Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Paris Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our time in Paris.











Back to School


Ben and Lisa both started back to school yesterday. It's kind of crazy really. Seems like the summer just disappeared on us.

One thing that struck both Lisa and I is that Ben now takes naps at school on a mat and eats lunch in the common lunch room. It really feels like he's growing up and he's not even 2 yet. A very weird feeling...




Friday, August 3, 2007

France Pictures

Here are some pictures from the trip:


Climbing the Port de Bales on Day One.


At the summit of Port de Bales awaiting the peloton.

Decending Port de Bales. The mountains were really beautiful.

View from my hotel room in Lourdes. Our home for three nights.


View from halfway up the Tourmalet on Day 2.


Looking back down the mountain from just below the summit of the Tourmalet.


One of those really discouraging signs. On this one they neglect to mention that the first 500m is at 5% and last 500 at 15%.



Getting ready to tackle the Col d' Aubisque (the big thing in the background) on Day 3. This was a really fantastic day of both riding and getting to view the Tour de France.


We viewed the stage from the village of Gourette, about 4 km below the summit of the Aubisque.



Levi Leipheimer attacking Michael Rasmussen (in yellow) on their way up the mountain. Rasmussen won the stage but was kicked out of the Tour later that day for missing drug tests and lying about where he was.




After a few more days of riding between France and Spain we finally finished up in Paris. Later this afternoon we would watch the Tour arrive in town.


Finally, enjoying the Tour from Paris.

We're Back

We're back and recovering from the jet lag. Yesterday was a long 21 hours of travel due to a five hour mechanical delay in the Paris airport. Oh well. We are home and happy to be back. It was a great trip overall. The bike riding was fantastic, the Tour de France was a lot of fun and Lisa and I really enjoyed our time in Paris.

It was also great for Lisa to get a chance to enjoy the finish and closing party with me. She was able to meet everyone from the trip and get to hear some of the stories first hand. Long day for her though as we went had a full day on Sunday with the final stage viewing, a closing dinner and then out on the town.

We got to see much of Paris (most of it on foot, some of it unintentional) but really had a great time. One other couple from the bike tour spent a few extra days in Paris so that was fun to see them from time to time over the week.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for reading. Hopefully, we'll be better about keeping the blog up to date on our goings on. I'll post some pictures soon as well.

Llew