54km / 2 hours 48 minutes / 112m gain

Today was muddy!

I had a nice breakfast and read for a while, hoping the rain would stop. I missed most of the heavy rain but had a few hours of light rain. The mud and puddles were fun. It was probably the 2nd muddiest route I’ve ever done. The mud was so deep you are just spinning out and trying not to make the tires weigh 10 kilos. As you can imagine, the bike and I were entirely covered in mud.

I am very happy to be in Orleans and taking 2 full rest days before moving out. I need to catch up on work emails/tickets and finish a spec for Marton. I wish I didn’t have to, as I’d like just to rest and chill. But hopefully, I get some time to explore as well. It was nice not to do emails/tickets for the entire week.

Not many pictures today with the light rain.

58km / 2 hours 47 minutes / 403m gain

Today was a nice ride, mostly on back roads and smooth gravel. Thus my butt is happy as it didn’t get hit as hard as the last few days. The ride was beautiful, and the land has switched from flattish farmland with spots of forest to mostly forest and rolling hills. I like seeing this switch as I cover ground.

Last night I only had 2 cans of sardines to eat as the grocery store in the small town was closed on Thursdays. I’ve been in mostly small towns so finding food has been a little harder than normal.

I woke up early this morning, and I was the first one at the small local grocery store at 8 am (slightly before their bakery delivery). I had one warm croissant and two warm pans de rasien. I also bought some bread, tuna, and goat cheese. Later I stopped to get sausage and cheese to stock up.

For lunch, I had an amazing meal. White wine from this region, followed by goat cheese on toast, followed by an amazing steak and frites with sauce, and for desert 3 kinds of cheese. I also had a Cognac for desert, I’ve never had one before, and it is strong! I biked near Cognac, France, a few days ago and have been wanting to try a local one. I’ll stick with Port but it is quite good.

Tomorrow I bike to Orleans and stay there for 2 days of rest. I am looking forward to it!

~58km / ~3 hours 20 minutes / ~400m gain

My Garmin tracker didn’t start this morning. That annoys me. I rode at least 10km before I figured that out…

My butt hurt today :). Doing a 90km and 80km ride this week to get to hotels was a lot of time in the saddle. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I am doing a ton of gravel and wild routes, which means a lot of bumps (so more hits to my royal buttocks). A few days of rest, and I should be as good as new.

Today had a lot of weird routing; at one point, I had gone several kilometers down a trail, only for it to slowly fade into nothing as the howls of a pack of hunting dogs came closer and closer. I already had to walk my bike for the last 100 meters or so, so I quickly walked it back and then rode out to find an alternative route.

Another time the so-called route told me to turn on an alley that was a 10-foot pile of dirt :). Adventure!

55km / 3 hours 13 minutes / 400m gain

Today was gorgeous. Most of my ride was in a national forest or along a converted rail track (gravel). I am a bit tired from some long rides this week but otherwise good. I ate so many blackberries today. I should call this the Blackberry tour for how many bushes are along my route.

I saw my first fox today. My goal is to see one in every country I visit/tour. I’ve seen one in France (he/she even played hide and seek with me) and Portugal.

I also read one of the best thrillers called “I Am Pilgrim“. Fantastic and in the running for one of the best 3 books I read this year.

I am staying at this amazing B&B in nature. I am running low on food, and going to be a small dinner. I’ll need to find some food tomorrow. Dinner was the last hunk of crusty bread withy butter and camembert cheese. Plus, some carrots, nuts, and cranberries.

82km / 4 hours 35 minutes / 564m gain

Today was a long day. My butt was hurting by the end. I had to go extra far today as I couldn’t find a hotel in the middle.

Some map routing issues today. First, the route ended in a random cornfield :). I had to walk through that to get to a road. I kept expecting velociraptors to pop up in the tall corn.

Then on another one, I was going down a dirt road and where it showed a road, there was none, as it was very overgrown. I had to carry my bike through a forest, breaking things to make room. Eventually, I got out :). My legs got pretty torn up, and hopefully no poison ivy.

On one of the dirt roads, there was a herd of Bison. Behind them was a huge nuclear plant. It felt very surreal. Note the bison makes the coolest noise, like this deep hum/growl in their chest. If I had heard that in the woods, I would freak out, but now that I know, I will never get surprised by a bison in the woods.

54km / 3 hours 0 minutes / 417m gain

Today was more farmland, rolling hills, and a lot of little forest groves. The weather was beautiful. It was cold enough this morning that the B&B had a fire going. I stopped for lunch at a little park and read for a while until I could check into the little B&B. Tomorrow is a long 80km day (couldn’t find an open hotel, so going a bit far).

45km / 2 hours 35 minutes / 436m gain

Nice easy day today after the longer day yesterday. I had a big headwind all day, which was rather nice. It was incredibly cool all day; I am thankful for this weather. I think it will get hot toward Wed/Thur.

Lots of blackberries along the way, they were delicious. Today was mostly farmland with little bits of forest. So much wine!

90km / 4 hours 54 minutes / 749m gain

I got an early start today; I knew it was going to be a long ride. Luckily it is still super cool here and I didn’t have to deal with heat. Equally good as I didn’t refill my water bottle and ran out of water in the last hour.

The ride was beautiful, with lots of gravel roads, trails, and paved back country roads. Not too much elevation, given the distance. I ended up near Cognac, France, which was cool to bike through. I would like to try some Cognac (never had it), but it is Saturday, and tasting rooms are closed.

I ate lunch under a tree in a vineyard while it started to rain. I had sardines in water and drank the salty water to make sure I was hydrated and had plenty of salt. Once I got to the apartment, I stocked up on food for the coming days (smaller towns don’t usually have a bakery so far).

53km / 3 hours 18 minutes / 144m gain

It feels good to be on my bike :)

Calico and Lindsey had to get up at 3.30 am to catch their flight, so it was very early morning and a bit of a sleep disaster for Lindsey and me. I don’t think either of us got more than an hour of sleep before the wake up. The hotel was hot, and the window opened to a floodlight that was almost as bright as the sun :).

After they got into the taxi, I went back to sleep (I hope she gets some sleep on the plane).  managed about 3 hours of sleep before my 6.30 am wake-up.

As a result, I am loopy as hell.

I drove to long-term parking, and it took me twice as long to get ready. I started riding at 7.45 am. And I was extra careful getting out of town in a loopy state, I didn’t want to get hit by a truck (I meant to avoid rush hour).

The bike lanes and paths were amazing; the French do such an amazing job on their bike infrastructure. 80% of the time, I was on a dedicated bike path (20% shared, but with a decent amount of room).

The ride was beautiful but wild.

There were plenty of times I was just going through what felt like a wild field. Because of the area, there is a lot of sand, and everything is covered in it. Lots of mud and very careful routing over bumps and weird rivets from the logging trucks. Fun day and I hope the gravel route keeps up. Gravel riding is slower but really fun.

Breakfast was an apple and cashews; lunch was sardines and rice crackers; dessert was some wild blackberries next to the wine fields. I am looking forward to dinner; the small family hotel is surprising me with something!

I jumped on a ferry to get across the inlet, and on the other side was an amazing fortress, the “Citadel of Blaye” (one of the hundreds). I rode my bike all around it as the city made it into a park. It was massive and a really cool history read.

I am going to come back here and do a tour + underground tunnel tour at some point. Hopefully, we are living in this area at some point :)

Summer break is a new experience for us (since this is Calico’s first year in school).

Generally, we like to travel for a month, but this is the first year we have done it over the summer in peak time. We spent July in Issigeac, France. It is a small medieval village in the Dordogne (see marker below of map).

We got a good deal on an Airbnb with a big discount since we stayed an entire month. It didn’t have AC, but it didn’t get too hot, and we had plenty of fans. The weather in France was remarkably cool, given the rest of Europe was under a massive heatwave.

Mom and Tony visited for over two weeks, which was amazing! We had a lot of fun :)

I turned 42 on July 20th, and it was terrific to have Lindsey, Calico, Mom, and Tony there. That is the first time in quite some time :). We ate Indian food in a nearby town. And, randomly, one of my favorite cousins was on a trip nearby, so we got to have lunch with him and his fantastic family toward the end of the trip.

I did one of these posts last year, and it is helpful to figure out how to train better for the next long ride.

For the Italian bike trip, I was better prepared than any previous ride and felt great.

How did I train for Italy?

• 12 weeks where I ramped up training over time. The last week I rested
• I did 93 hours of rides in that period.
• I did 37 2+ hour rides.
• I did 9 3+ hour rides.

How did I train for this ride in France?

• I did 12 weeks of training. I am going to rest the last 10 days (I might get one or two rides in).
• I did ~73 hours of rides in that period.
• I did 20 2+ hour rides.
• I did 13 3+ hour rides.

The first 4 weeks of training were a mess. I visited Nick in Cannes, and I didn’t bike. And then, my bike had some serious problems, and I was biking indoors while it was in the shop for a few more weeks. That all slowed down my total hours a bit.

The good news is that in that between June 19th to July 17th I got in thirteen 3+ hour rides and they all felt good. Plus, I got a lot more altitude in my rides since I am in rural France. I am hoping that translates into a good tour, we shall see:).

In April, Calico and I did a father/son bike weekend in Northern Portugal. We had a blast, and I wanted to plan out his first overnight bike tour while we were in France. We found a nearby converted rail trail called the Sarlat Voie Verte. It was perfect, as he is too young to deal with cars.

Day 1 – He covered 36km in ~ 2 hours 50 minutes. He even rode a few km on a pretty busy road with cars (I was nervous and took most of the lane so he would be safe). We stayed in a beautiful gite with a swimming pool, and he got to practice his swimming (doing great). And he made some British friends at the local town we walked to for dinner (they made plans to meet next year same town).

Day 2 – After we stopped at a bakery on the way out of town, we rode 21km in 1 hour 47 minutes. And met Lindsey at our pickup point :).

While Lindsey and Calico head to the U.S.A., I plan to do a bike tour along the EV3 route from Bordeaux to Paris and then at Paris to turn and head to Mont St. Michael on the Veloscenic cycle route.

The route is estimated to be around 1,300km and ~6,700m of climbing (last year’s bike tour was 999km and 11,000m). I’ve got 31 days total (including breaks), and I still need to map things out a bit (last year was 18 riding days with an average of 56km each riding day).

I am currently training; I’d like to be in as good shape as I was for the Italy trip. I didn’t get as much notice, so we shall see how it all comes together. I am nervous as this will be in August, so I hope to avoid terrible heat waves (cue global warming’s deep, maniacal laughter).

It has been a big adjustment to have Calico in school, as we can only travel when he is on break :).

So for his spring break, we drove to Valencia on April 1st for two weeks (about 7.5 hours away)!

Calico got sick before we left, so much so that we delayed our drive a few days. He was having high fever and nightmares at night. We were both pretty tired from the long nights. This first year with him in school has been challenging with what he brings home.

I started feeling low energy and got sick for a day, but then I felt better. I did a full workout on Monday but then went and got a massage on Tuesday morning, which broke me. I think being face down for 45 min just destroyed my sinuses. I was sick for nine days with sinus crap; it sucked (somehow, it got in my right eye). And even after that, it took me a few more days to shake it thoroughly. I need to see a specialist about my sinuses as something is wrong with them (it is almost the only thing I ever get sick from). I have also been working too much and shot. I need to rebalance, but it is hard as Shepherd is in a critical phase.

Luckily Calico and Lindsey were fine and visited with our friends there.

And luckily, I was improved by the time Rose, Steve, and Evie came to visit. It was so much fun to have them stay with us, and I hope we can do it again soon. Evie is adorable, and we had a blast showing them our favorite city in the world. Calico adores Evie, and it is a happiness to see them both interact (he is also pretty fond of Rose and Steve, he made about a million things for them before they arrived, even a cardboard bar nook so he could serve Steve beer, lol). Lindsey enjoys entertaining, and it felt like we had several Viking feasts.

Many of these photos are credited to Steve, as he knows WTF he is doing with a camera :)

On the way home, we visited Granada and Malaga in Andalucia, Spain.

Grenada was beautiful! We toured Alhambra and found an amazing Syrian place to eat. We ate there twice; it was so good. I also did one bike ride, but it was way too much city riding, and I finally found some gravel at the end of the ride.

Malaga was bigger, sunnier, and had a beautiful beach.

We really liked it, and I got to have a fantastic lunch with Serita. Serita is the freelance editor who takes care of many things at Shepherd. It was really great to meet her, and she brought some of this Tequila she has crafted (I am looking forward to trying it)!

I also managed a long bike ride; the Malaga trails were amazing. I hope to go back and explore more of the gravel routes one day.

We are home now, and I am catching up on a lot of work and random family things we’ve put off. I am feeling more rested which is good.