First Week in France 2018

France (version 2018) has begun.  Last Wednesday (or was it Tuesday?) was quite a long day, I awoke at my usual 4 AM to make it to yoga by 5 AM.  After a few last minute errands, I headed to Houston to catch a 3 PM flight to Amsterdam.  Arriving at 7 AM on Wednesday morning, I had a 4 hour layover before my flight to Geneva.  I finally arrived after 2 PM, picked up the car, and went looking for a gas station that would take cash or an American credit card.  Most gas stations in France are now automatic, and the only way to pay for fuel is with a chip-and-pin credit card.  American credit cards are chip-and-signature—no PIN.  I searched for a good hour and a half before I found a Total station, where I put 78 euros (about $90) worth of diesel into the fuel tank.  It was 7 PM Wednesday before I arrived at the bed and breakfast in Hauteville-Lompnes. All this on about 3 hours of sleep on the plane.  Lesson learned—if you avoid French airports, you will also avoid labor strikes.  Fortunately, I didn't have to learn this lesson the hard way.

Hautville-Lompnes is a small town in Ain, a department in France that is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.  It lies between Annecy, Chambéry, and Bourg-en-Bresse.  The town sits on a high plateau.  The area is famous for its marble, which was used in the construction of the Empire State Building.

I stayed in a delightful chambre d'hôtes (AKA bed-and-breakfast), La Maison Des Chiens Verts. The room was large with a private bath.  My hosts, Eva and Phil, were very kind.  And the cost was $50 per night, including breakfast!

Here is a list of rides that I did in the Ain.

• Thursday: https://www.relive.cc/view/1593257720.  If you don't check out the difficulty of the last climb, it will be very steep.
• Friday:  https://www.relive.cc/view/1594878098.  Always leave an option to head home early in case you get tired.
• Saturday:  https://www.relive.cc/view/1596942337.  Choose roads that have at least one car per day just in case something bad happens.

None of these rides were very long and there were no huge climbs, but it seems that I was always going up.