After spending two weeks in The Hague we returned to France for the second part of our sabbatical. We didn't have any plans, and just wanted to have a long holiday. We arrived at the same time as our friends Jochem and David, who were registered to participate in the Marmotte, the gruelling 175 km cyclosportive with three long climbs, and a finish on Alpe d'Huez. Piet spend the first days cycling with them, and during the event we supported them on Col du Glandon (the first climb), and Piet cycled up the Alpe to the finish with Jochem. The whole group completed the event without major problems.
Paula and Jasper also arrived and used our house as home base for 5 weeks, and made several trips in the Alps. They have a shared passion for hiking, cycling, rock climbing and alpine tours, and maximise their days off for these activities. The last week Paula worked from the house, while Jasper, who just completed his MSc, was enjoying his last weeks of pre-working life freedom.
The last week Piet's colleague Cameron, with her family, was staying at a nearby camping ground. Piet took her along a few bike rides to show her the beautiful surroundings, share ideas on things to do with young kids, and to take her up some classic climbs.
For ourselves we settled in a nice routine of waking up without alarm, have breakfast, drink coffee and read our book, before deciding on activities for the day. We also had some fixed point during the week: agility and man trailing with Pippin, and bike rides with the local club UC Oisans once or twice a week. And every day there was a short or longer walk with Pippin. In short, time flew past, and before we knew it the 3 month sabbatical was gone, and Piet had to return to The Hague to start working again.