Tour de France

This year the Tour de France arrived in Alpe d'Huez again, after an absence of 4 year. This time the stage started in Briancon, and passed the Cols du Galibier and Croix de Fer. As usual we walked up halfway, with Paula and Jasper, to see the publicity caravan and the cyclists. The stage was won by Tom Pidcock. The next day the Tour left from Bourg d'Oisans, and once the whole circus left normal life returned to the valley. And during these three days of madness our garden remained an oasis of peace!

Mary is ready for the Tour

The publicity caravan

Louis Meintjes, who became second on the stage

Steven Kruiswijk is leading the Jumbo Visma train

Dylan van Baarle and Filippo Ganna

A small grupetto

Dylan Groenewegen (left), supported by two team mates

La Marmotte

Late June we returned to France for a week of work, followed by holiday. After a couple of days the family arrived in full force, as nephews Jeroen and Max signed up to cycle La Marmotte, one of the toughest challenges of the year, crossing the cols Glandon, Telegraphe, Galibier, and arrival on Alpe d'Huez. They had prepared properly for months, and were in great shape.  

During the day many roads are closed, and we elected to see them on the Glandon, which ment leaving before the start at 7 AM. The weather was perfect, and we watched all the cyclists passing over the top. Jeroen and Max were one of the latest to start and arrived in good spirits on the first climb. After they got fresh supplied they started the descend. We returned to the house, and later in the day the family drove up to Alpe d'Huez to see the finish. It was a very hot day, and is was really tough for the boys; they arrived just before closure at the foot of Alpe d'Huez, and struggled their way up. They made it in the end, happy and very, very tired.

The next few days were real holiday, with even a bike ride. Piet's sister and brother in law left for Italy, and the others returned to Belgium. The following weekend Piet was scheduled to ride l'Etape du Tour, but he unfortunately contracted covid, and had to cancel. Luckily the symptoms were mild, and after a week he felt fine again. More on our own holiday in the following post....

Hannah and Marc relaxing on the Glandon

We had special beer shirt for the supporters

The first cyclists on the Glandon

Jeroen and Max near the top

Discussion with the supporters

Hannah and Luana preparing drink bottles for their men

Max

Cyclists struggling up Alpe d'Huez

Work and holidays

After driving down from Chablis we had two great weeks in our house. The first week Piet had to work, and the second week was real holiday. We didn't go anywhere, and restricted our activities to walks and some training with Pippin, cycling and work around the house.

This was also the first time we were present for Alpe d'Huzes, one of the major fundraisers in Holland, where thousands of people try to cycle up Alpe d'Huez six times, to collect money for cancer research. All equipment, volunteers etc. came from The Netherlands, and the organisation was running an un-French smooth event. We never saw the fun in cycling up our home mountain six times, but Piet gatecrashed the party and went up once, and then again up to La Garde, the first steep kilometers of the climb.

Well rested we returned to The Hague, to start planning our return for the summer.

Lac de Buclet

View over our valley

Walking along the Romanche

Cycling towards La Danchere

Training in our garden; Pippin found his pheasant

Pippin loves searching and returning fetches

Bourgogne

This year Piet's wine and dine society 'Het Derde Glas' decided to plan their yearly trip to favourite areas Bourgogne, Chablis and Champagne, in anticipation of a major trip in 2023. As this was close to a planned holiday in France Piet arranged for Mary to join them in Chablis, and then continue down south.

On Thursday day morning we met in Utrecht, and drove in one go to the Bourgogne, for an easy first stop in the Caveau in Morey - St. Denis. A second visit was planned with Capuano-Ferreri in Santenay, where host John explained the family tree, highlighting his uncle Jean Marc Ferreri, who played next to Platini in the French national team. When it came to paying our order John managed to convince us that we should pay in cash. He didn't even check the amount, fully trusting our own spreadsheet. He thanked us for keeping it all out of the books with a bottle of Corton Grand Cru. The day was wrapped up at restaurant Le Benaton, in Beaune. We were the only guests, until an older Englishman turned up with a trophy wife. He watched our animated discussion for 10 minutes, and then decided to leave....

Friday started with Vincent Latour in Meursault, one of the most famous (and expensive) Bourgogne villages, for white wine. This was clear from the bottle prices, and purchases were done with great care. We drove back to Beaune to vist our old friend Albert Morot, where we tasted his limited 2021 harvest directly from the barrels. We also picked up our 2019 and 2020 orders, and showed good faith by pointing out that the 2018 order was already collected before. As Morot produces excellent, and affordable, Bourgogne premier cru we might need these browning points in the future. After cancellation of the next tasting we returned to Meursault for a relaxing sandwich lunch and coffee, and took the opportunity to add Javillier to the program, with a similar gamma as Vincent Latour. This was followed by a long drive to Chablis. In Chablis we went to Brocard, a valeur sur for white wine. We normally stock up at the shop in the centre of town, but this time decided to visit the winery. This was a slick upmarket affair, with some similarities to the big wine houses in Bordeaux. The tasting was slow, there were too many other tourists, but the wines were still great.

In the hotel in Chablis we met up with Mary and Pippin, and went to dinner at Fil du Zinc, one of our favourite restaurants. Although the former chef moved back to Japan, the food and wine was still good. Pippin stayed in our room, and was very happy when we returned. What followed was a restless night, as Pippin couldn't decide where he wanted to sleep. The next morning the wine was sorted on the hotel parking, and the party split: we drove south to our house, the others north to the Champagne region.

Welcome to the Bourgogne!

Paul overlooking the Beaune vineyards

Pierre Latour

Javillier

In the cellar at Brocard

A fancy tasting room at Brocard

Repacking the bottles, one of the core skills of "Het Derde Glas'

Ready to go to the Champagne, and on holiday

Survival Strijd

Early May we finally managed to support Dorien during her home race in Delft, called Survival Strijd. This is the main event that her club Slopend is organising each year, using the whole University campus to build an obstacle course. Dorien is racing at national level, combining an 8 km run with some 40 obstacles. We are normally in France during this period, but this year we were in The Hague, and followed Dorien around the course. She managed to get second place, after more than an hour of hard racing. It remains impressive what she can do, we wouldn't be able to cross a single obstacle!

Dorien at one of the first obstacles

Wading through water is normally part of a race

The final task: don't touch the water!

You have to be strong!

Almost there...

Namibia revisited

Piet recently went back to Namibia, 2.5 years after his previous visit, with Mary. Although his responsibilities changed last year, Piet is still very much involved in the project, in a more supportive role. The week was filled with meetings, reconnecting with local stakeholders, and a visit to the rig, that drilled two wells offshore.

Piet and two of his colleagues managed to slot in a morning trip to GocheGanas private reserve, for a game drive and lunch. This was only a 30 minute drive from Windhoek, but felt like a whole different world, and a good break from several days of intense work. And watching wildlife never bores!

Giraffes in GocheGanas

Meerkats

Springboks

Zebras with foals

Tour de Hollande

In the last weekend of March piet joined the Tour de Hollande cycling trip, organised by his cycling buddies. The plan was to cycle towards the north and ride the Frisian Eleven Cities tour, and then back to The Hague, in 4 days. This was Piet's first ever multi-day cycling trip, with an average daily distance of 160 km. They stayed in hotels, and the baggage was driven around by one of the kids.

In the end ten MAMIL's (middle aged men in lycra) joined, and by keeping the average speed under control, proper coffee and lunch stops, and special buttocks ointment Piet finished with relative ease. They were very lucky with the weather, it was sunny, with little wind. They cycled through all eleven Frisian cities, all with beautiful centres and canals. And the social and culinary aspects were also important.....

Coffee break in Muiden

Kampen by dawn

Leaving Kampen

Hindeloopen, one of the 11 cities

The route of the 11 cities cycling tour

Lemmer, ice cream stop