Finally the photos of Mont Blanc

Chamonix - Mont Blanc on PhotoPeach

Exploring Chamonix

Chamonix – Mont Blanc

After Annecy we took a wee side trip to Chamonix, a sweet little village at the base of Mont Blanc. The New Zealand team were having a rare day off the bikes and since it was only a couple hours by bike to Switzerland (the following day) it was a nice spot to hang out in and explore before they hit the track in Aigle for a short stint before heading back to Belgium.

The kids and I arrived just in time to join the team heading to the telecabine for the fairly quick 1282 metre haul up to Plan de l’Aiguill, the first change over point. We made the decision not to tell the kids about the possibility of the car ‘swinging’ at the top due to the wind and joined the bus load of Japanese tourists in the cue. The  second cable car (somehow they can squish in up to 72 people) took us the rest of the way to Aiguill du Midi at 3842 metres above sea level. Chamonix itself sits at 1035 metres and Mont Blanc at 4810 metres.  All in all it is a long way up.

When we visited Chamonix 6 years ago with the kids we were not allowed up in the telecabine due to the kid’s ages and the quick increase in altitude affecting their young ear drums. So on our previous visit we took a 20 minute red  tourist train up to Montenvers – Mer de Glace (1913m) one of Europe’s biggest active glaciers. At 11 km long and up to 400 metre thick it was a stunning sight.

We were very thankful for a stunning clear day giving us the opportunity to explore a different side of the region this time round.

I think it is just best if I let the photos do the talking....when I can get them uploaded, and are allocated more time on line. Hot spots are in hot demand here.

We are going to be based here in Leysin for 2 more weeks and then we will hit the road  for Bordeaux, 859km across France. All this to catch up with Tim for his ‘girls’ birthdays on the 12^th of July.

This coming week I will put together a few things on Leysin and get the kids to head out on their bikes with their cameras for a view of the village.

Till then take care and be safe. x

Our First day at school

Hi, its Jack here.

I am going to tell you a little about our first day at our new Swiss school. Jessie and I are doing French class every morning from 8.30 till 11.50 with Madame Grandjean at the school in Leysin. After the summer holidays we will start in a proper class.

Our first day was Thursday 21^st June and me and Jessie were a little bit scared. We didn’t know where to go, what our teacher would be like or if there were any other children in our class. Mum asked one of the other teachers and she pointed to the big 3 storied building where the senior kids have their classes. Lucky for Jess she gets to come into the senior block and play on the big kids side of the yellow line.

Madame Grandjean speaks good English and is really nice. There were 7 other kids in our class who come from Turkey, Romania and somewhere like Portugal. The other kids started a few weeks before us and don’t speak English or French.

We played a few games of Uno using the French names for the colours and numbers which was easy. Then we had to answer some questions that were in French about ourselves. If we finished up early we could make up some creative ones.

We had 20 min for play time and me and Jessie walked around the play ground together. There isn’t really much to play on or much space and no grass area like St Albans School, the best in the world. But don’t have to wear a uniform here and from next term when we start school for real we get to go home for 2 hours over lunch (and a play).  

After morning tea we played some more games trying to use French words and names. We had lots of fun and learnt some new words.

I think we will both like going to school here in Leysin.

From Jack

New Zealand Olympic Team Training in Switerland Today

Very cool video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7WOwdZERgk

Prologue Time Trial Ride

As Fee said in her last post, the kids and her got to take a ride in the New Zealand team car for the very twisty prologue time trial at the Tour de Pays des Savoie. It was a mad ride!

See link below for a look at what it was like. Be aware there are a lot of F words in the commentary and even a C bomb. Not viewing for children!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBNT3m1NzrY&feature=plcp

Lac Annecy

Haute - Savoie –France

Annecy, the Venice of the Alps, or so the guide book says. With its old town charm enchanted by the (currently) fast flowing canals and the arcade houses with many coloured facades (which Jess took a liking to with the camera).

It was well worth the wait. Two days of nonstop rain put a bit of a dampener of our first days in Annecy. Though the kids managed a 10km bike ride in the drizzle and an introduction to the old town dodging puddles…thankfully not hordes of tourists.

On day three the sun burst through and we have had 28+ deg days and wall to wall sunshine since. Which worked in well with the track endurance team starting their four day Pays de Savoie Tour. The kids and I took a side road trip to Chambery to watch to prologue. A tight 3.8km Time Trial around a large car park through the foyer of the Expo centre and around the back of some buildings before hitting the only straight stretch of road for 500 mt. The kids and I each got a turn in the team car following a rider, driven by none other than Tim Carswell. In a nut shell it was a hold on and shut up, 5 minute tyre screeching rally race just to try and stick behind the rider. Tim did a fantastic job at the wheel and the look of shock on the kid’s faces were priceless.

Jessie after her hot lap

Jack in the hot seat.

Stage winner and very happy man, Wes Gough..or Gouch as the French were calling him.
Winning no less than 6 different catagories in one stage.

We hit the tri weekly market in the old town on Friday morning where we were treated to loads of fresh produce. The stall holders are all characters vying for the sale and we splashed out on sweet  apricots, juicy watermelon and sun warmed strawberries. Oh how we love summer fruit!!!

 
As an extra treat we thought we would take a boat excursion around Le Lac. Jacks theory was a good one. Since it was not yet the weekend and the boat and port was rather empty better to go on it now than when all the tourists were in town. It was a stunning hour cruise around the inner bays where we got to discover the lake and mountains from a different angle.

Saturday rolled around and our plan was to head into the hills on the east side of the Lake and watch the mountainous stage of the tour spin past. Tim very thoughtfully text directions through to a good vantage point. So we packed up a picnic and headed for a town called Bluffy (the kids had a good laugh at that one). From our great vantage point the kids scored tones of free stuff from the pre race caravan and were eagerly awaiting the convoy that followed the riders to wave out to Tim and Chris as they drove by. Much to our surprise a bag of goodies was passed out the window from Tim as we threw in some of the freebees we had collected. We felt for the riders though. The sun was out in full force and the temperature was hitting 30 deg.

After the excitement of the race we headed for the lake and a spin on our bikes. I think just about every other person in Annecy had the same idea. The kids had a blast whipping along on the bike paths and we stayed well into the night listening to a brass band and eating gelato by the water’s edge. The temperature as we were heading back to the camp ground was even hotter than earlier in the afternoon.

The camp ground here is extremely well organised, situated in a stunning terraced setting overlooking the West side of the Lake. The showers are super hot, even at the busiest time of day (and with a hens night and separate stags do preparing to hit the town) and kids play ground is new and has loads of different activities to do (table tennis, mini golf petanque). The restaurant/bar/shop is well equipped along with friendly staff. They also have plenty of cabins for those looking for those not tenting or in camper vans.      

                                                 

Just in case anyone is heading this way, it is well worth the stop.

Snug!

The multi use bike rack.

Sunday brought another trip to the old town market, this time it seemed to be catering more for the tourists than the locals. We found ourselves by one of the many fresh water fountains and savoured the sweet juicy cherries and strawberries the kids had purchased, while dangling our feet in the cool water. The water quality of the lake is thanks to the protection efforts made for over 50 years, making it the cleanest in all of Europe. In summer the water temperature sits between 20 and 24 deg. The total length is 14km long with the widest point hitting 3.5km and at its narrowest it  reaches 800m across. To ride around the perimeter you would clock up an easy 32km. Hopefully we will come back with Tim and do that as a family. Its average depth is 42 metres and maxes out at 80.

There you go. My Lake education lesson is now complete. Watch out for the pop quiz next time!

Come Monday morning our plan is to pack up the mighty green tent and head an hour east to Chamonix to spend the day with Tim before heading back to Switzerland for 3 weeks. The kids will start intensive French lessons at school before the school year ends in early July. After that the kids and I will head to Bordeaux for a week or so to spend our (mine and Jessie’s) birthday with Tim. But more about those adventures later.

Au revoir Annecy, till next time.

Take care

Fee x

Where we have been so far!

Over 4000km on the clock already...thats by car not plane!

Annecy in the rain, by Jack and Jessie

Jack and Jess on the cameras in Annecy

Road Trip for BikeNZ

Tim here. Thought I would contribute to the blog too as I have a spare few minutes and I have parted ways with the family for a short while.

Yesterday the BikeNZ staff (Steve, Chris, Mark and myself) had a bit of a roadie as we had to get all the BikeNZ vehicles down to the French Alpes for our next Tour, the Tour des Pays de Savoie.

An early start heading out of Leuven at 6am (well a bit later than that for me as I couldn't work out how to get the bloody Navman back on its bracket, so I took the bracket off the window, got the Navman on and then couldn't figure out how to get the bracket stuck back on the window, 15 minutes later I was on my way, just a pity that the Navman didn't work anyway.)

It was quite a hike to our destination, the high country town of Aillon le Jeune, but first we had to pick up the athletes from Geneva as they had flown down from Brussels.

I was driving the Mercedes Vito van down by myself so kept myself entertained with nine hours of french electro music (with a good rendition of "Somebody I Used to Know"...might be this one I think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxAnLYhM6Cg) and some French remakes of English songs (Phil Collins "Another day in Paradise" took the cake there -d'Un jour de Plus au Paradis)

So all discoed out I finally reached the Swiss border, jumped in the line of cars and reached for my passport folder as I was only about 20 meters from the front of the que, only to discover that I had no passport! Definite heart palpatations were going on as I got nearer the front and I was already working out in my head how we could transport the riders from the airport to the border post when I was waved on through by the friendly customs officer. Whew!

Picked up the boys and drove nervously back, but no worries at all going the other way as there is no border/customs at all. Obviously the French are more keen on having Swiss in their country than the other way around. I found out today that Fee has it with hers and the kids Passports from our trip up north so will recover it in a few days time.

The drive up to Aillon le Jeune was a bit of a mish but definitely very beautiful countryside up here. Quite Swiss with all the cows with bells, green mountain meadows and ski fields.

Off to Chambery tomorrow to recon the course for the Prologue time trial. Should suit our riders down to the ground and I think we may come away with some good results from the guys.

Talk soon. Cheers. TC.

I didn't manage to get this beer glass though! TC.

Loving Leuven

                                                                            The town hall

Leuven sports one of the liveliest bar scenes in Belgium. Due to it being a real 'student city'.
It houses one of the oldest universities in all of Europe and is an extremely popular place to study. Besides boasting the "longest bar" in Belgium, the Old Market, dozens of bars and cafés crammed into a central square in Leuven, it's also the proud home city of Belgium's smallest bar, Onder den Toog in the Noormannenstraat.
 All conveniently located about 30 kilometres east of Brussels.

Looks a little different at night time!

The seats, currently pack away are set out across the road to cater for the masses.

 The students ride everywhere on town bikes (in the back ground of Jessie's photo), and just lock them up willy nilly, but the kids managed to find a favourite motor bike each.  Not bad choices guys!

One of our missions here was to get the kids some good, but cheap bikes. After touring around 10 different de kringwinkles...similar to the super shed in Christchurch, where other peoples junk is sold off extremely cheaply for treasure hunters like ourselves, we failed miserably in the bike hunt, but Tim managed to walk away with a few Belgium beer glasses for his fine collection...hmmm ulterior motive maybe? I guess the kids did get to see a lot of small towns around Belg and plenty of country side.

Get your angry face on Jack!

Really, you have these loose in a sports shop, who could resist picking up the over sized boxing gloves and throwing a swing or two.

Anyway we ended up getting some very nice bikes for the kids from this local sports shop. And thanks to the help of a pro track mechanic, Chris, getting back to his grass roots of bike building. The boys got the kids bikes up to scratch and road worthy.  (I will post a photo with the kids and their new wheels  on their debut outing in Annecy)

 Being Belgium there is often 4 seasons in one day....or for those who have experienced it, more like within the hour. We came across there two gorgeous ducks prepared for anything in there matching clear plastic hoods, coats and shoes. One of them must have miss read their text message/telegram on which colour bag to use today. Very cute.

On our last day here in Belgium we managed to catch up with good friends who have been involved with cyclists for years. Always hosting stray, poor out of towners trying to break into the big time cycling scene. The last we caught up was 6 years ago and as always it is so comforting seeing familiar faces when you are so far away from home.

Thanks Karien, Roland and Lien for a fabulous lunch and great company.

The town square in Oudenaarde where Tim has spent many hours drinking coffee, and maybe the odd beer or three as an athlete.

Naturally he had to show the kids the site of the infamous nuddie bike race.

For all those car geeks out there, the hottest thing in Europe right now is the matt paint finish on cars. Very stealth and very cool. Though we have had discussions on how easy they would be to clean. Clearly we are not going to find out either with our conservative Subaru being that of the old school gloss finish.

And finally...

Apparently it was fathers day here on Sunday and so the shops were full of interesting dad type things. The kids and I spotted this amazing creation while out window shopping....at the chocolate shop of course, and thought our guitar enthusiasts Jr and Matt could have a chuckle. Naturally we had to sample a few Belgium chocolates so we could compare with the Swiss. Both world renowned for their chocolate creations.  

Road trip #1 Switzerland to Belgium

Road trip #1

28^th May to 1^st June

Leysin, Switzerland to Leuven, Belgium

Our very first road trip in Europe was to take us on a winding path out of Switzerland up through France and into Belgium where we will hang out in Leuven with Tim and the bike NZ team while they do their last road phase before heading to the south of France for their final track preparation prior to the London Olympics.

Monday 28^th May was a stunning Swiss spring day. Loaded to the brink of bursting in the shiny new Subaru we made our way around Lake Geneva to Rene and Veras place in Crans for lunch. As always we were treated to fantastic fare and lovely company. We met Rene and Vera 11 years ago on our bike tour through Europe and have had the pleasure too of hosting them back in New Zealand. Ironically their eldest daughter, Barbara, is now a resident of New Zealand, living and working in the South Island.

From Crans we headed up and over the border into France following the same route we did on our bikes in 2001. Funnily enough I can’t really remember much of that day 11 years ago...must have been scarred from all the hill climbing.

Our plan was to head for the camp ground in Champagnol that we had stayed at on our previous route. Unfortunately we were 3 days too early for their camping season and resorted to the classic Carswell decision maker...toss the coin. Heads we go left, tails we go right. Long story short we ended in a tiny wee town called Port Lesney. Situated beside a meandering river in a lush green tree lined site we set up the 3 man tent....surely that means two adults and two small children.

 Our hunter and gatherer male went wandering to source something sparkling to quench our thirst. And boy did he do well. Being a public holiday and all he managed to spot a takeaway truck that did pizza in a wood fired burner and wine. I love the French!

 The plan was to spend two nights in the idyllic setting and just roll with French life.

That was until we realised the church bells less than 20mt away chimed every hour, on the hour...and 5 min past, for those who didn’t hear it the first time. What a shocker that was, by 4 am Tim and I had had a guts full of the rude awakenings and were ready to hit the road at first light. Much to the dismay of the kids, “what bells?” they questioned us.

Tim had mapped us a route to Epernay in the Champagne region but not before exploring a 12^thcentury ruin up in the hills overlooking the surrounding land. The history in these parts of the world is just mind blowing and the kids spent a good hour exploring and imaging the battles and royalty that roamed the land.

Epernay was a great wee find. With over 200 million bottles of champagne stored in caves under the city what was not to like. We spoke to a few folk in the camp ground and they suggested the House of Mercier as you descended 30mt into the earth and took you on a tour through the caves on a train. With over 18km of tunnels and bottles as far as the eye can see. It certainly was spectacular. We purchased a case of their finest champagne to share with friends and family who come to visit.

After two nights in Epernay we continued north via Reims and a quick visit to the Notre-Dame de Reims (Our Lady of Rheims), where the Kings of France were once crowned. Last year it celebrated its 800^th birthday. Far out that place was huge. I guess it just goes to show what one can do when you dream big.

After another coin toss moment we ended up in Chimay, the home of the Scourmont Abbey and of course Chimay beer. The Abbey was established in 1850 when a group of 17 monks started to clear the land given to them by the Prince of Chimay. To live from the labour of their hands, as recommended by their founding fathers, the monks started out by farming this land. Chimay, brewed at the Notre-Dame de Scourmont Abbey, is one of the 6 Belgium beers that carry the logo “Authentic Trappist Product”(A.T.P). Of which there are only 8 authentic Trappist brews in the world. The very strict conditions of being granted the A T P logo follow traditions dating back hundreds of years, including that they are manufactured on site or close proximity to the monastery, and are managed by the monastic community. Unfortunately this small and disorganised town didn’t live up to either of our expectations. After much hunting we found the Chimay museum and tasting room a few kilometres away from the Abbey which was nearly 20km out of town. Thank goodness the sampling didn’t let us down. The monks brew a special beer called La Special Poteaupre just for the museum so it was well worth the visit. And as one does when you have a niche market covered, you branch out again. The cheese from the Abbey is perfectly matched to each beer...along with its own drinking glass. My guess is that they realised the need to keep the wives of the beer drinkers happy and put their cows to good use. There certainly wasn’t any problem getting to sleep that night, even in the dodgy camp ground with a very vocal neighbour.

After a rather quick getaway in the morning we made for Waterloo. This time my expectations were pegged down a notch or two. A pile of dirt in the rolling country side of Waterloo can’t be that spectacular. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The battle of Waterloo started just before lunch time on the 18^thof June 1815 and lasted until Napoleon was defeated around 8pm the same evening. Three hours just slipped by exploring the museum, short films, bus tour and climbing to the top of the man made hill overlooking the battle fields. The kids were just as fascinated as we were and managed to learn a lot of how Europe was shaped in the 19^th century. It was well worth the trip and something we would recommend checking out.

From Waterloo we drove another 40 min to Leuven which is our base for the 10 days and the best thing of all...beds.