En Francais, maintenant...

The French is coming back pretty quickly, actually, helped by the amusement and patience of the thirtyish wonderful people Julia and I have already met in the last three days.

So, I left myself very little in terms of time cushioning for the task of getting back to Ithaca with a Volvo wagon full of Boston belongings. I was making great time and keeping my eyes solidly open despite the hour and a half of sleep I had gotten while packing up the night before. Just after I got on 88 I heard a magnificent POP, looked in my mirrors expecting either the kayak or one of the bikes to have blown off, and saw only a hubcap rolling nonchalantly away. I pulled over with that awful thud-thud--thud---thud of a flat tire and knew for sure I couldn't make my plane in 4 hours from Ithaca. I called Phil who activated a tow truck and then talked me through changing the tire. I had to unload half my stuff including removing the bike rack and my kitchen contents onto the shoulder. I got a little greasy and the lug nuts were a little stuck, but the spare went on well and the air I put into it in Duanesburg lasted until the Ithaca airport where I arrived 40 minutes before take-off (PLENTY of time for that one-terminal hublet). Rebekah Carpenter and her friend Johann were there for the key hand-off and Julia drop-off and the two of us giggled our way to Newark and then on to Charles de Gaulle, getting there the next morning.

After a quick Croque and cafe au lait we hopped a couple trains to Dijon and on to Grenoble, where we ate dinner, walked a little, and passed the *@&$ out for eleven hours. The next day we got a bus to a little Gite d'Etape out east in the mountains, watching the peaks grow and get snowy around us as we climbed higher and higher. Our Gite, La Breche, could NOT have been better. It was super homey, stuck down at the base of La Meije (big peaks), populated by a handful of lovely hikers of many ages who were a bit baffled that two americans had found their hideout, and stocked with amazing food and accurate maps with folks willing to drop us at trailheads. We hiked yesterday on the GR-54, a portion called the Plateau d'Emparis, which started with tons of switch-backs and finally topped out on some snowy fields with two little lakes and 360 degrees of snowy mountains. Mon dieu!

We have to run to get some snacks and our train to Digne. From there we'll take the Train des Pines to the Gorge du Verdon for some seriously vertiginous hiking. Yay! So much more to say, but I've got to go. Whoopee!