Cycling trip to Albi, France

Posted by Mike Balster 
 

Mike and his wife, Marian, participated in a cycling exchange started as a Sister Cities exchange between Palo Alto, CA and Albi, France. The first exchange was in 1999 when cyclists from Palo Alto visited Albi and in 2000 the Albi cyclists visited Palo Alto. Each bike club member from the US stayed with a host family from the Albi bike club and the Palo Alto, Western Wheelers, cycling club hosted the Albi cyclists the next year.

The French cyclists are strong riders and cycling is a highly regarded sport in France. Cars are careful with cyclists; the law dictates 3 ft clearance between a car and a cyclist. The cars were very careful and courteous when passing cyclists.

 

The population of the town of Albi is similar to Palo Alto but the economy is much smaller in Albi. The Sister Cities connection prompted the Mayors of three towns we visited to host a reception for our group. Next year is an election year in France so the press coverage was probably also a factor in hosting the receptions.

One of the Albi bike club members was a Rotarian. His English was worse than my French was but the Rotary connection made us fast friends. The district governor of the area was associated with the Mayor's reception in Albi and had just returned from a vacation in the US. He had traveled over 2000 miles in fourteen days making abbreviated stops at many tourist spots between the Grand Canyon and the Grand Tetons. He spoke English very well and invited me to his district governor dinner in Albi but I wasn't able to attend.

Meals in France were events. Multi-course meals were enjoyed at both lunch and dinner. I was assured that they did not eat this way every day but each of our 12 days stay was treated as a special occasion. Even lunches on bike rides were picnics packed with multi-course meals. This made riding after lunch especially difficult. An example of one of these bike trips was a 110km (70 mi) organized ride. About 2200ft of climbing before lunch at the 40 mi mark wasn't bad but the 1000ft climb after lunch was difficult on a full stomach. We started with three salads and wine; then a duck, beans, and sausage entrée with more wine; followed by a cheese course, and finally dessert cobbler.

The rides and the organization of transportation and activities were wonderful. Meals with the host family always included the French/English dictionary on the table. The meals were dotted with references to the dictionary when our conversation hit upon a word that couldn't be translated. Our French hosts loved to joke and share experiences. The meals typically lasted for two hours so there was ample time to converse and share experiences.

We had a wonderful time and look forward to future exchanges with the local bike clubs.