Chaplog tries hard In which an ageing climber comes to terms with life closer to the ground.

24/10/2005

Cycling and Chateaux

Filed under: cycling,General — Mike Chapman @ 11:21 pm

Cherverny

Monday 24th October – . Bauzy – Neuvy – Muides sur Loire and back through the forest 71K

A cold start. The ride was so good yesterday that we did the first section again. We intended to cycle to the river and visit the nuclear power station. We had a quick discussion about how ironic it is that nuclear power may well be the answer to present problems when it was the scare of our youth.
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23/10/2005

Chambord

Filed under: General — Mike Chapman @ 10:02 pm

Lynne and Judy in a woody place on the way to Chambord

Distance 50K

Bauzy – Neuvy – Bracieyx – Chambord – la Chaussee le comte and back

Lovely weather, lovely place. We cycled after having had a smoked salmon lunch sitting in the sun outside the Gite. Our ride involved a lot of forest tracks and concrete cycle tracks through the oak and sweet chestnut, very nice. The weather was near perfect and after making the observation that we had forgotten any bird, plant and tree books and the ensuing argument about whose responsibility it was to pack them we began to relax. This discussion was prompted by a number of vulture like birds passing overhead and seeing Toadflax by the side of the road.

The Chateau Chambord – nice country house with a thirty mile wall to keep the game in the forest. It is no wonder the French lost their royalty

Our first site of the chateau Chambord brought a smile to the face, towers, turrets and curly bits in a perfect blue sky. It is no wonder the French got rid of royalty at the earliest opportunity. 1800 hundred workers for fifteen years is an expensive project.

22/10/2005

Valley of the Kings – Loire Valley

Filed under: General — Mike Chapman @ 8:07 pm

Lynne taking time out on the Portsmouth – Caen ferry

We made an early start at a quarter to one in the morning. At that time of day we decided that we could risk the M6. As we drove through the night we tried to calculate the number of cones per kilometer between Glossop and Portsmouth. Our guess was one every 50 meters!
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16/10/2005

A dilemma

Filed under: General — Mike Chapman @ 9:45 pm

On Sunday it was sunny and the Derbyshire low road had all the signs of early Autumn

It was one of the hardest weeks for a number of years. I had to produce assemblies for Wed, Thurs, and Fri, attend an Open evening on Thursday and management meetings on Monday and Friday. A further strain was the phone calls to New Zealand every evening.
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2/10/2005

Another Place

Filed under: General — Mike Chapman @ 8:42 pm

Anthony Gormley looks better in a hat and not just any hat

Rain on Saturday, Lynne’s back and my cold meant we did not exercise this weekend. We cleaned out the cellar and then went to the seaside on Sunday. After checking the tide tables and the football matches we headed for the beach for a walk. We were not disappointed.
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