If I was going to travel to the same mountains that the peleton would climb, I wanted to climb them too (granted not as fast!).

My training began last October. I had suffered a few years of set backs - ending with surgery that I had to have last year (which kept me from riding last year's LIVESTRONG Challenge in Philly). As soon as the docs said I could start working out again - I hit the gym. And the obsession started. I went to the gym almost every day all winter, even through the mega DC snow storms. And as soon as it was above 40 degrees I started running and cycling outside. In years past, I never got on my bike until after Memorial Day weekend each year, so this was a huge change in my life. This year, by the time Memorial Day weekend rolled around I had lost 40 pounds and had run my first half marathon!

Then Dave and I headed to Colorado for a week at the beginning of June to visit our good friend. We flew our bikes out with us so we could conquer some huge climbs at altitude. I figure if I could climb hills in the Rockies, then I could probably handle the Alps and Pyrenees. While we were out there, we had a couple epic rides (and some great runs too). My favorite ride was a 60-mile loop up a canyon out of Boulder, Co. We covered about 4500 ft of climbing and took in some incredible views. Two days later we drove out to Vail and rode the Vail pass. 45-miles, 4,000ft of climbing at 11,000ft altitude. All amazing. I just kept telling myself that if I hadn't been training for months and months, I would never have been able to experience those incredible accomplishments.

Since Colorado, I've been keeping up my training as much as possible. I'm out on the roads, either running or riding at least 5 or 6 days a week. Ten months ago, I was dragging myself to the gym on cold, dark nights - and now I'm about to get the big pay off!

And before I end this post, I want to thank my amazing husband for dragging me up countless climbs, carrying extra water bottles and cliff bars, fixing my bike, teaching me everything I need to know and pushing me to do my very best. I couldn't have done any of this without him. Next stop, the Alps! And then on to Tourmalet!