Day 1 Biarritz to Bielle (vallee d'Ossau)

 The day was supposed to be 93 miles at 7,300 feet of climbing.  The actual numbers:

94.1 miles, 7,038 feet--I haven't checked with everyone else to see what their Garmins read for climbing.  I've noticed mine tends to read a little lower than many others.

Here's the little course action to awe and inspire😉:


Biarritz to Bielle (vallee d'Ossau)

Our hotel for two nights at the beginning and the final night, 9/10. 

Hotel au bon Coin, Biarritz


The stinkin' Garmin was giving me fits.  It froze completely twice--no reaction from the lap button or the start/stop button.  Only recourse is to hold in the power button and do a soft reboot.  It cycles through and comes back to the save/discard ride screen where you then hit the start/stop button and luckily it picks up where I left off.  I learned this all by accident when riding with Bill and Nancy Vanderslice a few weeks ago when the Garmin did the same thing.  In addition, I am forced to stop and get off the bike to recalibrate the power meter and I have to stop the navigation function and re-load the course as if starting over.  It's really a PITA.  Garmin's are glitchy and need to improve--but they've been so long without any significant competition to force their hand.  There are a few up-and-comers, with their own limitations.  Maybe that will force them to re-think their products completely.  Otherwise, as they were talking about yesterday in the group--the most often heard words during rides are "f*%&ing Garmin."

 It's a little warm--and far more humid than I'm used to, but it's actually bearable.  There were a couple of climbs that, for whatever reason, were very warm, air was very still--I was afraid that the entire remainder of the ride would be the same.  It was just in those sections, though. It was still warm afterwards, but it was OK.

I probably started off a little faster than I really should have--but it was feeling so effortless.

It was a great ride though.  I cannot, with my limited writing skills, truly do it justice.  The roads are fantastic and lightly traveled for the most part.  We ride through small towns, each dominated by an oversized cathedral.  There are many tree lined stretches of road, like you see in the movies where there are trees lined up along both sides of the road--not sure why they do that, seems odd to have large immovable objects so close to where cars travel at high speeds.  But. . . you don't see many roadside memorials, either, so maybe they're more careful than we are in the states.  Surely they must have distracted drivers, right?  Geez--if we had tree-lined streets in the US like they do here there would be folks barreling into them all the time.

It's pretty like Napa Valley pretty, but without all the people and traffic.  The towns are smaller and quieter.  Nothing like Calistoga on a Saturday afternoon.  Nothing like Silverado Trail.  It's very green.  There is a lot of livestock around--cattle and sheep mostly.

We came across our first sheep debris field today.  When they move the sheep from field to field they use the roads.  It's a huge deal here.  Here's a photo from 2010 taken in Provence near Mt Ventoux to give you an idea of what I mean:  

So all of those little sheep don't wait to go poop when they get to the fields--they poop where they are.  So all the little sheep poop (looks like rabbit droppings) ends up on the road and we get to ride through it. It's not bad as long as it hasn't been raining.  If it's rained--it gets everywhere. All over your bike, up your back, a little less up the front because the downtube of the bicycle deflects some of it--but not all.  You learn very quickly to keep your mouth closed.  The bit we rode through today was a short stretch, maybe 50 yards, and it was more-or-less dry (it hadn't been rained on, but it still flies around a bit).

It's weird, too, standing by them as they go by because you can feel all of the heat rising out of the flock. 

August appears to be the month of festivals in the Basque region.  We saw signs in just about every town announcing the dates, several ending just yesterday.  One ran for 5 days ending yesterday. They close the stretch of road that we rode on--which is significant because there aren't a lot of alternate ways around the area.  It was funny because there were several cars still parked in the road--not on the shoulder, of just off the road.  They were IN THE ROAD, the owners probably sleeping off the festivities somewhere close by.  The signs of the party were all over the side of the road and on the road--leftover garbage, not a lot, but enough to know there'd been a lot going on.  The garbage bags were still hung along the fences lining the road.  I have a feeling they take there festivals pretty seriously.      

It was a tough ride, long-ish day.  I think I ate enough.  Loaded up on everything I could find once we got to the latest hotel (L'Ayguelade--rated No. 1 in Bielle, France, in Trapadvisor).  Of course it's the only hotel in Bielle.  I like it, the people are nice.  The room's nice.  Dinner was very good.  Some serious thunderstorms going on, lot's of rain (not Houston-like rain, but a good ol' thunderstorm).  Should be clear for us by morning.

Short video shot by another rider with me, in my usual spot sucking wheels.

Tomorrow--Col d'Aubisque--a 12 mile climb, did it in 2006, hard climb, hoping I can feel recovered enough to make a good go of it.  Feeling a little timid. . . . 

Eve of. . .

. . . Destruction?  Calamity?  Fatigue?  Insanity?

Tomorrow the real riding starts with 93 miles and an advertised 7300 feet of climbing.  Here's a rundown of the trip:

	Stage	Distance	Climbing
1	Biarritz to Bielle (vallee d'Ossau)	93	7,300
2	Bielle to Mane	111	10,400
3	Mane to Mirepoix	97	5,700
4	Mirepoix to Collioure	128	8,700
Rest	Collioure
5	Collioure to Quillan	90	8,465
6	Quillan to Saint Pierrre de Dessus - next to Foix	79	8,652
7	Saint Pierrre de Dessus to Mane	93	11,000
8	Mane to Saint Lary Soulon	92	14,600
Rest	Saint Lary-Soulon
9	Saint Lary Soulon to Saint Sauvin	92	12,600
10	Saint Sauvin to Arette	65	8,600
11	Arette to Osses	86	12,200
12	Osses to Biarritz	79	6,700
	Totals	1,105	114,917
	Daily Mean	92	9,576

Today was just a day to make sure the bike works, that I work, that the Garmin works with the Europe maps I loaded a few weeks ago.  Following is a link to the short route I rode today.  Note the weird directions taken right at the beginning and right at about 5-6 seconds in.  Pffft. . . soooo frustrating.  The Garmin signals when you're off course and it kept telling me I was off course no matter which direction I chose from the roundabout right there at the 5-6 second mark.  I had trouble viewing the map (actually making sense of the map I viewed since it was hard to move the visible image on the Garmin's screen to where it made sense).  I FINALLY figured it out after what must have been 15 minutes.  I think I went through that same roundabout 5-6 times.  I couldn't tell if any of the locals noticed--I don't think so, it was too busy of any intersection.That section of the ride was covered on the way out and the way back and I think, somehow, the Garmin was mildly confused. 

https://www.relive.cc/view/1154311470

Anyway, once I got back on track you'll see two more little wrong turns--see if you can spot them.

Short day, nice ride.  Fine roads, a little busy in some parts, but never felt threatened.  One weird thing I notice with French drivers--French drivers around here anyway--is that they pull up REALLY fast to intersections and stop signs, like they're going to run it.  Then they see you and they stop and back-up.  I'm going to have to be extra mindful of that.

In a little hamlet of Arbonne just outside of town there was a little Basque festival of some kind.  They had the main road cordoned off--I could ride through on my bike.  There was a "pelota basca", or, literally, Basque ball--term used for various Basque ball sports, including Jai Alai.  This pelota basca I saw was handball in an open area, not like the handball courts played on in the U.S., and played with a much harder ball than we use.  There appeared to be a little tournament going on with two pairs of boys, probably 10-12 years old.  I wonder what happens to their hands after a lifetime of this stuff. 

After getting back, took a shower and walked downtown and the beaches to look around.  Some random shots:

La Côte des Basques

Port Vieux

Hotel Au Bon Coin - The first two nights and the last night.

Rocher de la Vierge (Basque)- Rock of the Virgin

 You can just catch a glimpse of her on the top of the rock.  

Grande Plage  

Plage--Basque for Playa, which is Spanish for

Beach!

Grande Plage--again

First Couple of Days Ramblings

First Couple of Days Ramblings (made worse by the fact that the flight to Biarritz this morning has been delayed thus allowing me too much time to ramble). 

You know they used to say Sacramento was such a great place to live cuz it was only 90 minutes to the Bay Area?  I guess it comes down to the definition of "Bay Area". I used think they meant San Francisco.  Maybe they now mean Hercules?  Or maybe Pinole?  San Francisco is 2 hours on a good day. 

I got out plenty early--I was at Aunt Helen's by about 10:45, left there at 11.  Nothing happened at the airport.  I expected them to give me grief somewhere along the line about my bags being too heavy.  I held my breath when they put the bike box on the scale.  It was 50 lbs 7 oz--7 oz over.  Didn't matter, she didn't give it a second look--or even a first look.  She didn't look at the scale at all.  All that hand wringing I did over the extra 10 lbs I had in there was for nought.  She did give my suitcase a second look.  It as a little heavier than I intended it to be because I had to move 10 lbs from my bike box to the suitcase (9 lbs 9 oz as it turns out).  So I ended up checking the suitcase, too.  Which was kind of a relief, actually.  There was nothing but clothes in it, and some food I moved from the bike box).  I thought they charged $80 for the 2nd bag, which is why I wanted to carry it on.  Nope--just had to pay of the bike, and I knew that was coming.

It was relaxing at SFO--plenty of time.  The only complaint about SFO is the lack of decent food--no good choices in the terminal.

As has become custom--here's the plane.  Big ol' ungainly lookin' thing. 
Seat 22D.  22E was empty--that was where Linda was supposed to sit :-(

The seat in front of me was empty, too.  And the aisle was to my left.  It was still economy seating, but at least I could stretch my legs out full length under the seat in front of me without worrying about a person sitting in it and crushing my kneecaps when they reclined the seat. 

I tried out one of those neck donuts--like those little butt donuts when you have hemorrhoids, but for your neck.  I bought an inflatable version--saves space and all the cool travelers use them.  I can't say that it helped all that much.  I suppose it was better than the usual paper towel-filled sack they usually give you.  Maybe I was wearing it upside down, or something. 















British Airways has superior food to Air France.  It seems the BA people were always bringing something out.  Dinner was some chicken chunks in some kind of cream sauce, some rice.  It was edible.  This was breakfast: 

It was about 3/8 of an inch thick.  I think it had ham.  And a little cheese. 

The movie selections were not all that great.  Watched Moonlight--edited to remove a certain epithet for a gay person, used twice--which needed to be left in because of the context in which it was being used--but left in 2 dozen "mother-f*%cker"s.  Not sure what else it was edited for.  I didn't realize Mahershala Ali's role was so small--he needed more screen time.  No reviews here, you can find those anywhere.  The there was a goofy Jack Reacher movie and The Big Lebowski.  By the end of TBL, there were only 3 hours to Paris so I tried to sleep.  I can never sleep on planes or trains.

Once at Charles de Gaulle, everything was fine.  It seemed to take forever to the through the visa check.  Turns out from the time I left the plane to the time I checked in at citizenM (the hotel) was only about 2 hours.

Once I had the bike and the bags on the cart and started to check out how far it was to citizenM I was getting worried.  I thought I'd just be able to walk over to it with the cart.  It turned out to be much further than I expected requiring a ride on a train/shuttle and, more importantly, I wouldn't be able to take the cart with me.  At the point where I would have had to ditch the cart, I would have had to manhandle the bike box, the big bag and my backpack down two flights of stairs (not much better if I'd used an elevator), get on the shuttle, get off the shuttle and go up a flight of stairs and then about a half mile to the hotel.  If I'd had the wheel kit from Crate Works to use with the bike box, it would have been manageable.  Without the wheels, and without a cart, lugging the three pieces all that way would have been miserable. 

Fortunately, there was a place to store baggage and, for 34 euros, I left the bike box.  I knew that the airport had a service like this, but when I'd looked on-line, it was much more expensive than what this company charged.  Worked like a charm.  Baggages du Monde, right across from the Sheraton in terminal 2E.  I'm going to use it again on 9/11 on my way back through CDG on the way home.  The only possible superior alternative would be to stay at the Sheraton--literally in the middle of terminal 2--nothing's more convenient.  It's over 200 euros/night, as compared to less than 100 at citizenM.  Some trade-offs, all costs considered, maybe it's not such a bad deal for the convenience.

Charles de Gaulle suffers from a worse case of lousy food than SFO.  Brioche Doree is a little fast-food style eatery all over the place--dry baguettes with minimal "stuff" on it, though they always seem to include some hard boiled egg. 

I was exhausted and wanted to lie down and sleep so badly.  I had to stay up til at least 9pm to get on a regular sleeping schedule.  I couldn't stay in the room because I would have had to lie on the bed to watch TV--sleep.  I could have gone to the lounge and played around on the computer--sleep.  I had to get out and walk around.  I wanted to go to Paris city center, which is only 20 euros round trip by train and less than an hour away.  But I decided to wait because, again, I was exhausted.  I wouldn't have been able to enjoy it much. Instead, I walked around near the hotel until the sidewalks ended (it wasn't that far).  Then I took the shuttle back to the terminals to walk around.  I covered every inch of the Terminal 2--from A to F. There is a whole lot of airport there.

citizenM Hotel was interesting, pretty cool.  Totally function over form, but the form wasn't all that bad, either.  The rooms are very small--a place to sleep and a place to shower--there is one chair.  The TV is oriented over the foot of the bed on the wall and the only way to watch it is from the bed.

That's the entire room, right there.  I don't know if they have larger rooms, like for families--this is perfectly fine for up to two people.  The bed's huge.  

 I was on the 3rd floor (2nd cuz they call the ground floor 0), right about the right knee of the woman to the far left. 

The toilet and shower were contained in this little glass enclosure.  The sink was across from it to the left.  

The room I had was exceptionally quiet.  Maybe it was because of where it was situated, right in the corner at the end of a hallway, no room across from it.  Even the doors close quietly--they don't slam, the latch is quiet.  I didn't hear anyone above or next door.  Being at an airport you'd think there'd be a bunch of aircraft noise.  Nope. It was a great room.  I wished they'd allowed for climate control--it was a little stuffy and needed some air.  Beyond that, it was a great room.  The staff was friendly and helpful--I wonder what they say to each other about us goof ball travelers amongst themselves. . . .

 
The rooms, or at least my room, while very small, was very comfortable for sleeping and cleaning up.  The hotel gives plenty of room for stretching out and hanging around in their huge lobby.  They have computers set up (about 8-10 iMacs) , electrical outlets (the three major types--the US, UK and European versions) and USB ports all over the place, a bar, some food, etc.  You hang out in the lobby, sleep in the room. If you're traveling

They're announcing that the flight's been delayed 1 hr 20 mins.  Can I ramble any more. . . ?  I've run out of things to comment on. I did get two new downloads from Amazon Music:  the new The War on Drugs, A Deeper Understanding, and an older one from Brand New, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me.  Both very good.  Something to listen to while waiting.  And listening to Life After podcast. 

Departure

We left Finale Ligure for Nice on Saturday September 26, 2015.  Our scheduled departure was 11:45 a.m., we left with plenty of time to drop Linda off at the proper terminal, along with our luggage, and then for me to drop the Kangoo at Renault Eurodrive's airport office.  Easy. No stress. 

I knew that the Renault office was supposed to be near "Terminal 2 Gate A4".  Renault provided more than enough info to find the place--I should have had it with me and paid attention, or at least given it a serious look before we left.  Yes, that's foreshadowing. 

Everything was going smoothly, and stress-free--the goal for the day.  The drive to Nice was uneventful and pleasant. 

We found the airport without a problem.  We found the proper departure terminal.  We offloaded the bike and bags and the wheelchair.  Loaded everything onto a luggage cart and wheeled everything, and Linda, to just inside the terminal.  Linda waited, seated in the wheelchair, with the large bike box and our bags in the cart--kind of just sitting there in the middle of the terminal all by her lonesome--the car drop-off shouldn't have taken more than a half hour, max.  Of course that all depends on how well executed the drop off was. 

I got back in the car and drove around to where I had seen the signs for the rental car companies.  Eurodrive was sort of a rental car company, so I figured they must be where all the other rental car companies are.  There was a large 2-story building at one end of the airport that I figured must be near Eurodrive.  My first time by it, I couldn't see any sign of Eurodrive or Renault.

I went around twice more before I finally made the fateful decision to enter the large building with the names of all the rental car companies but for the one I was looking for.  BIG mistake.  I felt doomed as soon as I entered past the gate and realized that Eurodrive was not in this building and that there was no way back out without going forward through the garage building.  At first blush, this shouldn't have raised any immediate alarms because, you figure, if you can get in, you just have to find the exit and get out, right? Ummm. . . not so fast. 

After quickly realizing I was in some trouble, I tried to talk with some French dudes working there washing cars to ask them how to get out--they wouldn't give me the time of day.  I think the one guy had to be swearing at me. 

I came across a woman that did speak English, an employee of one of the rental car companies, and she sort of pointed me in the right direction to get out and told me about needing a "token" or "ticket" to get out.  She said I had to go downstairs and get this ticket.  It hadn't yet dawned on me what exactly she meant. 

I found the exit, but it was closed off with two gates.  So, somewhat stupidly, I drove up to the first gate.  It opened automatically--or perhaps I pressed a button to raise it, I don't remember--and I drove up to the second gate.  The first gate closed behind me.  Great.  OK, there must be a button to press at the little box to open the 2nd gate.  There was a button.  I pressed it. It made sound like it was dialing somewhere but no one answered.  And the gate didn't open.  I pressed it again.  No answer.  Once more.  No answer.  Was I swearing now?  Oh, probably.

Turns out the first raises automatically--yep, sure does.  The second opens only with this ticket that I was supposed to get.  I had no ticket to place into the second gate control. . . so  it wouldn't open.  So I'm stuck there in this rental car stuck between the two gates.  I couldn't go forward, I couldn't go backward. Stuck.  Time ticking away.  All that precious stress-free time.  So. . . I got out of the car and left it there in between the two gates in search of a ticket.  Fortunately, there were two such exit gates so I wasn't blocking anyone else from leaving--though maybe that would have been better had I been blocking the only way out and I could have gotten help earlier.

I ran over to the rental offices and all of the rental places had huge lines.  I went to the shortest line I could find and the guy there said he couldn't give me a ticket.  I don't think he worked for a rental company.  I don't remember what the place was, but I don't think he could give me a ticket if he wanted to.  But he didn't offer any suggestions, either.  In fact, he told me that I couldn't get a ticket from anyone there.  I was getting more frustrated by the minute.  

Exasperated, I kind of ran around in circles trying to think of what to do.  I decided to run over to Terminal 2 Gate A4 that I'd seen referenced in the instructions from Eurodrive.  No one was around to ask any questions. I couldn't find anyone there.  No one to tell me where to go.  I walked out the front door about to have a nervous breakdown when I looked up and to my left and I saw the Eurodrive office.

I ran over to that office, explained to the very nice, very patient English-speaking man working for Eurodrive that their Kangoo was stuck in between two gates in the rental complex across the way.

He told me he couldn't give me a ticket to use to open the gate because he didn't have any.  He asked me if I hadn't seen the directions given in the Eurodrive reservation.  Ummm. . . .

He told me the only alternative was to get a ticket from one of the rental car companies.

So back I run to the rental offices wondering what the heck I was going to say next since the first guy wouldn't give me one. I figured I was screwed and Linda would be stuck sitting in the middle of the terminal until we'd missed our flight and we'd have to fly out days later. 

I went to the opposite side of where the first guy was--seems I remember it was an Enterprise office.  I was probably not very patient, I was in a near panic.  I was able to explain well enough to the fellow I cornered that I needed a ticket to insert into the machine to open the silly gate. He gave me a ticket, without asking any questions.  I am sure that he thought I was an idiot, pushy American.  Man, I was near a nervous breakdown by that time. When I inserted the ticket and the gate opened the sense of relief was incredible.  Freedom!  I made my way around to Eurodrive, the correct way.  Turned the car in and signed the papers.  I walked back out to Terminal 2 Gate A4--again--to pick up a bus to the terminal where I'd left poor Linda.

This was the 3rd time I left Linda abandoned on the trip, the first time in the airport in Geneva when we first arrived and I went to retrieve the rental car.  The 2nd time in Pisa.  And then the airport in Nice upon departure while trying to return the rental car.  Good grief, what will I be doing when I'm old? 

I don't know how long I was gone.  It seemed hours.  When I left Linda in the middle of the air terminal, she was kind of sitting there in the open, no one around.  When I finally did get back, there were people everywhere and Linda was almost swallowed up in the crowd.  Poor little Linda.  We did make it through to our flight with no additional issues--most likely thanks to Linda being in the wheelchair getting us through security quickly.