Like in The Netherlands the weather in France was not great this summer, it rained quite a lot and it was much cooler than usual. The higher slopes were even regularly covered with snow, but this didn't stop us being outside most of the time. This poor weather spell coincided with the Tour de France and the visit by Mary’s parents. As usual we enjoy the few days of hectic activity surrounding the Tour and on the day walked up a few kilometers towards Alpe d’Huez to see the “caravane publicitaire” (advertisement or publicity caravan) and of course the cyclists. The great thing is to see the cyclists battling up the slope, so close that you can almost touch them. Piet saw all his heroes, but unfortunately the Dutch guys played second fiddle. At the end of the day we descended, loaded with goodies from the caravan, and to watch the taped recording of the whole stage: were we on television? A very brief shot in passing.......
Mary’s parents had a quiet time, sitting on the terrace, doing short walks and enjoying the horse show in the garden. Our neighbours, owners of the village mare Swallow, wanted to make use of Real’s presence to get her pregnant. Jacques came over to supervise the first “meeting”, a pretty violent affair where Real tried to jump Swallow for a few hours, and got kicked everywhere.... but no success. In the end they were separated to allow Swallow to get “on heat” before a second attempt. They were both left in our garden to stimulate this process and to allow them to get to know each other better; a thin electric wire effectively keeping them apart.
We spent a lot of time working in our patch of forest, cleaning out dead wood, and cutting firewood with all our noisy tools. We also took the girls on a bike ride to their first col: Col d’Ornon, 650 m above the valley. They managed without any problems and are already asking about Alpe d’Huez! However, they are looking forward even more to their horseback camping trip next week....
The whole family is ready for Col d'Ornon
Halfway at the climb at Pont d'Ornon
Proud to have reached the top!
Rob Ruigh and Robert Gesink are struggling up Alpe d'Huez
Dutch hero Johnny Hoogerland
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