Montpellier is a beautiful town, I hope to come back when it is a bit warmer. We’ve had a nice stay here this week, and it has been nice to have some bread treats here. It was also cool to see real flamingos out in the water!

We had a great trip :).

We got back on August 6th to Valencia Spain so a good 36 days out in nature. We did two long days of driving to get back a little early as France was about to get hit by a heatwave and we were struggling to find places to stay. August in Europe is a big vacation month and we didn’t plan that far ahead :).

Notes for next time:

• Book a minimum of 7 days in each place. We found it much more chill and easy if we stayed at least 7 days in a place. It gave us the space to get settled, do some day trips, and relax. We did a few 5-day stays and it was too short. We really enjoy longer stays too we’ve found.
• Plan ahead if in the midst of summer :). We had good reason not too because we wanted to stay flexible in the face of Covid and uncertainty there.
• We did pretty well, but making sure we plan activities for Calico is key. Whether that is the playground, swimming, hiking, but something for him is important.
• We spent ~$125 USD a night on average. That is pretty good for summer and some of the last-minute bookings we made. It does remind us why we like the offseason though as it is quite a bit cheaper than peak summer.

Some of my fav family pics :)

We were set to stay longer in Avignon but it was hot and our place was a bust. So we left early to get a jump on our long drive over to Slovenia. So, we are in Italy on the Riveria staying on a beautiful little farm area in the mountains and about 10 min from the beach. It is much cooler here and we have more space for Calico. We felt like he didn’t have anywhere to play in Avignon, we couldn’t find a park and our place was really hot. And, it was so full of old weird furniture you could barely breathe. Oh well, live and learn on picking a place :).

Calico has done so well in the car. Our longest day was one 8 hour day on our first day. And, since then I think only 4 hour days that we try to time with his nap. He is a happy little kid :). And, Lindsey packed him a ton of things to play with.

I did about 1.5 hours on the Rhone EuroVelo 17 route by Avignon. It wasn’t too bad, and I’d love to do it one day. The ride I did was next to a highway though but still pretty parts. I was pretty worn out with the heat and the place we were staying. On a little baby ride around Avignon, I got another flat, 3rd one of the trip and I am guessing it was glass or a thorn.

Lindsey found a cool 300-year-old village nearby, and we stopped at it the day before we left Landes. You take a 10 min train ride into the village and then just walk around. It was pretty chill and had some amazing bread.

And, we stopped at some Roman ruins on the way which had amazing mosaics. And, we got Calico something fun :)

And, we went through 3 towns in Gers which were beautiful. We want to plan a trip back :). We had an amazing lunch in there with some of the best lamb I’ve had in a while.

We are staying in a weird little town called Mazamet. It is pretty lifeless, but we are glad we checked it out though. Great bike ride nearby and pretty countryside.

We are close to Carcassonne castle, and we took Calico to visit the castle. It was great :). Not many tourists in the morning, and way less than normal IMO. They do well on masks, shortened the times you can go in, and I think they cut a lot of the inside tour. This is my 3rd time to visit Carcassonne, my first trip was in 05/06, with Lindsey on our road trip in 2017, and now with Lindsey and my son. Pretty cool :)

The PassaPaïs Cycle Route is this amazing greenway that is ~75km one way and covers an old railway line. That means no cars, beautiful greenery, mountains, cows, and vineyards. It goes from Mazamet to Bédarieux. You can even go further from Bédarieux to Beziers and the canal down there if you so wanted.

I decided to do the full thing the day before we left and it was a blast. It was 1km shy of hitting my record for the longest ride that I did about 4 days ago. I did 145km in 7 hours 8 minutes, an average speed of around 21kmph, and about 1,000m of elevation gain.

They have some nasty thorns in Mazamet as in 3 days of riding I’ve had a flat 2 of the days. I changed my first tire on this bike and got some good practice. The first one took 40 min and the second 30 min. The hardest part is getting the tire off/on (and this isn’t even a road bike).

A blurb on the route:

A track cutting right through the Languedoc Mountains, it presents two distinct sides of southern France. At the border between the counties of the Tarn and Hérault, you reach a major watershed – to the west, the rivers head for the Atlantic, to the east to the Mediterranean. In fact, this route takes its name from the Occitan expression “PassaPaïs” (meaning passing from one land to another).

There is a really cool part where you go through a LONG tunnel and go from the rainy side to the dryer/sunnier side. Fun times. I def needed to pack more water and stopped for a coke and water refill at some point.

We grabbed a big van, loaded up my bike and Calico’s bike, a bunch of gear, and took off on July 1st! We drove from Valencia to South West France and took a really beautiful route through the Pyrenees. The number of tunnels was crazy, it went from dry and sunny on the Spanish side to 25 degrees cooler and fog on the French side.

What have we been doing?

• Chilling, it is nice to be in the quiet woods.
• Went to the Atlantic Ocean a few times. The water was really really rough, so I swam but Calico just played in the surf a little with me holding him and then tide ponds.
• Went to a beautiful lake to swim and hang out.
• Went to a wonderful market in Dax and had a fun day.
• Eating and drinking some delicious foods.
• I’ve been going on some morning bike rides.

We are being very careful as we travel, we are only staying in AirBNB’s 99% of the time, only eating outside, wearing a mask if we pop in somewhere, and otherwise staying away from the Covid risks. We are looking forward to enjoying some outdoor time on this trip.

Fun story I’ve been meaning to write down…

It is January 2017 and we just got out of the hospital and Calico is maybe 5 or 6 days old. We head to his pediatrician a few days after we get home for his first checkup. We get to the doctor’s office and wait to be called, but his diaper is ripe, so I take him to get changed. He is this cute little baby and I was not ready for what came next. I go into the spacious bathroom, pull down a huge baby changing setup and get him ready. The minute I take off his diaper and pull out wipes he suddenly projectile poops a stream of poop 3 to 4 feet across the changing table, the wall, and the floor. It was like something out of the Exorcist… just everywhere and a steady stream for what felt like 3 minutes. It was kinda hilarious.

After he finished I got him all fixed up and I think I used an entire box of wipes trying to wipe down the wall, the floor, and the baby changing station. It was gross. I finally got back to the room where Lindsey is waiting and slightly worried as it has probably been 15 minutes :). Projectile poop has never occurred again…

When we went to Strasbourg France when he was 6 months old it was quite a shock as when Lindsey’s diet changed to strange french cheeses the poor little guy didn’t poop for maybe a week. And, when he finally did it was TERRIBLE. Lindsey and I used to play poop roulette for who would get the unlucky diaper explosion. We had to classify them on a Richter scale (logarithmic scale) and it took him a while to adjust to whatever is in delicious French food :). It was pretty funny!

I am devastated, Notre Dame is one of my favorite churches and buildings in the world. I have visited it so many times and had so many beautiful quiet moments within it. It was one of the first places I visited when I was young on my own on a solo trip :(.

My thoughts are with the French People and France tonight :(, an absolute tragedy for a symbol of France. It can be rebuilt and will be rebuilt. I hope I can help in some small way when that starts.

We spent a month in Dijon France in the Burgundy region this summer and it was a good trip. Not quite as magical as our stay in Strasbourg last year but a much-needed change of pace. We had a great time with family as my mom and step-dad visited for about 10 days and my brother and his girlfriend Isadora visited for a long weekend :). Fun times!

We had so many amazing meals, ate some amazing desserts, and drank a lot of good wine (plus sent some home)! I forgot how nice it is to have a slow 2 to 3-hour lunch with family. Calico even managed to sit through a few of those lunches…

Calico is such a blast! Even over the course of this trip, it is crazy how much more he can do and say. His first word after mama/dada was “ball” and he is a nut for any type of ball. Anytime he sees kids playing with a ball he just watches and wants to run over and try to play. It is so much fun to have this time with him in a new place.

What changed this year?

Calico is older! When he was 5 months old he was barely crawling and we could take him everywhere and he just sat and watched :). Now we have to hand him back and forth during a meal or try to keep him occupied at the table. Plus he doesn’t like to sit in his stroller for long periods and needs to get out and run and jump. We wonder if he will be the type of kid who is going to sit and color while we eat in a year :). We did not know quite what to expect at this age with his personality and that definitely adjusted what we thought we could do. I think in the future we will make sure we are really close to pedestrian areas or big parks that he can play at. And, probably smaller towns as well.

The weather was too hot! We did not realize that this region is the hottest in France in the summer and we need to check that better next time (94 degrees plus for the first 2 to 3 weeks before it dropped to the 80s). Our apartment did not have AC and the main living room got hit by morning to afternoon sun every day. We slept fine with fans, but we plan to move our yearly trip to winter/early-spring going forward. That way we get to enjoy the amazing Colorado summer and escape the cold of late winter.

Calico was sick the first week and his energy was low and he was extra clingy. That was a bummer as it lined up with when my mom and step-dad visited so we did not get to do as much with them or take them up on their offer to watch him for a few date nights.

What did we learn? What would we change going forward?

Lindsey did a 3-week trip back to Arkansas prior to France and she had a great time but was also exhausted going into our family trip. That is not something we will do next time as it is just too much go-go-go. She needed more solo time once she was here and we should have planned that better. Towards the end of the trip, we got that sorted out better.

Lindsey and I get in this rut where we forget to take time for ourselves that we desperately need. We are trying to do better at this both in Colorado and when we travel. We just get stuck where we are both watching Calico halfway while trying to do something and both of us get frustrated. We both need breaks where we eat a long meal alone or read or workout or do a wine/cheese tasting or something. I was especially bad where I would put off a workout and then get frustrated as I really needed one.

We need to make more plans and schedule things we want to do. Not a crazy amount, but just more planned trips via the train, or car, to eat a special meal, or do a wine tasting, or see some history. It is too easy to get stuck in a loop where we are tired and we don’t do something special or adventures. We had such great memories of driving to the lake to swim or doing a wine tasting and that is fun for Calico too.

If it is going to be hot we need to get AC. When it was just us we could go out during the day, or hang out at a park or cafe, but with a little one, it is nice to have a room with AC for him to play in during peak heat.

I worked a little bit on this trip and with that about to switch to full time as I start a new business, we are going to try to find a temporary babysitter to help when we travel next time. That way the babysitter can watch Calico while I am home working in the morning and Lindsey can go explore and have a break. Or, Lindsey has help when she takes Calico with her to explore a new city. It would be really nice if we trust them to have a lunch just me and Lindsey too :). I think in general we are going to try to get some more help here and there, as it really helps out.

From Nevers, it was about 20 miles on a path I’ve already seen… after I got to Decize everything was new though. The path switched from the canal to rolling hills and beautiful farmland. Weird enough they were growing a lot of corn?

Ride stats?

53 miles / 85 km
Time: 4 hours 13 minutes
Avg MPH: 12.4
Average heart rate: 113
Elevation gain: 984 feet
Elevation drop: 837 feet
Average temp:86F

And, I forgot to take pictures today :). Beautiful farming countryside, followed by an old hotel that is really cool in a small town. Like the type of hotel that maybe 60 years ago was the nicest thing in the world and has fallen into a little disrepair :).

This morning I got a taxi driver to take me to Guedelon about 30 minutes from where I was last night. What is Guedelon you might ask?

It is a project to build a 13th-century castle using the tools and methods of that time. It is amazeballs!!!! More specifically they are building a castle as if they were living in 1128 under the reign of Louis IX. They started in 1997 and it is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Part of me wants to move here and work on this. Check out the progression over time (click to enlarge)…

They work with archaeologists to figure out how to build things using the data they have from the time. It is an impressive setup. They do all their own quarry work, maintain their own animals, build all the supporting buildings, build all the roofing tile, all the blacksmithing, all the pigment creation, etc etc etc. It is just so cool!

I’ve been training hard for a solo bike tour of Burgundy France that I leave for in a few days. I’d rate myself a 6/10 for preparation. Her is what my training looked like:

April – 9 biking days / 108 Miles / 11 Hours / 0 rides over 30 Miles
May – 12 biking days / 248 Miles / 25 Hours / 3 rides over 30 Miles
June – 13 biking days / 316 Miles / 26 Hours / 5 rides over 30 Miles

I wish I had started training seriously a month earlier. I was dealing with a back injury flare up at the time, but I got that sorted and I am feeling great now (thanks to Jeff for a lot of rehab time + Dr. Helburg in Boulder). I am hoping to do around 40 to 60 miles a day, and if I need to take a day off I will. This is my first bike tour and I am really excited :).

Where am I headed?

My plan is to start in Dijon and head north to Migennes, then south along another Canal route, then jump on the EuroVelo 6, and then I think either that or another Canal route back to Dijon (to meet my family there).

I’ll to update later with how I packed, I am curious if I left enough room and packed the right stuff. It was a lot easier for the walking trip in Spain/UK.

For the last month, we have been living in Strasbourg France and having a blast. Lindsey and I wanted to travel with Calico and had this planned for some time as our first big trip.

What was it like traveling with a 5-month-old?
Not too bad! Jet lag and sleep regression were TOUGH, but the rest was great. I think the best thing is we did not have much that was scheduled, we just flowed with things. The only time he got fussy was when we had to put him in a car seat when he was really hungry a few times. Calico is so curious about everything it was fun just to have him sit in the stroller and watch everything. Very rewarding :).

This picture might sum up Lindsey’s feelings when Calico was really squirmy after Lindsey had been up every hour from 1.30am to 5.30am and then we had to catch a train… The sleep regression sucked for Lindsey, esp with him feeding so much at night. I take him most mornings around 6.30am when he wakes up to give her some more rest and sleep in. We are going to work to stop that pattern now that we are home a bit more. It is a good thing he is so cute :).

What did we get up too?
Rose and Steve visited and we had a blast!!! So much good food and catching up :). They also scored Calico a sweet leprechaun onesie…

Corrin visited + Wine & Food & History Tours!
Corrin just graduated HS, and we had him over for 10 days. Lindsey took him on some little trips and then we all spent 2 days with a history, wine, and food tour. Our tour guide was great and really knew her wine.

WW1 Battlefield
I am really glad I was not around for that war, what a clusterfuck.

I also got the chance to take Corrin and family to Freiburg Germany in the Black Forrest. I lived there for a few months a few years back and the trail network was amazing. It was good to see it and I hope to be back one day with a bike. We got this family shot at some point there :).

What did I get up too?
I found out I LOVE snails. I think I could eat a plate of 12 along with some bread every day :)

I ended my job at Pressed in early June, and it was really nice to have a vacation where I didn’t have to work or be on call. I think this is the first vacation in 10+ years where I have not been on some form of on call. I read 30+ books over the month, and took Calico all over the city. I think we easily walked 3 to 7 miles a day. I also took a break from my strict Paleo AIP diet which was nice (i ate some really good food).

Lindsey and I rented a car a few weeks ago and saw a ton of Europe :), where did we go?

First we drove up to Milan to meet two friends, then to Lake Como, then through Switzerland to check out Geneva, and then down to the Cathar region of France near the Pyrenees mountains to hike.

What does gas station food in Italy look like?

In Lake Como Lindsey found us an amazing place to stay, we managed a little hike even though it was windy.

We visited Geneva for a day, and drove through all of Switzerland which was pretty stunning. Our photos from that area didn’t turn out well since they were all taken from a car :). We spent a half day exploring Geneva since that might be where Lindsey goes to grad school too!

Next we drove down through France to the Languedoc region where we did a lot of hiking. I’ve always wanted to go to visit this region of France, I was very interested in the Cathar religion, the Crusade against them, and the castles that emerged from that fight and subsequent border fights with the Spanish. I got to crawl around a lot of castles, we went on a lot of hikes, and we tried to stay warm as the Tramontane wind was out in full force.

Lindsey is an awesome navigator and got us from point A to point B which was hard considering we had no net/gps and no paper map :).

I also realized I’ve now been to 40 countries with my trip to Switzerland :)!