Day Three
July 3, 2008
Bonsoir, (good evening)
Today was pretty eventful. We checked out of the hotel at Blagnac and headed to the airport to pick up guests going to Lourdes for the Etape. The van was filled to the brim with suitcases, bike boxes and 8 people. The van isn’t much bigger than our van at home. We have 3 clients going in Lourdes: Charlene and Rob from South Carolina, Carl from Pittsburgh and Jay from Van Cover, Canada. Bruce Hildenbrand, also a member of the staff arrived last night. Bruce is a writer for active.com and a few other cycling magazines. He knows most of the big names in cycling and has plenty of stories to share.
This year Tom and I decided to rent bikes vs carrying them on the airplane (makes life easier). When we got to the hotel, you got it, everyone wanted to ride and stretch their legs, go figure (ha, ha). Since Tom and I didn’t have our bikes yet, we sagged the course with Brian. The area is beautiful, reminds me of Ireland, very green and misty with scattered rain.
When we returned to the hotel, Brian held a short meeting to discuss the...
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Day Two
July 2, 2008
Day one ended with Dawn and I enjoying a cold beer and sitting beside the pool. Later, we dined on Mediterranean Sea Bass. The great food and drink helped relax us and we slept for 8 and half hours. For breakfast we enjoyed coffee and rolls. Then we got ourselves a map of the city and went for walk around town. Not sure if I was reading the map correctly, I asked a police officer for directions. His english was not good and my french wasn't any better. Yet somehow we were able to communicate. He asked us where we were from and I pointed to my New York Yankees ball cap. Then he made mentioned to the currency exchange rate and said, "not good for Americans, but very good for French"
Later, Brian, Jim, Dawn and I had lunch at this little French restaurant around the corner. Dawn and I had the duck prepared on a skewer with tomatoes, green peppers, and onions.
After lunch, we took a short nap. At six, we had a staff meeting to discuss the weeks events . Afterwards, you guessed it, we were off for another fabulous meal at an English pub So...
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Posted at: 01:18 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Bonjour from France!
July 1, 2008
Bonjour from France!
Wow, we left yesterday 6/30 @ 0855 and arrived on time in Toulouse
France around 1530 on 7/1. I can't believe we're still up. We're just
about the hit the sack as we can't keep our eye's open much longer, so
I'll keep this short. Its 2250 now and the sun just went down about an
hour ago. I forgot how long the days were over here. We 're trying to
get on their time schedule by staying up - good advise from my sister
- LG.
Weather was ~95 degrees this afternoon, but not too bad as long as
you were in the shade. There was a nice breeze blowing as well. This
evening it rained slightly and cooled us off a bit.
Our plan is to stay in Toulouse until 7/3 then head down to Lourdes.
We met up with the tour director Brian, his wife Luisa and another
mechanic we'd meet 2 year ago, Jim. Everyone looked great but was pretty
tired. We'll catch up tomorrow when the rest of the crew arrives.
That's all for now. Hope everyone is doing fine.
Bonne nuit for now! (good night)
Tom and Dawn
Posted at: 11:28 PM | 3 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink