#Chapter 7

With only a couple of days to explore Samoens

I wasted no time.

I think I could quite happily live in this village.

There is a very special something about it:)

In between being support ''team'' to Jake,

me and my camera took to the streets,

the back lanes,

and the hills.

...very impressed with the flower boxes around

the town square -

this is truly spectacular :)

...and a carousel like out of a fairy tale :)

The jardin botanique was very special -

a narrow steep garden -

it wound up the hillside in a series of

little paths.

I've not seen anything like this garden before,

it was quite magical.

Almost wild in places,

but completely natural

and beautiful.

If you ever visit Samoens,

you must visit this garden:)

There is a tiny little chapel half way up...

...garden seats in secluded little spots...

...so green and lush...

...enchanting is the word I would use to describe

this beautiful little oasis in the middle

of the village of Samoens.

And as if the garden is not gorgeous enough

this is one of the main streets :)

I could go on and on about Samoens,

but I think you get the idea.

I might have fallen in love with this village :)

And the race...

he did good :)

Stage one was raced in a short

but intense

electrical storm!!!

And the remaining four stages were raced

in temperatures best kept for the beach :)

So far I have to say

I have really enjoyed the whole camping experience,

and to be honest,

wasn't quite sure how I would go at that:)

The camps we have stayed in have been fabulous,

really neat and super clean,

and the owners have all been so friendly and,

well,

just really really nice people:)

I know that the weather has helped 

and I'm sure that as the season starts to change,

so will the temperature inside the tent,

but I'll worry about that when it happens:)

Until then,

I quite like camp style dining each night,

and I definitely like

the fresh baguette every morning :)

But let me tell you about camp showers!!

I think I have now experienced every sort of shower

possible.

All of them, except one,

have been push button jobs.

The amount of time

that the water flows between each push

varies from about thirty seconds to

one minute

 (if you are lucky).

You just gotta keep pushing the button!

Water temperature varies from "a smidge over cold"

to "scalding flipping hot"!

Some of them stay exactly the same temperature,

hot or cold or anywhere in between,

no matter what way you turn the tap:)

And then there are the ones

that go from cold to scorching

with a turn of approximately

one tenth of a millimetre!

They're lots of fun:)

There's every degree of water pressure from

 a dribble to full blown water blaster...

the latter being an "invigorating" way

to start the day :)

Rinsing the shampoo out of one's hair

takes on a whole new meaning

with the water blaster ones:)

The champion shower, though,

 so far, 

has to be the one that we paid for.

Very confusing system... 

the token box was located

at the end of the row of showers,

a clearly numbered slot for each shower,

so you would think, this looks very simple.

So...set my gear up in shower #4,

went out and pushed the button for #4,

inserted token

and lo and behold shower in #2 sprang into life!!!

Hmmm...

 mad dash to #4 to remove all items

to #2 and have a shower before

it timed out!!!

You gotta laugh, though -

it's all part of the fun of camping.

So we left Samoens to travel back through

our base camp at Briancon,

heading for Les Orres

and the next race.

See you there :)

Jenny xx

#Chapter 6

I'm a couple of weeks behind,

again!!

Briancon was a quick stop - 

just a couple of days to stock up on

spare bike parts,

and enjoy my most favourite campsite again.

Breakfast under the trees,

fresh baguette and coffee :)
I did of course squeeze in a walk -
this time exploring the old forts.
I cant help but imagine what it must have been like
when these forts were built,
the battles that were won and lost.
The sheer size of them is staggering,
how many men and hours must it have taken to
build them!

...poppies growing wild in the stones

outside the fort...

We had a two week break from races so

decided to head north to Les Gets

and spend a whole week in one place!

Les Gets is another small alpine village with, 

of course,

a bike park

 (fully serviced by a ton of chairlifts).

It also has miles and miles

of walking tracks.

No matter where we go,

especially in the mountainous regions,

there are more tracks 

than you could possibly ever hope to walk

in three lifetimes!

It is a hiker's paradise.

We stayed at the most gorgeous little camping ground,

high up the hills above the village.

Jake had stayed there last year

and wanted to return,

and I'm very glad for that

cos it was sooooo lovely.

Every morning the local baker

drove up the hill delivering

fresh baguettes and croissants.

I confess,

I really really like

starting the day in this fashion :)

I also quite liked looking out on Mont Blanc
whilst having breakfast.
Unbelievable view from the camping ground!

So while Jake spent the next six days

riding the parks,

I spent some of them walking,

and a couple of them sitting in the shade

stitching.

The hot summer continues,

and some days it's really too hot to do much at all

in the afternoon.

Perfect time to sit and stitch

 a few more memories in my journal.

My walks took me high up the hills,

covered in wildflowers of every description,

and the views...

One of the highlights of my trip so far

would have to be the day I set out

for the Aulps Abbeye.

The Abbeye was built in the 12th century!

Still trying to get my head around that date :)

The best surprise of all was finding

the most beautiful herb garden I've ever seen,

tucked away down in the corner of the site.

There was a potager and a herb garden,

side by side,

within stone walls.

 

...took me a while to leave the garden,
it looked and smelled so good :)

On our last day in Les Gets
 we decided to take a chair-lift

to the French/Swiss border.

I discovered something new about myself...
I am a complete and utter sook

when it comes to dangling in a chairlift

flipping metres and metres off the ground!!!

The only good thing about the ride up

was the knowledge that my "discomfort"

was providing someone

(who shall remain nameless)

with enormous amounts of joy!!

I'll never forget
 the best part of the ride...

 that would be when whoever was in charge

down below

decided to stop the lift for a few minutes,

and luckily for us
 we happened to be smack bang

in the middle of a span.

According to the laws of physics

this apparently seems to mean that the chair 

gets a really good "swing" on

and in fact it almost feels like its on a

bungee cord!!!!

Never been so glad to put feet firmly on ground

as I was stepping off at the other end.

 The views from the top were indeed magnificent

and pictures cannot do it justice.

It was worth every minute on that chair-lift thing

to be able to look out over the mountains

in all their majestic splendour.

So, getting down the mountain was the next step,

and I opted for the walking mode.

It was a long long way down,

but there was no way,

not in a pink fit,

that I was getting on the chair-lift.

Besides,

it was a beautiful day for a walk.
Just didn't quite count on it being 10km down!
Funny thing is,
I distinctly remember Jake telling me
it was only a couple of kilometres...
hmmm...
open to interpretation I guess:)


Thoroughly enjoyed my week in Les Gets,
and maybe we will get a chance to revisit 
before the trip is over.

The next stop was only half an hour away,
in the next valley.
World series race for Jake.
The village of Samoens
stole my heart.
I found the perfect cottage :)

...is this not the cutest most gorgeous 
cottage
that you have ever seen :)
See you in Samoens :)
xx

Chapter #5

I was excited to be visiting Solden,

as we had not originally planned going to Austria.

Last minute change of plans...

an event to be raced :)

Another high pass out of France and into

the top of Italy - 

tunnels - lots and lots of tunnels.

Some of them very very long!!!

We took a couple of days to get there -

stopping for a night in Cremona.

Interesting camp in Cremona!?!

Mostly due to the sheer quantity of bugs -

lots of caterpillar types.

I really really dont like caterpillary types,

they are creepy.

They fell onto you from the trees above!!!

Packing up next morning happened at the speed of lightning!

Jake thought the sight of me

 sidestepping caterpillary things

was absolutely hysterical -

oh ha ha!!

On the road again -

stopping only for photos :)

I have to tell you about our GPS at this point.

He is gorgeous - 

so incredibly patient:)

What I love about this guy is the options

he gives you -

shortest, fastest or longest route.

Shortest is the one that amuses me the most,

because it's not usually the fastest,

it's just that kilometre-wise it's the shortest,

so you find yourself on some of the smallest roads

known to mankind at times!

There are times when we have arrived at a corner

and he's telling us to turn right,

and we're saying,

"not a chance"

because it looks more like someones driveway

than a road,

but to GPS it's the shortest way!!

Doesn't matter that you are driving through

what appears to be someone's back yard.

On the way to Solden he took us the shortest way

through a town (can't remember the name of it)

and it probably was the shortest way,

but I swear he took us on every back alley

in that town.

I'm absolutely positive it 

probably took us three times as long

to get to the other side -
 but you gotta laugh,

and I bet we saw a whole lot more of that town

than most:)

So anyway,

back to the road trip

and over another incredibly high pass,

through the border into Austria.

...serious mountains!!

The little bit we saw of Austria

was spectacularly beautiful.

I went walking in the forest,

up the mountains behind our campsite

and felt like I was in some magical garden.

So very pretty...

...flowers everywhere,

and green, so green...

...the houses and hotels were literally

decked out in flower boxes

full of the brightest flowers...

...and this is definitely one of my favourites...

Thought you might like to see our accommodation

for the duration of the trip... 

...that's it - the little blue tent:)

Cute ay!!

Private sleeping quarters at either end,

centrally situated lounge

with awesome indoor outdoor flow,

and the kitchen?

Well, that tends to move,

depending on shade :)

Actually, I am really quite enjoying it,

although I know that it will have it's shortcomings

when the weather starts to turn.

But luckily for us we have had 6 weeks of

unbelievably hot summer days

with the exception of 2 hours rain,

right here in Solden!

Are you still hanging in there,

this is a fairly long chapter:)

Besides shutters and window boxes,

I also have a bit of a thing for steeples.

I love them and boy are there lots of them over here.

All shapes and colours and sizes.

This one is a particularly fine specimen :)

The race - how did it go?

Really good - much better result.

Jake ranked a mention on the starting line,

when they realised he was from NZ.

"Good luck New Zealand"

was the parting comment as he pedalled

off to stage one.

So from Solden we headed back to base camp,

via Lake Como.

Wow - would have loved to have seen

 a little more of the lake

but the heat haze was so dense that you 

could barely see the other side.

Still, maybe we will return before we leave.

I think this must be the most elegant house

I've ever seen.

Do you think maybe it was a summer palace

or something?

I stole a picture through the

wrought iron gates.

See you back in Briancon.

Jenny :)

Chapter #4

Sanremo - what a town!

We pulled in quite late in the day -

the roads over the mountain passes are 

super skinny and winding,

and take much longer that you expect to drive.

But they are so much more scenic than the main routes,

and in a sense it doesn't matter too much

what time you arrive

at your destination

as long as it's not pitch dark

'cos I don't fancy putting the tent up in darkness:)

Waking up beside the Mediterranean is quite something -

the sea literally sparkled in the morning sunlight.

Sanremo is only a little way over the

Italian border.

After coming from the quieter villages

that we had been staying in France,

it was a bit of a culture shock -

super hustly and bustly.

And HOT!!

I was starting to get the impression by about now

that maybe Europe was in the grips of

a bit of a heat wave.

At times it was stifling.

It didn't seem to bother the locals

all that much,

but then they don't come from the deep south

of New Zealand where we think 25 is hot :)

The purpose of Sanremo was primarily for Jake 

to do some riding.

However I was more than happy to amuse myself

exploring the olde historic part of the town

while he was off riding.

It was fascinating -

the little winding lanes

and the colours of the houses

were like something out of a storybook.

...and the most amazing thing...

I found a teeny tiny button and trim shop.

I could not believe my eyes.

Almost the whole of one side of the shop

was filled with boxes of buttons...

...and the other side was 
boxes and boxes and boxes

of trims...

...the most amazing thing was that all these

boxes of trims were identified only by a number...

how on earth did the owner know where to start

looking?

But I bet he knew every single box

and it's contents :)

It was like stepping into

Aladdin's cave ... 

I so wanted to stay for the day

and look inside every single box!

 So after a few days we said our goodbyes

to Sanremo

and headed south for the next race

which was in Millau.

We had passed through Millau a couple of weeks earlier

on our way north 

and we had worked out where we would camp.

It was a long days driving but we felt happy

that we knew exactly where we were going,

so it didn't matter if we got there a bit late.

Slight hiccup :)

We hadn't counted on there being a huge

Natural Games festival on!

Ooops - no room at the inn!!

But we did eventually find another camp ground

and again it was right beside a fabulous big river

that was perfect for swimming,

and trust me,

it was well used:)

Again I managed to find myself wandering round
the olde part of the town centre,
snapping off a gazillion photos :)

...I love the shutters, and flowers
in tubs and windowboxes,
everywhere we go...

Okay so race day was interesting...

the day before temperatures soared and practice day

was really hard work!!!

Race day saw temperatures go even higher!

By midday I have given up on my forays,

and headed back to camp where I knew there was shade.

On my way back I got a little lost

and ended up in the middle of wheat fields.

They were of course a delight to photograph...

...but oh my goodness,

it got very very very hot.

By the time I did get back to camp,

my thoughts were with Jake -

how on earth was he coping in the heat.

Sadly he did not manage to complete the race,

but not because of the heat,

mechanical issues instead!!

I really have no idea how those riders did it,

and was not surprised to learn that a huge number

pulled out.

From Millau we returned to Briancon

for a restock.

It's sort of become our home base,

as it's very central to many of the places we are going,

The camp there is lovely,

and they do do very very good

fresh baguette for breakfast.

...some lavender fields along the way...

Next stop - Solden - Austria.

See you there

Jenny :)