1.  Suspend my diet rules the last 2 days.  After we finished our ride on Friday, I decided I wanted to be free to taste the baguettes, pastries, pizza, and other goodies that I’ve always loved in France.  So Friday  afternoon through Sunday I ate what I wanted.  I’ve paid for it every single day since.  My body declared war on me starting Monday with never ending stomach pains.  Apparently it did not appreciate me providing it with sugar and starch, then taking it away again.  Ouch.

2.  Believe my husband when he says, “it’s an easy ride.”Clearly the two of us have different definitions of “easy.”  His idea of easy is a climb that includes sustained 11-12% grade, because after a while it “flattens out” and then “isn’t so bad the rest of the way.”  This was our climb to La Berarde after a really tough day on Sunday.  I thought I had taken a wrong turn it was so steep for so long!  Needless to say, we had words when I finally caught up to him (and retrieved my lungs).

3.  Ride Mont Ventoux without eating breakfast. So it’s been described as the toughest mountain to climb on a bike.  I knew this going in.  But a combination of things outside our control (bad meat the night before for one) kept me from being able to eat breakfast, but I was determined to ride it anyway.  Built some character, I suppose, but it was a suffer-fest like no other.

4. Ride anywhere that has trees without insect spray. The flies on Ventoux were horrendous!  The only good thing was I was so distracted by the swarm trying to invade every inch of me that I forgot about the pain in my legs for a moment or two.  But man, they were annoying.  Trying to communicate “insect spray” in French was quite interesting.  The first few people we asked looked at us like we were from another planet.  Finally, a pharmacist who spoke English was able to help us.  And, insect spray in France smells really good – why can’t we figure out how to make spray here smell good?

5. Ride a crowded subway anywhere outside the US. I’ll just say that Americans apparently value hygiene more than those outside the US.

6. Binge on hard candy from Mt. Ventoux. I love hard candy. There is table after table of candy for sale at the top of Ventoux.  I’ve never seen anything like it. So of course I bought a small bag (they hand you a paper bag and you scoop as much as you want), and was very good at only eating one piece a day.  Until Thursday night.  I went a little overboard and finished the bag. I felt sugar-drunk. Jonathan had a great time laughing at me. Oh, and I won’t leave the candy bag by my nightstand ever again.  It was just begging to be eaten.

I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting about, but that will have to be for another post!!