Last day in France!

Thanks to friend Jean who loaned us a BMW 1200 GS(Awesome bike by the way) we went cruising the french Alps on 2 wheels!
This was a great finale for our European trip!
Tomorrow we will be bound for Iceland and some new Adventures!

Last family feast! so much good food!

The best bike to travel with!

French riviera, trial riding, Bmx and a a lot of friends

So much happened in 1 week!
First we went up to the mountains where we had a gread day with friends Stephanie and Franck!
Then went trials riding with my friend Alain, it was so much fun!
Then went to the French Riviera and saw friends Philippe and Nathalie and their 4 fantastic kids! We also got to see our long time dear friends Chris and Laurence with their doughter Ambre!
We had a fantastic day boating the "Cote d'Azur" in a big RIB (The way to boat around here!)
And finally, today Alec and I went BMXing with Alain and his son Romain on a real big track!
Thanks to all of you listed above for giving us such a great time and your friendship!
We enjoyed France tremendously, the scenery and refinement, especially in the southern part, have few equals!


On our way to French riviera.....few nice cars

In the mountain!

14 at table

Old guy riding trial

Alec showing his style

Bormes les Mimosas

Bormes les Mimosas

lifestyle of the rich and famous..in the background

jumping of boat

Cheaper by half a dozen

Lunch spot!

10 days all over Europe without kids!

10 days of Euro travel without kids!
2000 miles later we are back in Grenoble with our 2 loving boys and Mamie!
We went first to Paris where we saw a lot of friends and worked a little at a trade show then crossed Europe West to East to Motocross GP nearby Berlin!
Had a great time in very cool weather once again (very similar weather to 7 weeks ago) then drove down to Geneva where a day of work was awaiting me (for Geneva SX)
Couple itws and Tv work later we were back in Grenoble where we will be staying 1 week before going to Iceland and then back to USA!

Great MXGP with smell of German sausage....very grassroot combo....loved it!

Yamaha Racing and crossing Italian/french Alps

We left sadly our beautiful Agroturismo hotel nearby Venice for a 3 hours drive to Milano wher we had a great lunch with friends Lin and Karen!
Then Lin took us on a tour of Yamaha that was quite spectacular!
The quality and hard word involved in a MotoGP team is unreal!
We finaly drove 5 hours crossing the Alps to get to Mamie's place in Grenoble where we were greeted by my Mom (The kids were so excited to see G-ma!)
We will R and R for few stays in France before resuming our adventure.

The Alps, still beautiful with Lousy weather

Who will be the next Valentino.......Alec

or Luca

Lamborghini, Venice and Asolo

First we had a treat!
We visited the Lamborghini place!
The kids were extatic (so were we!) and to the boys it was the best Museum ever!
Then had a great evening with Friend Philippe, Javier in Asolo.
And finaly spent a day in Venice fighting the usual flow of turists.
Italy keeps treating us so well.....
Italy is not exotic but so nice...


Alec wants the yellow Murcielago!
But could settle for the white Galardo

Luca with his choice

Venice







Luca displaying his new hat ,courtesy of friend Philippe C

Florence, Lucca and sadly no VR46!

Real busy 3 days!
We left Rome happy to leave crowd and turists to go to Florence to find more turists!
Florence has to be where all our fellow Americans are going on vacation....the ratio of US tourists is unbelievable!
We discovered the town , saw the statue of David and then decided to go to Lucca (1 hour away) for evening!
We were so happy to be in Lucca! The crowd was gone and we had some great italian time away from the mainstream! (Lucca the fortified town is a must see in Tuscany!)
The entire week end was dedicated to the MotoGP in Mugello!
Our friend Lin and family took real good care of us and despite a difficult week end for him (His main rider Valentino broke his leg)!
The weather was perfect we were with great friends and the racing spectacular for most of it!
Thanks again Lin and all the yamaha Team to make us feel like family!




Florence

Florence

Happy Luca in Lucca

Boys enjoying some great food at Yamaha racing Hospitality

Boys admiring Randy de Puniet's new car!

Alec in Lucca

Ferry, Ancona and Rome!

We were delayed for the ferry but we had a good ride and arrived in Ancona couple hours late!
We then drove couple hours (in the rain) and reached our destination Roma!
Checked in our comfortable but quite expensive hotel, parked the car ($40 a day) and then we went on our first day exploring this stunning city!
June 2nd is the national day in Italy creating a real good situation for us since most of locals deserted the city....we loved it! It was cool and sunny and perfect for urban discovery!
Next day was back to normal and we encounter a combo of Disney world and Las Vegas that I personnaly dislike a lot!
The boys and I took as much lines and crowd as we took and called it quit while leaving Mum Carol in the Vatican!
Instead, I rented a classic vespa and took boys for runs in Roma!
Carol was exhausted after the Sistine Chapel but very happy of her sight seeing day!
Tomorrow we will to move up north to Tuscany for some serious culture....MotoGP at Mugello! LOL


Arriving in Ancona

Luca having Nutella on a cone..

St pierre square

Vespa riding

Italian dream

roman empire

A lot of scooter everywhere

Trevi fountain

Coliseum

Pizza in Rome

Coliseum

Last day in Greece (Meteora)

Sadly we got the rain back for our last day in Greece!
It made it easier to leave our little coastal resort but we were kind of sad!
For lunch we were discovering the Meteoras!
Monks built those monasteries on top to giant rock mountains in 1100 ad!
We visited one after having to cover up all skin....long pants etc!
The sun was back after our visit and we celebrated with a succulent road side BBQ!
Afternoon was spent driving thru Greek mountains to Igoumenitsa (northwest corner of Greece) where our ferry to Italy was awaiting us!


Superb rock formation

a lot of stairs to get to the top

this plane was parked on side of road!

Meteora monastery

BBQ boys

Would you have resisted........we didn't!