Enchanted Forrest

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A word about debbie - she continues to improve but still can't see much and it isn't really safe to ride. The bee that stung her was massive (she says it was the size of a humming bird!?) I can attest to the fact that the stinger that I pulled out was at least 1/4" long and looked like a piece of wood so she may not be too wrong about the size of the bee.



So even tho we have been doing much longer rides than what we trained for at home Jean Phillip says that distance doesn't matter it's all about the elevation. Holy cow - he isn't joking. We are all (except Tom and Kevin) finding the hills challenging and never ending. The other noteworthy thing for me was the descend - my fastest descent at home was 55k but those hills were no where nearly as steep. I'm sure we well exceeded that with narrow twisting roads it was so fun (and terrifying) to whistle down and feeling the adrenalin rush along the way.



When we were planning the trip we were remembering the lovely bike ride in Austria... It was flat on a bike path and through orchards. This is the real deal here and nothing like the mental picture of cycling with a basket with a bottle of wine and flowers...



Day 4 started with a bit of a van transfer in the morning and stopped at some beautiful villages along the way. Some of the villages were significantly different. We stopped and wandered around "the red village" Collonges La Rouge was the proper name. We had lunch here and began our ride with a big climb. Naturally!



The riding was so beautiful going through what felt like Sherwood Forest with the stately country homes along the way.



Debbie was feeling much better so she hopped back in the saddle for the last half of the ride. Yeah!!! The band is back together! Before the end of the ride she was even riding "peloton style" She is amazing 😊.



We ended our ride in Starlet were we had dinner at a great restaurant and tasted several local specialties. More about the food in a separate blog.

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