[This post was written and originally posted May 2005.]

Ah, so good to be home… I called Pierre, our friend who helped us last year before our inaugural Dude Girl Adventure in the Alps (read more about Pierre and his family in my blog post from July 2004) from Lyon to tell him we were on our way and his usual calm even at my last-minute notices, he said he would meet with me at MacDoe (McDonalds). And as usual, the entire family showed — Pierre, Colette, Johan, Marina. It’s like getting 4-for-1!

 

Pierre and Colette invited us for dinner and to stay the night. We accepted, and the smell of good things in the oven made us curious. We stood in the kitchen and watched Colette shave chocolate pieces into a cake batter and then load it in the oven as she pulled a local specialty breakfast pastry out of the oven. Dinner tasted so good with familiar and missed faces around me. Not that Andy isn’t a familiar and missed face! The food was great too: Home-made zucchini soup followed by a traditional sausage and potato dish.

It was the best night’s sleep so far this trip, and the next day Pierre took us on one of his local loops to get our legs warmed up for Alps riding ahead. A little lunch launched us for our next stop, a small village high in the Alps called Hauteluce. We bid farewell, but I assured Pierre we would call him for his assistance should we run into problems / challenges. He is our Master Problem Solver. At least he was last year. Hope the Ludi’s don’t get tired of us; we love them!