Tag: Biking

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Bike Trip!

France is well known for its bike culture, especially for its world-renowned race, Le Tour de France. Unlike many French stereotypes which we’ve found don’t actually check out (think berets and black and white striped shirts), the French really do love biking! And about a month ago I had the opportunity to benefit from this love of biking!

About 30 miles from Albertville, there is a beautiful city called Annecy which is situated on the northern end of Lake Annecy. There is a nice bike bath that runs almost the entire way between Albertville and Annecy so two friends and I decided we would try and make the trip there and back.

We left on a Saturday morning around 8am and we had an absolutely gorgeous day for biking. There were hardly any clouds in the sky and the temperature was in the low 80s. The first twentyish miles went by rather smoothly so when we hit the southern tip of the lake, we decided to take a turn to the east so that we could do a lap around the lake which we knew would include some hills. The hills were quite tough, but the view on the top of the lake was gorgeous! Also, the next couple of miles coasting down the slope was amazing! We stopped in Annecy for lunch and ice cream (they are known for their ice cream) before heading back.

We ended up doing the ride in about 4.5 hours and it was a really fun experience, especially since it isn’t one that I expected to have before coming to France. While on the trail, we must have seen a couple hundred other bikers, most of which travelled in groups of 10 – 20. I will say that we definitely stood out as foreigners as we rode our mountain bikes and wore normal athletic clothes while pretty much everyone else was on road bikes and wearing full racing uniforms.

To add to this, in a just a few days, Le Tour de France will actually come through Albertville. The 11th stage of the race starts in Albertville and we plan to go down with the kids to check it out. Stay tuned for another blog post on this experience!

– Adam

See below for some pictures and videos of this trip.

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First Day of School!

The day that we have been anticipating and praying about for months! God has given us several good days of settling into our new home and adjusting to the time change which made our first early morning for school so much easier. I was particularly nervous for Mia as she is attending a French maternelle (or kindergarten) about 15 minutes from where we live. She has never been in school, let alone a French one so I have, admittedly, been fairly nervous for her.

Ready to go in her “Hello…Bonjour” shirt – how cool that a friend was selling this shirt on their Facebook resale page right before we left!

This morning was smooth until we arrived to the school and had no idea where to go! Thankfully the director of the school (the principal) spoke enough English to help us get sorted out and soon enough Mia was whisked away into her classroom. The process was longer than expected and my class started in the morning so we had a brisk walk home (I would have probably cried more when we left the school, but I was too out of breath and sweating haha!).

Approaching Mia’s school

One interesting thing here in France is that they take lunchtime (déjeuner) very seriously. So much so that you get a two hour break in the middle of the day for it! And you even go and pick your children up from school/daycare during this break (unless you pay to keep them at school). Such an fascinating cultural thing, but also a blessing to us today as it meant we got to see Mia for the afternoon and hear how the morning had gone. Adam picked her up by bike to help cut down on the travel time since 15 minutes of walking both ways cuts into our break quite a bit. Her report was that she loved school! What an amazing answer to so many prayers! She went back after lunch and had a great second half of the day as well. Tonight at bedtime she became pretty sad about having to go back tomorrow which was hard, but Adam spent a long time talking and praying with her. We won’t be surprised if she still runs into difficulties in the coming days and weeks as this is all so new to her, but we are thankful for such a positive start overall. We continue to pray for her transition to kindergarten!

Thankful for some fellow students in the building who are letting us use their bike and kid’s seat for now – we have been so blessed by this community!

Adam and I’s first day consisted of a tour of the school, which is just across the parking lot from our apartment building and then a placement test which assesses how much French you know so they can decide which class to put you in. Needless to say it was a quick test! Despite how little we currently know, doing the placement test gave us both a taste and excitement for all the learning ahead. Tomorrow we have orientation and will also find out which classes we are in. We have Wednesdays off every week and then begin normal classes Thursday. We feel privileged to be here! Thanks for following our journey!

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time) – Selina