Loudenvielle and Tour Day 2

 7/14: We packed up our standard picnic and headed over the mountain to the neighboring town of Loudenvielle.

Quick aside here, as I feel like I’ve mentioned our ‘standard picnic’ of pb n js, apples, and carrots multiple times. In the past month of travel, we all have been consistently, 100% of the time, SO happy that we have had this food with us. There have been countless times where there hasn’t been food available, and even when it might be, there’s always the inevitable dilemma of one person not being pleased with the menu. Then we would have needed to keep walking and searching for the next food stand/restaurant to see if that next place would be agreeable to all (I’m talking mainly about the kids - Bob and I could eat anything). Having our ‘fuel’ with us allows us to eat healthfully, and save money and time while we’re trying to cover a lot of ground.

Bob and I have tried to impart this lesson to the kids, and I’ve tried not to repeat myself too much :-), but when I have, I’ve explained the figure of speech ‘not to beat a dead horse, but…’ Simone has now started to occasionally refer to me as a ‘dead horse.’ Well, at least I know they’re learning the intended lesson! Ha!

Ok, back to our day. The weather was spectacular and we took lots of pictures of the windy mountain views while Bob kept the car on the road. Yikes! It was a bit reminiscent of the drive between Ouray and Silverton. There were also quite a few bikers climbing the pass that we had to avoid on the narrow road.

The road we were on is on the right.

Coming down into Loudenvielle there was a lot of traffic, and we weren’t sure how far we should go before parking the car. Luckily we parked just in time, because within 1 minute of walking there was complete gridlock. The road has closed, and people had just parked their cars in the middle of the road!

It was about a 1 mile walk into town to the starting area. This was a different scene than yesterday as we got to see the racers and the excitement at the start versus the middle of the race.

Tadej Podacar

Out of the gates!

After they took off, we found a place to eat our picnic lunch….because why? Once again, this little town of 300 was completely overloaded with people and all the restaurants and food stands were sold out. Can you hear it? ‘Dead horse, dead horse!’

We strolled the town, walked back to our car, and enjoyed the gorgeous drive back over the pass to Saint Lary Soulon.

My family on bikes. Ha!

Refilling the water bottles on the side of the road - we saw bikers doing it so figured it’s safe! SUCH a hot day!

Cows on the route!

Home for showers and HH with the men’s Wimbledon final

The day finished up with watching the final of the Euro Cup soccer (England vs Spain - Spain won 2-1) and watching a firework display from our porch celebrating Bastille Day.

I was asked this question recently: “what has surprised you the most?” I love thinking about it, and will try to record thoughts as I go. A few things that come to mind are:

-why do so many more people smoke in France? Lack of regulation like we have in US making it more difficult to maintain the habit in public places? Lack of education on health risks?

-we have encountered no metal detectors, and we could take lots of items into venues that we couldn’t at home. We’ve gotten on ferries, attended a concert at a super famous venue, gone to Wimbledon, and been in huge crowds at two Tour locations. No metal detectors. At Wimbledon they briefly looked in my backpack (to find my apple slices 😂). We also could’ve taken full bottles of champagne and all the food we wanted into Wimbledon, and a Nalgene of water into the concert venue. Our friend Victoria looked at me quizzically when I asked if we could take a bag into the concert venue (we could’ve!) But we can’t do that in the US - no water bottles, no personal food, etc.

Why is this? There have to be less/no guns in Europe? Less crazy people doing things with Nalgenes of water?More knife crimes in Europe? Is that why they’re more interested in Bob's leatherman?