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.