The Sight-Seeing Adventures

Okay, I’ve done a few blogs while in Paris, but I thought I’d do one to recap all of the really awesome things I did while in Paris and kind of a day by day recap of the neat things that went on.  With pictures, of course, because I took like 500 of them.  As always, if you want to check out the shots, go up to the top bar and go to the flickr link on the right.  Or just click [here].

Anyways, onwards!

Monday, August 15th

This was a travel day.  Since we were flying out of Houston I had to drive to my parents place on Sunday so that we could leave ultra early.  I just sat in the car and read while my mom drove.  I got to read a friend’s book that just got contracted, so it was super cool and exciting.

In Houston we parked at a hotel and were shuttled to the airport where we then had to wait for about four hours because my mother insisted that was the way to do international flights.  Even though we couldn’t check in for about two hours.  We were nervous about our bags, because my mom was flying with her bicycle in a semi-hard case, with her clothes in a backpack and her other gear in my checked luggage.  Getting that all under weight limit was really difficult, but we did it!  Most of the cyclists had to pay between $75 to $150 for their bikes, but we got by without having to pay more.  Woohoo!

Our adventure really began at the airport.  There were several other cyclists on our flight, so we all met up at the terminal and hung out, grabbed some lunch and whiled away the time until we boarded the nine hour flight.  Dear lord, that was one of my least favorite flights ever.  I don’t sleep on flights anyways, but typically they are at least comfortable.  I sweated the entire way there, the air conditioner was a pathetic excuse.  I at least read three books, so that was nice.

Tuesday, August 16th

We arrived in Paris mid-morning on Tuesday.  We used a big travel agency that coordinates the cyclists adventure on PBP.  They got us all from the airport in big charter buses, the bikes on a separate truck.  Oh my gosh, talk about freaking the poor cyclists out!  The truck didn’t show up at our hotels until later, so we had time to walk around a bit, grab some food and whatnot, and people were very vultcher like waiting for their bikes to be unloaded.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to go do stuff on Tuesday.  We really only got to check into our hotel, socialize and put bikes together.  Oh, and explore the Carefor, which is like the French WalMart.

Wednesday, August 17th

This was our mother-daughter Paris Day.  Because my mom was going to be doing bike stuff for about half of the time we were there, she only had a limited amount of time to do sight seeing.  In my research of what to see and do, I ran along an ad for a boat tour of Paris that you could jump off and on at a few different points.  It looked like a great way to see some of the highlights from the water without having to walk, and also being able to jump off and see some of them close up.

Unfortunately because of all of the family stuff going on, I didn’t get to research everything as much as I would have liked because a few of the stops I didn’t have any idea what there was to do in the areas.  But, we did see the highlights of the city, such as the tower, Notre Dame, and going by the Louvre and an old castle and chateau.

Of them all Notre Dame was my favorite.  We got to see paintings and things that hadn’t been touched up since they were made in the 1500′s, and real relics.  One of which is supposedly an actual piece of the crown of thorns Jesus wore on the cross.  I’m skeptical about that, but whatever.  The artistry of the things the relics were kept in was enough.

We took a trip out to Vincennes Chateau, which is both a chateau and an old castle (it’s the picture on the right).  It’s the chateau were the crazy king lived.  Seeing the old next to the ‘new’ was crazy cool.

We walked so freaking much, and I think honestly too much.  By the end of the day I hurt way bad!

Thursday, August 18th

We took off to London.  My mom thought Paris was okay, but really wanted to go to London.  I researched the prices and we talked about it, but I didn’t really think we would go.  The cost of going to the UK was way more than I thought it would be to take the bullet.  But, in the end my mom really wanted to go, so we went!  It took all of two hours to get from Paris, across France and the channel to London.  I was super bummed because I didn’t think to charge my ereader or bring my charger with me, so I read until I killed the battery on the train and napped a little.  Since we were just going for 24 hours we only took a change of clothes and the very bare necessities.

Since we were only there for 24 hours our goal was to see as much as we could as fast as possible.  That meant not getting to go inside places, which was disappointing, but just being there was cool.  We opted for an open top bus tour and sat on the upper deck of one of the double decker busses.  It was way cool!  I snapped tons of pictures and we saw lots of places with awesome history.  The whole trip was kind of crazy, because we didn’t know where we were going to stay, we didn’t know what we were going to do until we got there, it was all done by the seat of our pants and was such a blast.  We were really glad we did this.

Doing the buss tour was a complete random decision.  We passed this brochure and decided that was what we were doing.  Heck, even deciding where we were staying was by chance.  We were near the Tower of London and stopped by this tourist information booth place and called up this hotel and it just happened to be not that far away.  It was a cool little place, I even took pictures of it and put them on flickr.

There was a nifty little pub around the corner from our hotel where I got fish and chips with cider, which was one of the things I really wanted to do when we went to London.  I wanted to go to the Globe Theater to see a play, but our lack of planning bit us in the butt and the show was sold out.  Also, didn’t get to see the TARDIS, but we got to see and do so much other stuff!  I really loved the whole trip, disappointments and all.  It was a once in a lifetime chance, and we took it!

Friday, August 19th

This day was almost completely lost to travel.  Not the bullet, that was a quick and easy trip to make.  The problem was that we lost an hour in the time change, and then getting back to where we were staying was further complicated because we hadn’t yet learned how to navigate the metro and trains and buses around Paris.  We seriously lost most of the day to loading up on the wrong bus, taking the wrong train and really learning the public transportation system of Paris.  Okay, I learned it.  Not so sure my mom did, but that’s okay, I was there.  Luckily, we met up with some of our Texas cycling people for an impromptu dinner at the restaurant below our hotel where we met my Parisian boyfriend.

Saturday, August 20th

Saturday was all about cycling stuff.  I talked about this previously in my recap of what it’s like to be a non-cyclist at PBP, but we spent the whole day doing bike check and taking care of the drop bags and meeting up for group pictures.  It was time consuming and awesome.

One of the funnies was that I wound up taking about 15 or 20 pictures for the Taiwan cycling team.  It started out as offering to snap a picture for one of the guys in the huge group shot, and the next thing I know my arms are overflowing with cameras and I’m working to get through all of them.  It was so silly people were snapping pictures of me taking pictures.  This scene was pretty much replicated during the American team meet up, only it was organized a little better and the American’s didn’t give me a package of postcards!

While Saturday wasn’t about sight-seeing, it was a lot of fun getting to hang out with the cyclists and catch the sense of excitement.

Sunday, August 21st

More no-sightseeing.  Since I really delved into this in my earlier blog I’ll be brief.  We started around noon and it was a crazy day.  In line at 3pm along with a few thousand of our closest friends, charged atmosphere and finally seeing mom off at about 7pm.  I hung around the start for at least another hour seeing off other friends and eventually went back to the hotel with a group of cycling wives for a celebratory dinner.  I am totally guilty of staying up way too late, refreshing the website to see if my mom had checked in someplace else.  Yeah, dumb, but oh well!

Monday, August 22nd

This was a nutty day.  I got a little bit of a later start than I wanted.  I was slightly nervous about going into Paris on my own.  I’ve been overseas several times, but always in a very structured, led group where I didn’t go off on my own.  It’s a very different dynamic.  Anyways, I set off for the city on my own.  The trains were a little confusing, but we were at the end of the line so I figured the only direction the trains would go was into the city.  I waited for a train, and when it came in I jumped on, sat down and opened my ereader to read until I got to my stop.

And then the train started to go in the wrong direction.  Instead of heading into the city, it went further out of it, and into – the train yard, where all little trains go to sleep.  I couldn’t get the doors to open.  I was locked in the freaking train!  I’m not sure how long I was there, but I managed to read two chapters in my book and pace the train car a lot.  Finally a poor little maintenance dude went by and I pounded on the windows to get his attention.  He didn’t speak French but he understood me thanks to some great pantomime action and got me on the right train – after walking the mile back to the train station.  Yeah, my day got off to a rocking start.

Thankfully from there on out it was smooth sailing.  I got to the right train stop near the Orsay and started to stroll up the bank towards the Louvre, where I planned to spend my day.  On the way over, as I took my time, this really short chick just blew by me.  I wasn’t paying attention and all of a sudden she cries out, crouches on the sidewalk and picks something up.  She turns to show me what looks like a man’s wedding band.  That’s cool.  She jabbers at me in French, tries it on, pouts and then offers it to me.  I don’t want it but she’s insisting I try it on.  I’m starting to get a little suspicious of what’s really going on when she then asks me to give her money for the ring.

Ug.  A scammer.  I politely disengage and walk off, holding on tight to my purse and anything valuable.  Fool me once, shame on you, you won’t fool me again!  Overall, I had this tried on me three times during my trip.  The last two attempts got the cold shoulder.

After this eventful morning, I finally made it to the museum and decided I wasn’t getting a map, I was just going to lose myself in the art and everything around me.  The Louvre itself is such a cool building, a former residence of the kings and queens of France, the location where Joan of Arc made her stand, and now one of the hearts of the art world.

I didn’t anticipate being able to take pictures, but you could.  I snapped a lot, but the function I used that took the best shots turned out a lot of fuzzy pictures.  It’s annoying.  Overall the Louvre was awesome and breath taking and just neat.  I spent hours walking all over.  Even saw the Mona Lisa!

Out in front of the Louvre is a big garden area with several fountains that have lounge chairs around them.  I grabbed some lunch from my favorite French pastry chains, Paul, and settled in to read and soak up the Paris atmosphere.

With my mom we were all go-go-go.  My other trips over seas have all been similar, cramming everything possible into a short amount of time.  This trip I wanted to be different, taking the chance to really stop and enjoy myself.  So allowing me time to hang out for an hour or two to was important to me.

I’d planned on just going back to the hotel, but I took a quick tour around the immediate area surrounding the Louvre.  While walking down a busy avenue this dude comes out of nowhere and starts jabbering at me – not in French, in Russian and I’m understanding about half of what he says.  I have to stop him and tell him I’m an American and he informs me that I look Russian and should be Russian!  Turns out he and his wife own and run a souvenir shop.  I did the bulk of my shopping there and got a small discount because I should have been Russian, lol!

Tuesday, August 23rd & Wednesday, August 24th

My original plan had been to go to Fougeres out on the cycling course but because of logistics and difficulty getting around the plan had to be scrapped.  At a loss for what to do, I decided to get an open top bus tour since it was so much fun in London.  I happened to meet up with a couple from Singapore at the train station and together we trekked to the bus stop and hopped the bus.  While we went our separate ways, it was really fun to meet them and chat.

The bus had four different routes.  I rode one of them completely before switching to a main line and getting off in the Notre Dame area.  I loved it before, and thought it was totally where I wanted to have lunch, chill and walk around.  This was my first time pointing at a special of the day and ordering something without knowing what it was. I wound up getting steak and a huge pile of french fries!  it was cool.

After chilling at the restaurant and reading and watching people go by, I started exploring the Latin District, which boarders Notre Dame on one bank.  I turned down what looked like an alley and discovered an entire labyrinth of shops and restaurants and bakeries and awesome places.  I discovered a super cool book store with a reading room – perfect findings for a person like me.

I spent two whole days discovering the city, learning awesome stuff and immersing myself.  Experiencing Paris like this was great.  It was exactly what I wanted to do and yeah.

Thursday, August 25th

This was another day given over entirely to cycling stuff.  I had it figured out that my mom would be arriving sometime between eleven and noon, so no time to go do other stuff, but enough to sleep in and get my rest.  Like I said in my other blog, she called early that day and I gave her a pep talk and pegged her as being an 11:30 arrival.  It was a really cool homecoming for the cyclists and I took care of my mom, having her shoes on hand, some food and helping her break down her bike before clearing out of the room so she could nap.  During the ride she’s lucky if she gets more than 5-8 hours of sleep.  I think she got about 6 this time around, which is good but not nearly enough!

Friday, August 26th

Our last day was rough for me.  Mom snores when she’s super tired and I’m a light sleeper.  It was a bad recipe, especially considering that we had a physically demanding day planned.  Mom wanted to do things that involved lots of walking so we did the catacombs and the palace in Versailles.

The catacombs was crazy awesome cool.  They started as rock quarries, were abandoned and later became the repository for the bones overflowing the cemeteries of all of the Paris cathedrals.  One of the sources estimated roughly 6 million bodies have been stored in the catacombs.  All of the bones were arranged into stacks with patterns.  One of the columns was even recreated with bones around it in the shape of a huge barrel.  Yeah.  It’s totally neck and neck with Notre Dame as my favorite thing in Paris.

Versailles was really nifty, but you couldn’t see more than a handful of rooms and as beautiful as the gardens are, we were too tired to walk through much of it and the day was a little rainy.

Saturday, August 27th

And we left!  Of course things had to go wrong one day, and this was it.  My mom and I each set two alarms and none of them went off.  We wound up being half an hour late to the bus but they waited on us.

What it’s like to be on the sidelines of #pbp2011

When my mom brought up the topic of going to Paris-Brest-Paris last year I didn’t think she was serious.  I thought it was an idea only and we wouldn’t really be going.  Imagine my surprise when my mom said in February that we were going.  Like, really going.

I’ll be honest, my planning for PBP didn’t involve much.  My sole job was to get mom across the pond, organize the sight seeing and help her with any cycling stuff pre and post ride.  As far as the actual ride goes, my responsibility was to just text her the weather.

Let me pause and explain what PBP is, since most of my readership is writers and readers and friends, not the cycling crowd.

Paris-Brest-Paris is the oldest organized cycling event in the world.  Started in 1891 to showcase the practicality of bikes, it was at that time mostly a race, not a ride.  A race is a timed thing, a ride isn’t a competition.  That first time in 1891 there were 400 cyclists.  This year they capped the entrants at around 5,000.  The ride is a 90 hour event with 15 controls, or check in’s.  The cyclists start in a western suburb of Paris and ride to Brest and then back to Paris, a distance of 1200K, or around 750 miles.  (Quick note: there are options for a 80 and 84 hour start, wherein cyclists have less time to complete the course.)  It’s a test of endurance and perseverance on the cyclists part.  God knows I wouldn’t be able to do it!

So, we arrived in Paris on Tuesday, August 16th.  First thing all the cyclists did when we got to the hotel was to ask about where the bikes were.  Because we were picked up in charter buses the bikes were delivered in a different truck.  As soon as those bikes arrived it was chaos!

There were bikes everywhere.  We stayed at the Campanile hotel, which was one of the more centrally located ones to the activities around the start/finish.  Because we couldn’t have bikes in the rooms, not that there was much room for them anyways, we utilized a lower room space in the hotel as a bike room.

Most of the cyclists went on pre-rides around the city or into the countryside.  My mom didn’t, we went sight-seeing around Paris and London instead.  That was a decision we were worried about before the ride.  She didn’t get to ride her bike and test it out, but she also didn’t start the ride exhausted and worn out from other rides.

On Saturday the 20th we had to do bike check and get drop bags done.

Bike check was crazy!  Everyone had a time slot to show up at the facility to get it done.  It was a few blocks from my hotel and also the location of the start/finish of the ride.  All cyclists have to get their bike approved before the ride for safety concerns.  But, it’s a mad house trying to get 5,000 people through there!  I couldn’t go into the building where the bike check was actually happening because I wasn’t a rider or crew person so I hung around outside on this track area, which you can see below, and found various people I knew and took pictures.  As a non-cyclist there wasn’t anything to do and no real reason for me to be there, but it was fun to be around the excitement.  You really catch some of the PBP-bug being around all these people.

We went to PBP with a travel agency that takes care of the riders, like you wouldn’t believe how well they were taken care of!  One of the things the agency offered was to meet the cyclists along the route with drop bags.  Drop bags are duffle bags with all sorts of cycling stuff in them.  New shorts, cycling jerseys, whatever the cyclist wants to put in that bag that they would want access to during the ride.  We had to get that together and take it a few blocks away to another hotel to drop it off and then go back to our hotel to get the bike ready.

The cyclists pushed off on Sunday afternoon.  All cyclists tackle the night before a big ride differently.  My mom set out to sleep about 12 hours if possible – and she did it.  I did my best to stay out of her way and be quiet until around noon when she got up and everything became hurry, hurry, hurry!  We had to get lunch, which proved to be difficult because Parisians take their Sundays seriously.  Nothing was open!  We found one bakery open and got sandwiches.  The line was crazy long.  It was also hotter than usual on Sunday, which was tough on the cyclists when we finally went to line up around 3pm, despite having a starting time of 6pm.

I’m not altogether certain of when all of the cyclists started, there were racing groups, a start for the tandems and recumbant bikes, a start fr the 90 hour crowd, a start for the 84 and then 80 hour crowd.  My mom was a 90 hour start, along with a few thousand others.  To prevent a few thousand people charging ahead at once, they do staggered starting in groupings of around 500.  Even though we got into line at 3pm, there were people already in line and she wound up starting in the 3rd wave of 500.

Sunday was hard.  It was hot, I went to the starting area with 10 bottles of water and an umbrella and wound up giving away all 10 bottles to the Texas cyclists standing in line for hours.  I ran out and needed more, so I was buying cokes and bottles of water from the vendors and handing over to the cyclists lined up ready to start.  You can see one of the waves of cyclists at the starting line above.

The start was festive.  There were stilt walkers, kids bike races, fire breathers and big presentations going on.  There were people lined up and police all over the place.  It was a big deal, and everyone was so excited about these cyclists.  Everyone in the area had been very nice to us, especially when they realized we were there for PBP.

My mom actually started around 6:50 pm, which was good because she got out of Paris before dark and had several hours to tackle the outgoing route in the daylight.

I stuck around the starting line and took pictures of friends and hung out with the Wife Club, aka the cycling wives.  These were the lovely ladies I had dinner with and saw around the hotel.  Being one of the ones left behind is an experience in and of itself.  We take comfort in one another, celebrate our cyclists progress together and worry together about conditions on the course or how morale is.

This year the cyclists had a chip they were given that was used to update the official site with the cyclists progress.  If you went to the PBP site and put in your rider’s frame number you could see where they had checked in and when.  Since majority of the family and friends left behind didn’t have a way to contact their rider, this was a huge relief to be able to see that much at least.  My mom and I planned for this part and we bought French phones to be able to call one another as well as home.  Of the wives staying at my hotel I think I was the only one with constant communication during the ride.  My mom called me once a day or more to check in, get a pep talk or find out the weather or latest updates.

As exciting as PBP is, this year was also tragic.  Tuesday morning after texting my mom the weather she called me asking odd questions.  She had heard of an accident on the route and had thought I knew what happened.  We didn’t learn the full story until after the ride.  On Monday evening a cyclist was in an accident with a vehicle.  An American cyclist was killed.  It’s super sad and hit the whole community hard.  Randoneurs are a close knit, welcoming crowd and any loss is tough.  I heard of riders dedicating PBP 2011 to the fallen cyclist and of at least one who decided to quit his ride early.  Even now thinking about it makes me tear up.  I never met the cyclist, but it’s sad and it makes me think about my mom and the chances she takes.  It also makes me want more cycling awareness in the USA.  Moving on!

So the days of waiting were tough, but in the end she came ‘home’ with about an hour and a half to spare.  The finish was no less exciting than the beginning.  There weren’t as many people there, but cyclists had been finishing as early as Tuesday morning and it was Wednesday around midday when I was there waiting for my mom to come in.  I was lucky, she called me leaving the last check in so I knew within a window of about half an hour when to expect her.  I came with her shoes and food, ready to take care of a sleep deprived, disoriented cyclist.

I was super excited when I saw my mom finish.  There was a lady who jumped in front of me right before she pedaled up, and I’m totally guilty of elbowing her out of the way to snap the above picture of my mom coming in.  Rude?  Yes, but I flew across an ocean to be there when she finished her ride.

Just because the cyclist crosses that line doesn’t mean they are done.  When a rider gets to a control, which the finish is, they have to get their cards signed.  The chips that were used to update the website might replace the cards someday, but for now the cards are still used and until the rider gets that signed they aren’t really finished.  At PBP there’s also a few other places to check out, like the photographers booth and the beer tent before you check out your bike and are free to go.

We walked back to the hotel so mom could walk out some of the kinks in her legs.  I would have thought she would have showered and crashed, but she showered, I got her more food, and we broke her bike down to pack it up.  After that, she did crash for some much needed sleep – and as the family member – that was a big relief because for me, PBP was a closed book.  There are lots of stories she’s told me about the ride, but they are hers and if you’re lucky you might get to hear them.

PBP was awesome.  We may never get to do it again, but this was a great experience.

Weekly Check-In

So I don’t have a whole lot to say.  I mean, I do, but not about writing.  This post is more about me getting back into the groove of working on stuff every week.  So, give me a little slack.  I have some stuff in the works, so let me share it with you!

Blogging.

I’m going to get back into the blogging groove this week.  I’m going to have a few blogs about my Paris trip.  For instance tomorrow I’m going to talk about how it was like to be in Paris at the PBP stuff as family.  Thursday I’m hoping to talk about all the sight seeing I did.  There’s so much to tell that I don’t really know where and how much to tell!  So, if you have any questions feel free to ask me. 

Critiques.

I’ve really got to get cracking on crits for the FenCon workshop at the end of September.  There are 21 critiques I have to do, well, really 18 since there’s no reason to do my own and I won’t be doing huge critiques on my two friends who are also in the workshop.  My plan is to start cracking on them today, and at my best do two a day.

Writing.

I did a little writing while in Paris, but it was all on pen name stuff.  I’m dealing with a few deadlines so I need to do some serious writing time this week. I think I’m going to miss one of my deadlines, which sucks, but that’s life and you just have to keep going.

What I read.

• Turn it Up by Inez Kelley
• Too Hot To Touch by Louisa Edwards

Wordless Wednesday

Quick #pbp2011 Update

Mom has made it to Brest and is on her way back.  She’s disappointed in the ride thus far because she’s done everything she said she wasn’t going to. She’s gone into the check points, she’s gotten off her bike too long, she’s trying to eat and nothing is staying down.  It’s discouraging, but she’s still going.  The biggest hindrance was that her saddle wasn’t adjusted properly before the ride and it got her knee aching before she stopped to adjust it.  She’s sleep deprived and grouchy but still going.  Typically she gets this way after the first 30 or 40 hours so I’m not too concerned about her state of mind.

It does sadden me to say that a rider was killed on the course.  According to French websites and others on Twitter, an American cyclist was killed at 8pm last night.  The medical team tried to administer aid but he passed away.  We’re all waiting anxiously to hear more and thinking of his family in a time like this.  I don’t anticipate hearing anything for another day while the immediate family is notified.

Currently I anticipate mom finishing sometime during the night between Wednesday and Thursday.  I’ll be sticking close to the hotel in hopes that she calls me at the control before the finish so I can be at the finish to cheer her in.

From Paris to London to #PBP2011

Well, last I checked in we had arrived after the ride in a sweltering plane and poked around the area around the hotel.  Today we are much more traveled with a few more stamps in our passports!

Wednesday my mother and I did Paris via the hop-on-and-off boat tour.  It has about eight stops you can use to see the different sights.  We saw the tower, the outside of the art museums, we went to a chateau on the outskirts of Paris that has an old midevil castle and a more modern manor house.  We saw the national gardens and the menagerie, Notre Dame and so many other really cool things.  I wrote them all down in my red notebook.  When I get home and do a full report of everything we did, I can be more thorough then.Thursday we took the bullet over to London and did one of those open top bus tours all around London.  It was an exciting trip because we really didn’t know where we were going to stay or anything.  We just went.  So far this was my favorite, even if I didn’t get to go to the Globe or see the TARDIS.  I was really excited about getting to eat real fish and chips with a hard cider.  Silly, I know, but it was great.

So far I’ve only done souvaniere shopping in London.  Going to do my Paris shopping in a few days methinks.

Yesterday (Friday for me) was all about getting back to our hotel and eating a meal with some other cyclists.  Today (Saturday) has been all about getting bikes put together and doing the drop bags put together and delivered.  Tomorrow is the start of the ride later in the day.

My plan right now is to hang out tomorrow and then ride to Fougeres with another cyclists wife who is driving.  I’ll get a room there and hang out there on Monday, sleep there Monday night and come back to Paris Tuesday early and check back into our hotel here.

Check out my flickr for the unedited pictures thus far.  It’s slow going uploading them all, but I’m getting to it!  Link is in the upper, right hand corner on the menu bar.

Hello, from Paris! #pbp2011

We have arrived! After the flight that was as hot as a front row seat in hell, we have arrived in Paris and are at our hotel in the western suburbs of Paris.

The flight itself was rather uneventful.  We got through customs and bag check with minimal fuss.  The flight wasn’t completely booked so our group got to spread out a little – except for me.  But since I didn’t plan on sleeping it wasn’t a big deal really.  Except it was hot, hot enough most of us sweated through the 9 hour flight.  AirFrance, I don’t have the highest opinion of it.  The food made me sick, the drinks – even water – was skimpy.  Flying is just frustrating business.

Once on the ground we met up with other American cyclists.  We bought the trip to Paris through a travel agency that organizes riders and their Paris-Brest-Paris experience.  So we had a bus to take us and our luggage to the hotel, while another vehicle delivered bags later on.

There’s really nothing exciting to say about getting to the hotel, or what we did after.  We arrived.  We checked in.  We took a two hour nap.  And then we found the French version of WalMart and got food.  And we visited a little cafe and had pastries and something to drink.

After that it was back to the hotel to put the bike together which was a lot of my mom griping about it and me standing there and nodding sympathetically, because what do I know about a bike?  I know to hand the allen wrench when she asks for it, and to hold the bike steady while she does stuff.  That I can do!

The rest of the afternoon has been spent around the hotel, investigating the near viscinity.  There’s a large shopping area that wraps around and under the immediate area of our hotel.  I might go dress shopping because while it’s only in the 80′s here, it’s still warm and a dress would be cooler.

Anyways, that’s it for me tonight.  We were supposed to go to Paris Disney tonight but our friend that works there is on vacation so spending $80 each to go see a wild west show doesn’t really appeal to us.

Tomorrow, we do Paris!

Talking About PBP and Mom’s Ride

I’m putting off packing – surprise, surprise!

Since I’ve begged off blogging on my normal schedule, I thought I would do a blog about the whole cycling adventure.  Seeing as that’s why I’ve fallen down on my blogging, it only seems right that I’d share the reason for my ‘failure’.

Tomorrow we take off for Paris, arriving early on Tuesday when we’ll hit the ground running, doing various sight-seeing things.  Please check out my pictures by clicking the flickr link above.  The ride starts on the 21st, Sunday afternoon for me, morning for almost everyone else.

The ride is about 1200K, about 750 miles.  Above, you can see a route map which the cyclists will follow.  There’s a little variation between the two trips, but not a lot.  The riders have 90 hours, until Thursday at noon, to finish the ride.  At a few points cyclists will be able to get into what we call drop-bags.  Drop-bags are pre-packed duffel bags of whatever cyclists want to have access to.  Clothes, extra food, powders, medicine, you name it!

So there you go.  That’s what we’re going to Paris for.

Pictures of Paris!

Okay, not yet!  But – in preparation for uploading tons of pictures while I’m there, I’ve begun a flickr account which is linked in the upper right hand corner with the rest of my linkage.

I’m hoping to take lots and lots of pictures – and not run into uploading issues.  I know that you’re kind of limited on the amount of stuff you can upload, and I have a tendency to get snap happy.

Anyways, link is up, will be adding stuff middle of the week probably.

Heading to Paris

I have seven days before I leave for France. Seven days and a few hours really. Things are crazy, and I’ve decided to give myself permission to take a break from blogging. I’m going to try to update from France, but I’m giving myself permission to not do anything for the next three weeks.