Two Wheels move the Soul

Sculptures abound in Andorra We left Huesca by 9:00 am Sunday morning and it was absolutely gorgeous, 26C at 09:00. Our trip took us on some more back roads up into the Pyrenees on the way to Andorra, a small principality between France and Spain, very high up in the mountains. We spent more time with the helmet cam in this area due to the scenic beauty and didn’t take a lot of photos since they would look a lot like Highway to the Sun. IBIS and Porsche, hmmm On arrival in the city of Andorra de Vella we went to the Ibis which had a ½ price promotion on during the summer. A gorgeous room overlooking a waterfall and the mountainside, with a Porsche dealership on the lower floor; easily the largest room yet all for 59E a night. Then I noticed that the sister Novotel a 4 star hotel located in town had a seafood buffet on including a bottle of wine and sparkling water for 15E each. Sandra really wanted to go there since she reminded me that it was Father’s day. It was a sen

St Jean de Luz from our bedroom window The Basque region is an area located in the “Crux of the Elbow” formed by the Iberian peninsula jutting west from France. It is an area that encompasses both territory that is part of France and Spain and has had a ‘separatist’ movement for many years. It also has it’s own language and has had terrorist activists trying to create a separate state. With the Euro zone in crisis this seems to have subsided. It also sits along the Atlantic coastline and straddles the Pyrenees mountain range. Our leaving the Perigord/Dordogne region of France was ‘through the backdoor’ with some very small roads and towns explored as we left. I’m pretty sure based on the lack of vehicles we saw that not many people use this set of roads to head to the Basque area. Our weather has vastly improved and quickly we were peeling off wind liners, and any extra clothing, now experiencing the 30+C temperatures that we enjoyed almost all of last trip. Again, the Tourmas

Town Centre Sarlat, known for Fois Gras It’s amazing what you can learn from a book. I like Michael Crichton as an author, a Dr. by training he turned to writing and generally wrote technical sci-fi type fictional books, the best known were the Jurassic Park series. He would extend the realm of possibility by making a technical advancement available, like in Jurassic Park that we could extract DNA from the age of dinosaurs and clone it and remake them adding the missing chromosomes. So what has that got to do with France you ask? Well one of his later novels was called Timeline, an account of a company that was restoring ruins in the Dordogne region, only it had an inside edge, it was able to travel back in time and see the ruins when they were still in use during the 100 years war. The book was so interesting that I was able to picture the area. Later when Rick Steve’s ‘discovered it’ as he claims, I recognized the regions just by the word pictures from the book. Crichton was

What we saw from our Bicycles - Chambord Fougere Leonardo's Double Helix Staircase The Loire valley is well known for a plentiful selection of chateaus built by various royalty through the middle ages as hunting retreats. Some were only attended a few times by their original owners and others became the spoils of wars. Bicycling in the Loire Fougere is located close to Mont St Michel and St Malo and isn’t in the heart of the Loire but it is a grand old castle fortified with a moat and drawbridge in classical style. One of the best to just walk around. Blois’ chateau has become part of the downtown core of the city and our hotel was about 75 metres from it. Sandra and I have wanted to bicycle some of the paths here ever since we took the kids over in 1991 and this time with Heiko we took 1 day and cycled from Blois to Chambord and back approx. 36 kms. It was a breeze going, literally, but we sure paid for it coming back with winds near 45 kph. Chambord’s stairc

Everywhere there is memorabilia for the 24 hrs. Race Track Entrance Le Mans cathedral Start Time for Race Stats over the years We visited LeMans between the time trials weekend and the actual race. Our B&B here was incredible, “Clos D’Hautville”, very central in old LeMans with our hostess providing us with great rooms, sheltered parking and a wonderful breakfast the next morning in a grand dining room fit for a king! We arrived after a drive through Fougere ( covered in Chateaus) and on our way to Blois and the Loire valley. Each of these cities has a Cathedral and this one competes very well with the one in Chartre which we visited with our kids back in 1991. It is incredibly huge with arches in overabundance. Dinner that evening was a La Stromboli’s pizzeria after Sandra saw the wood burning oven in use. Our pizzas were just simply superb and the chef would work each dough with loving kneading hands. The next morning we headed out to the track and

St Malo, largest marina in France Jacque Cartier, Canada's Columbus Tomb Cruise Ships and Cat Ferries call this home We are testing the resolve of our riding without rain. Today when we awoke it was pouring very heavy but by breakfast it had reduced to a drizzle and finally stopped. We headed out to St Malo in some very cool conditions, overcast but no rain, so the record is still intact. St Malo has apparently the largest marina in France, and we are staying right in the centre of the old city. Buried here is Jacque Cartier, who sailed to Canadian shores first in 1535 from St. Malo. Born a year before Columbus discovered America, he is responsible for discovering the St Lawrence river and seaway to the Great Lakes. St Malo is also a cruise destination, each day the cruise ships come in and drop off day passengers, then collect them in the evening and set sail again. They wander the old city ‘tourist’ areas but aren’t able to venture further. Fougere is just 60