Sitting on a mountaintop

I haven't written much lately because I just didn't want to. Following theTour de France takes some logistics and time planning. There are thousands of people who want the same space ad you to shout encouragement to the same people you do. It is a bit crowded and uncomfortable with tons of planning. Without is probably a major inconvenience with little reward. So after the insanity of the time trial in Liege, we followed the tour for the first four stages and then we took off for foreign parts. We visited some friends of my sister outside of Brussels and I spent most of the day listening to people speak Russian. I brought a book but still got to watch an hour of Mikael's dance recital recorded on a Blackberry and explained to me by Mikael in Dutch. Mikael is a 6 year old boy and we cemented our friendship by playing football (soccer) with a balloon. At least his Dutch was easier to understand compared to Russian. That was a very interesting day.

We found a Laverie to wash our clothes the day after the stage ended in Boulogne-sur-Mer. On getting to the hotel: we went to the start and feed zone that day and tried to get into the city and avoid the finish. But one of the roads we needed was closed for the Tour. Without a small map (only a large one) I navigated us through many many country roads that seemed to have no names to the freeway our hotel was off of. Life success of the day.

To return to the relevant, we found a place to do laundry the next morning in Le Portel, next to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Our hotel was a block away from the sea, so we got to go explore the beach on the English Channel for a bit and hear the sea that night. We met some nice Brits following the Tour on bikes at breakfast and they were taking off for a few days too. I have really missed talking to people in English. My sister was sick (very sick) for a week around this time. She would still go do things but was definitely feeling horrible. She even had me drive that day. She never lets me drive. I drove in England, but that was it. She much prefers to drive than to watch me drive. To be fair, she is better at driving manual than I am. So I drove us out of Boulogne-sur-Mer with a car full of clean clothes.

I have been the navigator since we rented the car in Paris, and have slowly figured out all the signage failings of France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I have figured out how to compensate as best I could. Ekitzel is not used to doing this and it wasn't until I had been going the wrong way on a highway for about 45 minutes that I asked her about our direction since we had crossed back over a motorway we had earlier used. She was so sick and not used to double checking directions, we had to turn around and go back. We were heading to Omaha Beach in Normandy and didn't arrive until 6 pm. We had dinner and found a room at the D-Day Hotel on the beach so we could see the cemetery in the morning and she didn't have to sleep outside. We had reserved a camping place at Mont St. Michel for that night, but the rain and her illness made that seem very undesirable. We did get to Mont St. Michel the next afternoon and camped that night. I explained the delay and checked us in entirely in French. Another life success. Then we went to Versailles.

I probably would have skipped Versailles and stayed in Normandy an extra day, but Kitz wanted to see it and see it we did. We had purchased tickets earlier online, but still ha to wait an hour and a half in line to get in then 20 minutes more for a girl to figure out why she couldn't find our ticket confirmation number. After experiencing her incompetence and the incompetently run souvenir stands at the Tour de France, I have decided that Germanic people should be in charge of running anything involving large amounts of people all trying to do the same thing. But I'm prejudiced. I like things to be run efficiently.

So Versailles was a palace and not really my thing. I only like palaces that are really old. Show me a good ruin r a catacomb any day. But it was fun despite the typhoon-like rain storm that soaked both Ekitzel and I despite all protection. We also both got dirty since the rain seemed to have absorbed some of the sand from the paths around the gardens and rained it down on us. We did get to see some nice fountains and all the Trianons, in addition to Marie Antoinette's fake English farm. It was so ridiculous, it was enjoyable. She had a fake lighthouse on a pond. I will upload pictures eventually of this very picturesque and very useless place. I was entertained by Marie's little version of a rural Disneyland. We finally rejoined the Tour on Monday in time for the Time Trial. We got to 25 m in front of the finish line at about 9:30 am and the Time Trial didn't finish until 5:30 pm. All day we got to watch one by one as the riders got their times. We were standing by some Americans all day and so got to know them pretty well. On our left was an antiques dealer from around Mobile and on our right were three guys who did IT and Engineering. They had slept in their car the night before and only one of the guys was really into the Tour. Dave knew about as much as I did about what had been happening and what was happening now. Scott rides, so he was looking at all the bikes. Zak slept during the entire trip, so really had no idea what was going on and no desire to figure it out. I ended up explaining things a bit, which is something I like to do a bit too much. But it was nice to hang with some Americans. On Omaha Beach we also met some Americans. We did go there on the fourth of July, so it was expected. We met these two older men, one Brit and one American. Both had fathers who had participated in the landings. These two men were best friends and on vacation together with their wives. They were driving with a trailer to pick up twelve cases of champaign for a friend's daughter's wedding. They were interesting guys and I hope I have friends like that if I ever want twelves cases of French champaign. There have been many interesting people we have met, but Dave, Scott, and Zak were the most entertaining. Scott started driving their rental car (a manual) without ever having really learned how to drive manual but since the other two went right to sleep he kept driving and the car still worked. Definitely the most entertaining people we've met.

After Monday in the sun, we stayed the night in Dijon, did more laundry and stocked up to spend a few days in the mountains. We had a hotel last night. It was a very nice ski lodge, so no complaints. It wasn't as nice as the one we had in the Belgian Dutch countryside, but very nice. Tonight though we are camping. The Tour de France is finishing at the top of a mountain tomorrow and they are closing the roads tomorrow, so we got here early and relaxed. On the way here yesterday we listened to Lord of the Rings audiobooks as we have been doing for a few weeks. We are in the Two Towers when Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn come to Edoras. As we drive we usually joke about parts from the movies. But we drove from the plains to the Alps and finally up a mountain. We got stuck behind a herd of sheep for a bit as the baby lambs and their mothers were being herded up a road. We finally reached the summit with a car with two doors an a three cylinder engine. Today we just parked the car on the side of a mountain, next to the road and pitched the tent. Ekitzel is tired, so she is sleeping while I read and stare into the distant misted peaks. They were covered in mist when I started writing this on my iPod but now they are more clear in the afternoon sun. Tomorrow the bike riders will struggle to the top of this climb while thousands of people cheer them on. I will be only one of those people, but every person is important, even those who can't drive manual.