Day 6 Biking Eric Adolphe

Well, we completed our ride, I have to say that this is the most fun that we have had (that I can recall).  Our Blog was down for about a month by Google.  Anyway, on the last day, we celebrated Jacob's birthday.   The BackRoads guys decorated his bike with balloons (so cool) and the our travel agent had a special surprise waiting for us at our final hotel (a converted castle).

Below are a few Day 6 photos.  Enjoy!

We settled into our castle for our final evening.  The castle was amazing, a great way to end our journey.  All of the kids played in the pool for a few hours and bonded nicely.  The next morning, bright and early we began our journey home.

4th Cycling Day by Benjamin Adolphe

Today when I woke up my hand was hurting really bad. Mom took a look at it, she said it was swollen. At breakfast mom gave me Advil with my breakfast. I ate some bread and ham. After we finished, the others started to come in. We walked back to our room and got ready for our long bike trip. Dad put an Ace Bandage on my wrist for support. When we were all ready we walked to the route rap and packed some snacks and filled our Camel Baks with water. Then we started the route rap. There was something wrong with Quentin's bike so we had to wait for his bike to get fixed. Then we went off.

I started out with a little pain in my wrist and it kept going as we got farther out. Then I got to close to Jasmine's Pickelo and crashed at the traffic circle. Luckily there were no cars coming so I was safe. My hand was really hurting now and we weren't even halfway there. I knew the rest of the ride was going to be miserable for me. Then after a long time of moaning and groaning and struggling up hills plus trying to keep up we finally made it to the halfway break. Everybody was already there.

I drank my water, went to the bathroom, drank more water, and ate snack's. Then people started to leave. One of the instructors checked out Quentin's bike. She said it was good so we got ready to go. When everyone was ready we went the way we came. We were going smoothly until a hill. The pain in my wrist was killing me. Even though it had nothing to do with my legs it made me turn more which took more energy.  

After awhile, we came across a chicken on the side of the road.  Dad let us chase the chicken. It was very fast but couldn't fly.  Dad said that chickens lost their ability to fly because all of their natural predators were gone.  Except humans of course.  We continued our ride to Chateau Vivandy where we had lunch and had a chance to explore.  One of the deserts was soaked with alcohol and we were not allowed to eat it.

Then one of the instructors gave me an ice pack and that made the swelling go down.  But, I couldn't keep it on too long because it was cold.  Mom gave me an Advil also.

After some more exploring, we took a taxi back to our hotel for fencing lessons.

After our lesson, we fenced.  I fenced two matches and won both of my matches.  Later I asked mom and dad if I could start fencing again.  Fencing was a lot of fun.

My wrist felt better this evening, but I don't know if I will be able to bike tomorrow yet.

By Benjamin Adolphe

3rd Cycling Day by Jacob Adolphe

Today was our third cycling day. We biked about nine miles to our first stop; a chateau. We did a scavenger hunt around a castle.

We had to find a whole bunch of things like a salamander, A sphinx, a picture with two C's, and more. After that we had a choice: bike to lunch or take a van. All of us except for Aidan (someone in our group), and Jasmine biked to lunch. 

Lunch was pretty good, but when we went for dessert we had to exchange our plates for dessert plates. There was all of this candy but it was for after coffee which was after dessert it was so confusing.

Then we took a shuttle to our new hotel; we played some games, went in the pool and had dinner. After that we played manhunt in the dark (which is like hide and seek tag) in the dark. We did get the helmet camera working, but can't post the video on the blog yet.  Dad is working on this problem.  Tomorrow, Quentin gets the video camera.

Now its time to go to bed.

By Jacob Adolphe

2nd Day Cycling by Quentin Adolphe

Today was our second day biking and today we are biking to Leonardo Da Vinci's home.  We spent a little time there, then we started biking to a Chateau with a Castle.  We biked about two hours, in that two hours there were lots of flowers and lots of sunflowers.  There were entire fields of dead sunflowers, which was very sad.

Then we went near the woods and then there was a sign that said that there were deers and boars nearby.  Then after we got out of the woods, there was this entire field of wildflowers.  We stopped there and took some pictures and ate some snacks.

Then we started biking again.  Once we got to the Chateau, we ate some big sandwiches and Jasmine had some ice cream.  Then we walked to the Castle and it was very big on the outside.  On the outside it looked like a regular castle, but on the inside it looked more modern.

Then we were going to leave and the kids were going Fantasy Forest.  There was an obstacle course there and a trampoline.  Then we went on the trampoline.  We were jumping when we not on the trampoline and we felt so heavy.

Then we got some ice cream and some ice tea.  Then we drove back to the hotel in a van and now we are going to have pizza with just the kids.

By Quentin Adolphe

2nd Cycling Day by Jacob Adolphe

Today was our second cycling day in France. We biked for a while today, and we stopped at a chateau. The chateau we stopped at was where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last few years of his life. We saw his bedroom and a room with replicas of his inventions.

Then we got back on our bikes and rode away. Then something terrible happened, my dad wanted us to stop for pictures. So we turned around and biked to a stop sign and rode towards dad again. Then I crashed. When I got up the first thing dad said was "Did you get it on camera?" We biked up hills for such a long time, then when it finally leveled out at a field  of wildflowers and sunflowers. We stopped to take pictures but I didn't mind now I was so tired.

Then we biked the final mile or so to a castle.  We ate sandwiches and walked around the gardens. We saw the Loire River and we walked around the actual castle.

Then at seven thirty the whole group split up to either go biking, do a ropes course, or take a van back toward the hotel. I went with all of the children to the ropes course. We course had swinging logs a giant net swinging platforms and more. Then when we finished we all ran over to the trampolines. I bounced on my knees, on my back, and I did a whole bunch flips. Then we got ice cream and drinks and rode on a taxi back to the hotel.

By Jacob Adolphe

2nd Day of Cycling by Eunja Adolphe

This is the first chance I've had away with the kids.  Boy has it been adventurous!  Took the TGV (fast train) from Paris to St. Pierre to meet our Backroads leaders and group.  Who would've known that we had to bike to our hotel that day.  We stopped off for lunch and some wine tasting, minor adjustments of bikes and the leaders said "we'll see you on the road"!! About a mile into the ride, Quentin starts swerving back and forth and ends up in a ditch.  Thank goodness it was just a small grassy bank.  I screamed for everyone to stop (I'm last in line to watch out for stuff like this) and jumped in the ditch to pull his bike out.  Quentin was a trooper!!  He dusted the dirt off of him and jumped right back on his bike.  What a great way to start the trip!!

We learned a lot of new French words.  My favorite so far is "alle" just because I got to use it on some bikers passing by.  We were good until the very end.  We followed the directions and made every turn, but maybe it was the heat or the sudden traffic or the crossing over a bridge with cars honking at you, we got a little lost trying to reach the hotel.  Luckily, some other bikers from our group was with us and we figured out that we needed to bike a little more to reach our beautiful destination.  Then, voila! we made it to our Chateaux, Le Choisel.  A beautiful manor set in the mountains with picturesque flowers and gardens, oh and the kids spotted the POOL!  We immediately changed and they were in the pool cooling off from the "short" days ride.  The leader said that today's 16 miles was just a warm up for the week, to get us used to the roads.  Eric and I looked at each other and we both were thinking the same thing, "warm up ride"???

Dinner was a French kind.  Scrumptious meal over 2 1/2 hours long.  I was very impressed with the kids.  They were very well behaved even after a long day of riding!

2nd Day!!  We missed our first stop to da Vinci's last home, but the group leader caught us within minutes and said we passed our first stop.

Da Vinci's Home

Poor Jasmine and Eric had to bike back UP the hill to the home.  Jasmine said the 5 minute bike ride was too short.  She didn't realize we were just visiting a museum, then we were off for our ride for the day.  Pretty quiet ride today, except for some tired legs of little ones; beautiful, bright sunflowers; long rolling roads, and oh, yeah right, Jacob crashed on an uphill and made us all stop on an uphill.  The kids and I always say, don't stop on an uphill because it is so hard to start again, just keep pedaling!!  We were not happy with Jacob.

Castle

We visited a castle that the kids determined was too modern inside and they couldn't live there.  Kids went to the Fantasy Forest (that's why I can type for so long) while some of the adults continued biking, and some adults that have to pull 70 lbs (Eric) and adults that feel bad for them (me) and adults that just wanted a little rest took a taxi back to the hotel.

Let's see how the Fantasy Forest went for the kids??  It's supposed to be obstacle courses, rope climbs and miniature golf in the woods.  Sounds like fun!!

Wish us luck for tomorrow.  We're biking to our next hotel.
Eunja

First Cycling Day by Eric Adolphe

Well its about 5:30 a.m. here and I can't sleep.  We had a great day of cycling yesterday. We took a bullet train from Paris to St-Pierre Des Corps, about a one hour ride.  There, we met our first tour leader, Henrike - from Canada/Germany.  We also met the other families that were part of our group - definitely an East Coast contingent.  The families came from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and of course Virginia.

Our instructions were to arrive ready to cycle - they weren't kidding.  We staged at a winery where we met our other leaders (Tyler also from Canada, and Ginny from Venezuela).  We then had a light lunch, checked our gear and after our safety brief, we started on a "light" 16 mile trip through the Loire Valley.  The temperature was 94 degrees. 

The scenery was incredible.  We road through the countryside, mostly backroads through wine country.  Along the way, we saw sunflower fields, and navigated some pretty good maps (until the end, more on that later).

We learned a new French word "ale, ale, ale."  This means "go, go, go."  This cheer is how the French encourage cyclists going up a tough hill. You can hear this chant during the Tour de France.  Well, I needed it.  I was lugging an extra 80 pounds up hill in 90+ degrees. I made the first hill, but only about 3/4s the way up the second hill and Jazz and I had to walk the rest of the way.  My lungs felt as if they were burning.

After a quick stop to get hydrated, we regrouped with another family and were on our way.  As I said earlier, the directions were pretty straight forward until the end when we arrived in the town of Amboise, our first stop.  We got turned around and humped it through town asking locals for directions.  The French are very kind a personable.  They love to help and love to chat up.  We had no problems getting directions.

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief when we pulled into the hotel, reminded by the fact that today was only a "light" day of cycling.  After checking in, the kids couldn't get into the pool fast enough - it was a scorcher.  After about 20 minutes in the pool, we took a casual stroll through town where we got ice cream and sorbet.  The Loire Valley is known for its many castles, and we saw a pretty magnificent castle in town.  We walked around for bit trying to find flip flops for me (because I forgot mine at home).  We couldn't find any so I pretty much walked around in my bike shoes.

After we returned to the Chateau, our guides held a reception and we all got to know each other a little better.  Then we ate dinner, most of the kids sat together and glancing over, we can see that they were having fun.  The adults also seemed to be having fun just getting to know each other.

Well, we'll be up again soon and back at it, so time to get some sleep.  See you soon.

Eric Adolphe