Fortresses

More in the series of procrastinated vacation pictures.

As we biked around the Dordogne region, one of the things we commonly stopped to explore were fortresses.  Many and varied fortresses, some of which were quite old.  Here are just a few for you to enjoy:

Maison Forte de Reignac        

A fortified manor house, largely built in the 14th century into a cliff containing caves that have been inhabited for 20,000 years.  Quite a defensible position.  The caves go quite a way back into the cliff, and there are water sources back there.

We were amused and gratified to see how interested Nimue was in poring over the informational materials available in English, and how many little details of architecture, history, and art seemed to stick in her head.  She decided she especially liked the pise floors we saw in this room and many other sites along the trip.  (Look at how the floor is made up of a design of many small stones packed into the ground.)

This site had many little defensive platforms and other buildings built up into the cliff, like the one shown below.  I quite liked the concept of the upper-level alchemist's chamber, where one could practice one's chemistry experiments away from the prying eyes of the Inquisition (and away from anything you might not want to explode).

There was also a very interesting, but quite disturbing exhibit on instruments of medieval torture in one of the side rooms (too scary for Nim, but Chad and I took turns going in).  

Another most excellent fortified cliff dwelling was La Roque Saint-Christophe, a multi-level village built into caves in a cliff that has been inhabited since Paleolithic times.  Most of the buildings are gone, but you can see where holes have been hollowed out for beams to be attached to the edges of the caves, old markings where walls used to be, and many vertigo-inducing sets of stairs carved into the rock.  This main seam in the cliff was hundreds of feet long and several stories above the river.

Given that the cliff hangs right out over the river in spots, it is quite defensible -- all you have to do is drop rocks on invading Neanderthal, Viking, or English invaders (pick your period, as the site was inhabited for a loooong time!)  Of course, you also have to winch everything you need up the cliff. (See reconstructed winch in the background on the right side of the photo below.)

A reconstruction of what the site was like in medieval times:  The whole town is up there, including houses, workshops, a church, etc.

Other fortresses we saw were more distinctly castle-like.   The most castle-y of all castles must be Chateau de Beynac, located on a steep hill on the north bank of the Dordogne.  

This whole region saw a lot of activity during the Hundred Years' War, as the Dordogne was frequently the border between the English and the French.  Fortresses in this region were built, destroyed, shored up, taken over, improved, and rebuilt many times over, making them very fun to look at and explore.  This particular one was captured by Richard the Lionheart at one point.

Interestingly, this chateau was abandoned for all of the 19th and most of the 20th centuries, gradually falling to ruin as people pillaged the stone for other projects.  The current owners are purportedly in the middle of a hundred-year restoration project, letting tourists wander about half the castle while they live in the other half!  No interior photos allowed, but we did get to wander all over the maze-like interior and climb out on an outer wall.  One sort of wonders what it is like for the family who lives in it -- as Nim pointed out, you could play the best game of hide-and-seek ever!

The view from Chateau de Beynac.  Note Chateau de Castelnaud in the distance against the hill to the right of the photo.  We could just imagine the warring factions standing up on the walls and making faces at each other across the river.  You can actually see five major chateaux in different directions, so there were clearly lots of enemies about to spit at.

                 

And finally, the massive Chateau de Castelnaud.  

This one has been taken over by the town it dominates, restored, and turned into a most excellent museum of medieval warfare.  We figured we would spend a bit of time here, but it ended up being most of the day, between climbing around and exploring all the nooks and crannies in the castle, studying all the armor and weapons, and watching the one set of wet weather on the trip roll in.

Like any good fortress, it was at the top of a steep hill -- everything had to be hauled up on roads like this: (photo doesn't do the grade justice, of course -- this section is probably about 25% grade -- and yes, my internal grade estimator is pretty well calibrated at this point.)

Like Beynac, this chateau is tucked into a medieval village.

What do we find up these skinny winding stairs?

Ooooh -- the crossbow room!

And chain mail.  The interesting thing about this piece is that each loop is individually riveted shut.  Lots of work went into its construction, clearly.

Will it fit?  We noticed that knights must have come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes; this was one of the few sets that looked like it would fit someone with the build of a pro cyclist.

What's in the interior courtyard?

Ah, the all-important water source.

 

What do we do with these fun things?  Clearly not a safe place for Mythbusters!  The museum had a jolly video inside showing one of these trebuchets hurling large stones at a big old stone wall -- definitely not something you want to be in the way of, though also not exactly easy to hit your target on the first shot.

 

Hmmm. Where to aim, where to aim?

 

The enemies across the river, perhaps.

And just so we don't end on a wildly aggressive note, here's a gratuitous wildflower shot, as they looked so nice next to the defensive rock wall.

Weekend fun

It is that busy time of year when school has started, but our weekend are still full of the last gasp of summer.  Here is a bit of catch-up for you all:

1.  Nim's birthday party.  We scheduled this for the first weekend after school started, so that her friends would be in town and able to come (but not yet busy with fall sports, as so many are).   Kids came over, ran around the yard solving puzzles and shooting velcro rockets at targets, learned to solder while making beetlebots with Chad, and stuffed themselves silly on cupcakes. After all of that, Nim somehow conned us into letting one of her friends spend the night.

 The birthday hut.

 Kids solving puzzles in the hut

 Robot construction

 Cupcakes!

Beetlebots.  When you turn them on, they move forward until one of the antennae bumps into something, which then leads the little guy to change direction.

2.  Nimue and Ma's adventures close to home while Chad is in WA for a wedding (late notice for dates and horrible airfares meant only Chad went out of town).  We started by heading over to the coast right after dropping Chad off at SFO bright and early at 6am (or should we say dark and early?)

and then worked our way south, stopping whenever we felt like it was time to run around again.

We stayed up too late watching a movie that night, then slept in to be ready for phase two of the weekend:  a micro-backpacking trip up to Black Mountain.   The fact that there was even a spot available at the last minute on a holiday weekend, given the proximity to a major metropolitan area, just goes to show how lazy people are.  A mere 1.5 mile hike to camp is clearly too much...but it was our gain.  One has good views of both the Bay and the ocean from the top as the sun sets.

Now it's time to retrieve Chad, who hopefully also enjoyed his weekend.  Maybe things will settle down for a bit?  Not likely (camping later this month, mountain bike adventure in Downieville in October, some sort of anniversary getaway in November, likely desert camping for Thanksgiving, trip to WA around the holidays, and who knows what else crammed in between...)

Birthday just in time for camping

Chad got Nimue her own Swiss Army knife for her birthday, just in time for the camping trip with frinds at Big Basin last weekend.

Many wood shavings were made.  One wonders if the next people to inhabit site 142B will suspect a family of beavers preceded them in this spot.

Chad instructed Nimue and Cathryn in the fine art of making the perfect marshmallow stick, while some of the younger kids looked on enviously.

And of course, being the redwoods, some of the logs are too big to whittle!

What a difference a decade makes

The kiddo in Paris

Onward to more vacation photos:

We travelled through Paris on our way to and from the bike trip in France, mostly because the kiddo hadn't ever been there.  And Paris is a just a fun city to walk around.

Her singular goal was to climb the Eiffel tower, so we did.

 

We walked all over the place, searching out gargoyles

stained glass, 

flying buttresses,

bridges,

and art.  It was entertaining to when we ran across this fountain by Niki de Sainte Phalle over near the Centre Pompidou because Nimue's immediate response was "There's a picture of that fountain in a book that I have!  I love that fountain!"  

We also ran across a giant mass and ordination of new priests at Notre Dame, complete with hundreds of people who didn't fit inside watching outside on big screens,

Chad's brother Frosty, who met us for most meals

lots of city bikes and bike lanes,

cobblestone repair,

a bridge covered in locks with people's names and anniversary dates,

and a raucous gay pride parade that made it challenging to get back to the hotel at the end of the day.

We all enjoyed ourselves, and by the end of if, Nimue was crazed.  Of course that is her normal state!

Seeing things on Mix Canyon Road; Mental weakness on Gates Canyon

Once you start seeing the reflector posts as little faces screaming "Aaaaaaaa!" with their open gray mouths, you can't stop.  Especially on something as ridiculously steep as Mix Canyon. 

According to John Summerson's The Complete Guide to Climbing (by Bike) in California, this road contains the steepest paved mile in the state of California, at 15.8% for the mile, with up to 20% bits commonly frequenting the switchbacks.  It climbs almost 2200 feet in 4 miles.

So yes, this road is physically challenging.  As with most climbs, though, the mental games are half the battle.  Several things lead to this hill being mentally tough:

1) It starts out so nicely -- a beautiful road working its way gently up the lower parts of the canyon, with lots of riparian shade and gentle trickling watery sounds from the creek.

2)  The steepest stuff is all reserved for the top, where you might already be a bit tired.  You pop out of the nice shady drainage, pass a couple of houses, and start angling up the side of the sun-baked, chaparral-covered ridge.  You thought the hill was slightly evil before this, but little do you know...

3) It's just bloody steep.  So much so that your sense of the upcoming grade is messed up.  At one point I came around a corner to see the top of the ridge above me, looked at the road angling across the hillside ahead of me and thought "Oh, it eases up", only to find that the exact opposite was the case.  In spades.

Fortunately, someone with a sense of humor has defaced (or re-faced) a few of the reflector posts. 

This leads to the giggles, if you aren't already laughing maniacally at the sheer insanity of the grade.  It's either that or cuss out the road, which isn't really my style.

Photographs really don't do justice to the grade; it looked much more precipitous in person.  The best pictures I could find are here. (worth taking a look even if you don't ride, as the author did a good job conveying the scenery and a sense of both hills)

I really enjoyed this climb -- my legs were feeling fresh and after all the tandem riding with kid on the back earlier in the summer, the steeps feel pretty good.  And the top of Mix is so steep as to just be deeply funny.  Some might argue that I should just ride normal stuff faster (because I'm not fast by any stretch of the imagingation), but I like to ride sillier instead.  It satisfies the urge to explore and makes better stories :)

After riding a bit on the gravel road along the ridge top a bit and carefully descending back down (not for the faint of heart!), there was still time to climb nearby Gates Canyon, which is reputedly almost as crazy.  At this point, I wasn't really sure if it was the right thing to do, but there was time.  On turning up the road, I was somewhat relieved to see a sign that said "Locked Gate 3 Miles Ahead", thinking that that would give me an out before the really steep stuff at the top.  

Ooops.  A moment of mental weakness crept in.  This opens the door to suffering.  There was no locked gate at 3 miles, of course.  Also of course I wasn't about to not do the whole climb, but the mere fact that I had held out a tiny bit of hope for an out meant that the razor-sharp edge of determination had blunted. So, when my back tire skidded slightly on the dirt section in the middle, I used it as an excuse to stop for a moment.  

Never, ever, ever stop before the top of the hill.  It makes it so much easier to succumb to excuses for another stop, and another...  "I need to swap my bottles and it's too steep to do without falling over."  "Just need to catch my breath."   "This is a road????  Looks more like a wall"  or just plain "Ow. Ow-ow-ow-hot-hot-hot." In all I stopped 4 more times on the way up.  Never for more than about 30 seconds, but enough to disrupt the rhythm and the almost Zen-like mode of climbing grit.

All in all, I suffered more on Gates than Mix, though I think it's the easier hill by a little bit.  The fact that it was the second hill, had perhaps a few locally steeper bits, and the near 100 degree temperature at the top may have colored my experience (only 90-ish at the top of Mix, since it was earlier in the morning).  Plus that moment of mental weakness that led to the first breather stop.

Looking at the stats in the Summerson book, Mix looks to be only a *little* bit harder than more local crazy-steep roads that I've ridden enough to be familiar with them -- things like Hicks/Mt. Umunhum, Bohlman/On Orbit, and Welch Creek.  And it's true -- it really is only a little bit harder.  That little bit however, is what crosses the line into "Only do this if you're in the mood to laugh your way up it" territory.

Still upright at the end, with very tired eyes.  After all this, I picked up the kiddo from Linda, drove home, showered, ate, and ran off to a three hour dress rehearsal for the Stanford Summer Chorus concert which entailed 2 1/2 hours of standing and a lot of core muscle use for singing.  Still moving this morning with only slight tiredness in my back and shoulders and none really in the legs, which is somewhat of a miracle.

Fixing the boo boo

Nimue, being an active kid, sometimes rips holes in her clothing.  I recently repaired a favorite pair of pants by putting a soot monster patch (a la Miyazaki) on the knee, somehow improving the whole garment in Nim's eyes.  Some iron-on patch material, pinking shears, a paint pen and 5 minutes: