Snow and rain

After Christmas we went for a week to France for a break after a busy period for all of us, and to do some skiing. In the end only Paula came along, as Dorien had to finish a university project on 'steel and concrete', and had planned a survival race. Also Lars was busy with a work-related project. Paula needed a break from a very intense 4 months on the board of Proteus, and initially slept 12 hours a night in The Hague. This was followed by a relaxing week with bit of skiing, reading and no responsibilities. Unfortunately Mary had to decide to skip the skiing, as she is still recovering from her Achilles problems, and spent the days reading, doing easy walks, and taking care of some outstanding indoor tasks in the house.

When we arrived there was a thick layer of fresh snow in the village, accompagnied with beautiful weather. The next 2 days it snowed a lot; Piet and Paula went skiing on Alpe d'Huez. In the resort they were playing catch-up to keep the slopes in shape, as the fresh snow kept covering the pistes. Paula also met up with her friend Tim, who was staying in a nearby village. Then the weather changed dramatically: the wind picked up, the temperature rose, and it started raining heavily. The result was that the resort was closed for 1.5 day, there were many land- and mudslides in the region, and we took a forced break from skiing. 

Once the resort was open the snow conditions had deteriorated somewhat, but as there was so much snow beforehand it was still fine to ski. Especially the last day, which we got as a bonus to compensate for the resort closure was great, with blue skies, near-zero temperatures and no wind.

After a smooth drive we arrived back in The Netherlands, and heard on the car radio that Dorien and friends made national news: at the survival race they participated it was very cold, especially due to the strong easterly wind, and many people suffered from hypothermia, Dorien among them. She fell in one of the streams they had to cross, was wet up to her neck, and had to abandon to get warmed up again. Luckily all was well in the end, but the race managed to get onto the 8 PM news on television!

 Fresh snow in the valley on our arrival

Village horse Swallow is happy to see us

The entry road to our village during the rains: do not cross!

View on Marmotte 1, Alpe d'Huez

Arrival at Alpette from Montfrais

Paula on the Olympique piste

The last day, at the Herpie skilift

Our village in winter sun


Bonus pictures: Beau on the beach, during Christmas


Walking back to the stable

Lars and Dorien at the Slopend winter training weekend

Another milestone

The family reached another milestone: Paula completed her Batchelor of Applied Earth Sciences, and we all attended the ceremony at the University where she received her certificate, with cum laude. Paula is currently in a gap year, and has a full time job on the board of her rowing club Proteus, being responsible for all the material. She hasn't decided yet what she will do for her Master program, but there is still time.

All students had to present a very short overview of their final project, demonstrating the width of the BSc program. Mary's parents were also present, and afterwards we did a tour of Delft, starting at Dorien's new room, at crawling distance from her faculty. She then showed the obstacle course of her survival club Slopend, where she is one of the trainers now. The afternoon was completed with a grand tour of Proteus by Paula. As board member she has access to everything, and especially the number, size and costs of the boats were impressive. In the evening the girls had their own social engagements, so all the 'old' people' drove back to The Hague to start their own celebrations.

Paula in the lecture hall, waiting for the start of the ceremony

 Paula presenting a short overview of her final project

Paula and her grandparents in the maintenance room at Proteus

Gardening, cycling and wine: autumn holiday in France

Piet and Mary went for a week to the house in France, for their traditional autumn break. They had no big plans, and just wanted a week to relax and get the house and garden ready for the winter. The weather was nice, sunny and a bit cold, but good enough to work in the garden and for a few bike rides. As Mary is still suffering from her achilles tendons they didn't go for any hikes, but she was able to walk around the garden with her noisy tools. Piet managed to cycle up Alpe d'Huez, but noticed that being 6 weeks off the bike doesn't help!

Around the house the main projects of this summer were finished by one of our neighbours, the owner of a large construction company. The cables and wall anchors were placed in the barn to complete the stabilisation project. In addition the gate, that was brought over from Egypt, was finally installed. Due to the weight of this gate separate concrete pillars had to be constructed, but now there is an entry that matches the rest of the house.

Also a tradition by now is to catch up with Frits, one of Piet's old friends from university, who is always in southern France in October to stock up on his wines. This time the village of Mazan was the meeting point, and after visiting 3 wine houses (Fondreche, Pigeade and Amadieu) they landed at Les Florets, a nice hotel in the Dentelles de Montmirail, in Gigondas. The remainder of the day was spend on the terrace, and finished off with an excellent dinner. The next day Piet and Mary left Frits to buy some more wine, and drove slowly back along some scenic roads, to screen the area for nice villages and hiking opportunities for the next visit.
The highlights of the week were the absence of an alarm clock, internet and the opportunity to read books and newspapers at leisure, and of course drinking a nice glass of red wine in the evening!

Mary sitting on our new wall

The new gate - finally!

Mazan

View on Mont Ventoux from Mazan

Frits and Piet are discussing wine at Fondreche, Mazan

Gigondas, winery Pierre Amadieu

Piet and Frits are discussing the worlds' problems at Les Florets

La Garde-Adhemar, one of the many beautiful villages in the Rhone valley

La Garde-Adhemar

Getting ready for the last bike ride

Geel and Poppel

The last month Piet and Mary went to Belgium twice, to watch two cycling races of nephew Max. He is racing almost every weekend in the Junior (17-18 year) category, generally a distance of some 80 kilometers, with an average speed far above 40 km/hour! The races are held in villages in the region, with a loop of around 5 km, which has the advantage that you see them pass many times. The speed these boys develop is pretty impressive, and Max has been doing well throughout the year. He is also by far the fastest of the family in France, and Piet can only follow when Max does a recovery ride.

The other advantage of the short loops is that you can walk around, and take pictures at different locations. Below an impression of the races in Geel and Poppel.

Geel: cycling though farmland; the cows don't care

Max (green-black) chasing the first group

The last lap in Geel

Max rounding a corner in Poppel

 Max finishing 11th in Poppel

The Max van Balkom fan club: Marc, Piet Bart and Jeroen

Summer holidays (III)

During the last part of the summer holidays Piet went home for a second time to work, and the girls and friends continued their outdoor activities. Unfortunately Dorien's hiking trip had to be cut short due to illness, and they returned to the house to do several smaller trips and activities instead. When Paula's friends left she joined Dorien's group, and also worked several evenings in La Romanche as waitress. Finally they ended up with just Lars for a last week, also slowing down their activities. Using the house as base for outdoor activities was a huge success, and no doubt the same will happen in the next few years.

When Piet returned to France he had half a day overlap with Paula, who went back to join another group for a 5 day hike in Norway. Taking it easy is not in her DNA, and now she is almost fully mobile again she is catching up on lost time.

Mary has suffered with both her achilles tendons, and was not able to do any hikes during the summer. It luckily didn't hamper her work in the garden, and she spend many hours working on the horse pastures, which included the garden of our neighbours. 

Piet did his only hike with Dorien and Lars into a nearby valley that we hadn't explored before. The next day they left to work on their new mini-apartments, and to join the intro days for Delft University.

The last few days were spend reading, in the garden and on the bike. Piet did a final mountainbike ride, when disaster struck. On any easy trail he hit a rock or hole, and crashed heavily on his left shoulder. It was immediate clear that something was wrong, but being in the middle of nowhere there was no other option to carefully cycle down until he got hold of Mary. After visits to the local doctor, pharmacy and emergency unit at Grenoble University Hospital it was clear that his collarbone was dislocated, but the recommendation was to keep his arm in  sling and visit the hospital in The Hague soonest. The next few days were spend reading, whilst Mary finished off in the garden, cleared away our tools, cleaned the house and finally drove home with Beau, without the option to share the driving. All went well, and Beau found a freshly grown lawn in our front and back garden, allowing him to ease back into his town life.

In the end Piet's diagnosis was confirmed, and it was decided not to operate, despite a few small fractures in the dislocated end. He will have a one hand-life for the next month or so, with Mary in a supporting role (think shoelaces!).

Mary training with Beau

The Tour de France peloton on Col de la Croix de Fer

Dorien and Mary on Quinaille and Beau

In the Sarenne

Dorien and Lars enjoying a leisurely ride

Vallon des Etages

Lars and Dorien in Vallon des Etages

More summer holidays

Piet's main cycling goal this year was l'Etape du Tour, one of the stages of the Tour de France that is selected and made available for 15,000 cycling enthousiasts, a few days before the pro's ride the same course. The best part of the event is that the roads are completely clear of all other traffic, like the real Tour. This year the stage Briancon-Col d'izoard was selected, which made it logistically easy to participate. After some serious preparation around our own valley Piet was dropped off by Mary in Briancon, but obviously she couldn't follow him by car. She did her own bike ride, and connected to the Etape at a point after some 150 km where she could reach the course and support Piet with food and drinks. At that point Piet had already crossed the Col de Vars, and was in good spirits. The last part, cycling up the Izoard in the afternoon heat, proved to be a real challenge, and arriving at the top required two short stops to recover from overheating and cramps. In the end all went well, and the reward was a long descend toward Briancon, on an excellent road without any traffic, completing a 200 km ride.

The rest of the holidays was spend around the house, with regular horse and garden duties. Dorien worked for 2 weeks in restaurant La Romanche, then her boyfriend Lars arrived, and a few days later 4 friends from their outdoor sports club Slopend. They have planned a 10 day hike around Parc des Ecrins, with as little support as possible.

Then Paula arrived with 3 friends, and they have also planned a week of outdoor activities. As Paula is still recovering she has to take it (relatively) easy, but that hasn't stopped them to go for a 2 and 3 day hike.

In the same weekend 7 family members dropped by, creating a full house. As always we had a great time together, and Piet and his nephews did a few bike rides. This year Sam brought his racing bike and rode a personal record on Alpe d'Huez, beating Piet for the first time. Unfortunately Piet had to return to The Hague that same afternoon to go back to the office. However, there is a final week of holidays to look forward to!

Piet at the start of l'Etape du Tour, in Briancon

Mary doing her own ride to Col de l'Echelle

Casse Deserte, the famous landscape near the top of Col d'izoard

Finish at the top of Col d'Izoard

Regular holidays: Dorien and Mary on a short horseback ride

Jeroen and Piet on top of Col de la Croix de Fer

Piet on top of Col du Glandon, which comes for free in the descend of the Croix de Fer

Dorien and company at the start of their 10 day hike

Jelle, Tim, Paula and Lucas ready to hike to Refuge du Source 

Start of the summer holidays

The planning for the summer holidays is getting more complicated, as the girls are determining their own holidays now. For starters Mary, Piet and Beau drove out on a Friday night, arriving early morning. One of the key concerns was to find a companion for Beau, as the village pony Image, his friend for the last few summers, passed away last winter. When Beau was let out of the trailer another horse was walking around the parking in the village. As we couldn't do anything we let this horse follow us to the garden. in the evening the owner, a former butcher who has several horses scattered across the fields in the valley, turned up and we agreed that the horse, Quinaille, could stay. After a few days they were used to each other, and spend the day together. At night Beau stays in the stable (he is a city horse after all) and his friend remains outside.

The first week was spend in recovery mode, after a very hectic period with a renovation of our bathroom, the broken leg of Paula, a major clean-up of our apartment in Utrecht, and many other things. We did very little; a bit of work around the house and garden, some cycling and lots of reading. We really needed this! After a week Piet went back to work, planning to return a few days later with Dorien.

Beau and Quinaille happily eating our grass

Mary is training Quinaille

Collecting horse shit

 Mary arriving in Le Mollard