A lot of Americans are confused and maybe even a bit troubled by the fact that eggs are not refrigerated in France. At least not in the grocery stores. I know I was when I first realized this. Go into any grocery store and you’ll find the eggs stacked and displayed on a shelf, an endcap or a table somewhere in the store. But, definitely not in the refrigerated section. “How can this be,” I wondered? Won’t they all go bad immediately?

So, I decided to do a little research and see what I could dig up. How is it that eggs need to be refrigerated in the US, but not in France? Doesn’t really make any sense to me. Here’s what I was able to find:

It turns out that eggs are not refrigerated anywhere in Europe, including England. Someone even said that the US is ONLY place where eggs are refrigerated. OK, but why? There seem to be several theories/opinions about this.

Some folks claim it has do with the fact that in the US egg producers are forced to wash the fresh eggs which then strips them of their protective coating, thereby requiring that they be refrigerated. So, if you have fresh, unwashed eggs, there’s no need to refrigerate them.

Another “theory” is that if the eggs have been refrigerated already they need refrigeration, if they haven’t, they don’t. These folks say that the natural protective coating gets removed by the condensation that forms in the refrigerator.

Finally, another person claims that this “odd, rather new-fangled idea to place eggs in the refrigerator in the US,” is due the fact that our eggs are almost always produced by large, chemical based companies. Because the chickens are fed so many chemicals the eggs contain traces of these chemicals and the chemicals break down the natural ability of the eggs to protect themselves. Eggs produced by chickens where are fed or administered chemicals therefore need to be refrigerated.

All very interesting. For me, I’m happy to not refrigerate the eggs while I’m here in France, but I’ll stick to refrigerating the ones in the US.

This site is built completely in WordPress. I designed a new custom theme and because many of the entries were almost three years old, it required me to make changes in the way those early entries had been entered into the WordPress system.

I’ve also build a bunch of photo galleries for this site, using a great free jQuery plugin called Nivo Slider.

I’ve still got a few little things to do, but I’m just going to work on those as I go along. I’ve created photo galleries for: Music, France and Cycling, but eventually I’d like to create separate ones for Tech, Politics, Work and Family. I’ll get to it one of these days.

Anyway, I hope you like it. Hopefully, I’ll now be inspired to actually write more often! I’ve got a ton of record reviews I’d like to do I really should be documenting my cycling activities more. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Let me know if you see any problems anywhere on the site.

Droman wanted a website that reflected his passion for music in a clean, direct, elegant way that made it very easy for visitors to find information about him and his work. The site contains an introductory video and plenty of photo galleries and showcase his studio and equipment. Several dozen “artist” pages contain photos, comments and sample audio clips where visitors can listen to his work. Information on “How It Works” and a “FAQs” page make it very easy for potential clients to understand the process in working with Greg. A Contact page makes it easy for visitors to send him an email message directly from the website.

I left Vence a little after 9:00 am and headed up the Col de Vence. The climb has been featured several times in the famous Paris-Nice cycling race as well as the Nice Ironman race. There appeared to be rain and thunderstorms scattered all around the area and the forecast was not good, but I decided to head out anyway and see what developed. The Col de Vence begins immediately upon leaving Vence, there’s no warm up. It’s about nine or ten kilometers to the summit and this was my first time climbing it. The first kilometer seemed to be about 8 to 9 percent grade and then things eased off a bit. It began to sprinkle about one kilometer into the climb and that soon turned into a steady, light rain. I kept going, passing a few riders on my way up. There were quite a few riders coming down the Col, they had obviously gotten an earlier start than I had. Most of the climb seemed to be about a 7 percent grade. I kept a nice steady pace, not too hard, and reached the summit in about 40 minutes. Towards the end of the climb I could see lightning and hear thunder all down along the coast to my left. The sky was almost black and the lightning was impressive. Luckily, all I had to endure was the steady, light rain, some rather strong winds and rapidly cooling temperatures. By the time I reached the summit I was soaked through and through and it was 45°. Not a great way to begin a fast descent. I had my light jacket with me and a pair of glove liners which I immediately put on. With those temperatures and as wet as I was, they weren’t a lot of help.

See the view back from where I came at the top of the Col and you'll understand why I chose not to go back that way (click for larger version).

Since things looked so bad behind me I decided to go over the summit and down the other side rather than returning to Vence. The sky looked a little better in that direction. The first village on the north side is Coursegoules, about eight kilometers down from the top. It was tough, it was still raining and I was very wet and very cold. I pulled in Coursegoules, found a little market and bought some orange juice. I noticed a little bar that was open, so I went in there for some warmth and to escape the rain for a little while. My bike odometer said it was 47°. I bought a bottle of Badoit (French fizzy water) and rested up for a spell. I was chilled and shivering a little bit and all my clothes were soaking wet. After about 20 minutes I was feeling a little better and it seemed the rain had subsided so I headed down the road towards Bouyon, about 12 kilometers away.

Once again, it was all downhill from Coursegoules to Bouyon. I would have actually preferred to climb at this point as it would have kept me warmer. Connie and I stopped in Bouyon for lunch last year on a much different day, warm and sunny. I ducked into a small grocery store that was open and was greeted warmly by the man and woman running it. “C’est eté, oui?” I said (“It’s summer, right?”). The man laughed and replied, “Demain, demain.” (“Tomorrow, tomorrow.”) I asked if it had been raining all morning and they said yes. He pointed to the mountains in the distance and said there was lots of fresh snow, unusual for this time of year. This was the point at which I was hoping to head off towards a village named Les Ferres, where I haven’t yet been. But the sky looked quite dark in that direction, whereas here and on towards the route back to Vence things were looking much better. I decided I had better head back in that direction and save Les Ferres for a better day.

The view of Bouyon from the road to Le Broc. If you look closely you can see the fresh snow on the mountains in the distance (click for larger version).

Next stop, Le Broc, again, all downhill. The sun actually started to come out, the temperatures were up in the upper 50s and the rain was almost gone. By the time I passed through Le Broc and then Carros Village everything was much better. It’s still mostly downhill from Carros Village to Vence and thing steadily improved for the rest of the ride. By the time I arrived back at my hotel the streets were almost dry, the sun was out and it was in the mid-60s.

Overall, not the best day. The climb up the Col de Vence was nice, but the weather sucked. I really didn’t get to enjoy this ride as I would on a warm and sunny day. My plan is to make the same trip tomorrow. When I get to Bouyon I’ll head up to Les Ferres, then over to Conséqudes, Roquesteron and Gilette before returning to Le Broc, Carros Village and Vence. That will add a bunch of climbing to the route and take me to at least four new villages on my list of those I want to see. Hopefully, the weather will be better.

Today’s French patisserie is nougatine (Miel, Amandes) from La Tourrettoise in Vence (one of the better Patisseries in Vence). A tastey square piece of flakey crust with a layer of honey and several layers of almond slices. In general, I’ve never been a big fan of honey, but this was good. Not overly sweet. The almonds provide a nice crunch with the flakey crust.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

The view of La Turbie as I headed up the road to Peille (click for larger version).

The weather was great, mostly sunny, warm but not hot. I was considering heading on up to Peille, but it looked like it might be raining up in the mountains that way, it was very dark and grey. I stopped and got an Orangina, called Carole and rested in a little park. A man and woman turned into the park off a steep side street, riding on hybrid bikes, clearly tired but in a good mood. I asked them where they had climbed up from and they said Monaco. It’s a nice climb (Les and I did it once years ago) and they were quite proud of themselves. The guy was German, living in Monaco and the woman was Italian, living in Beaulieu. We talked for a little while and then I was ready to head back out. By now the weather in the mountains looked better, so I decided to head on up to Peille.

The view of Peille from the climb up the Col de la Madone (click for larger version).

The road up to Peille is not that long, about nine kilometers. At about eight is the turn off for the Col de la Madone, famous as one of Lance Armstrong’s training rides. I’ve ridden up it three times from the other side, but never from this side, so I turned off and headed up. It’s not a long climb at that point, only about three miles and not real steep. During the ride up from La Turbie and on the Madone I kept seeing a lot of cyclists with little paper numbers on their handlebars. Clearly there was some kind of organized ride or race going on. I passed several riders on the climb, including two women. At the top I stopped to put on my light jacket before heading back down the way I came. It was significantly colder up here and there was even some fog. One of the women I had passed reachd the summit and I spoke with her. It turns out a club in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin had a big organized ride today, 100 kilometers over a lot of the same climbs I was doing. She and her friend were participating. They gave me a copy of the route and I’ll plan on doing this ride one day, maybe next year. The descent down Madone was great. Years ago Les and I had done this same descent for the first time, coming in from the St. Agnes side, and the road was a mess. It’s been repaved since then and is in great shape. From the bottom of the climb it’s a short two kilometer ride over to Peille. A quick stop there and then off to Nice. All downhill at this point.

I stopped in Old Town at Nice and had some lunch, a typical French pizza, at one of my favorite restaurants there. Then I took a quick trip over to La Roue Libre, the great little bike store we discovered years ago in Nice. Turns out the one thing I forgot this year was my ride drink. I’d left the bag of powder on the hutch after my last ride in Nashville on Wednesday and forgot to pack it. They didn’t have the brand I use (of course), but I bought a can of some French stuff, poured it all into a big plastic bag, tucked it into my jersey and headed back towards Vence. It’s all uphill now. The climb to Vence isn’t that steep, up until the last two or three kilometers where it does get a bit steep. It’s a nice little kick at the end of a long ride. I got back to the hotel very happy with my first ride of the trip.

I headed off for Vence. I’ve ridden there several times on my bike, so I know the route. It’s only about ten miles from the Nice airport to Vence, so I was there in twenty minutes or so. However, I could not, for the life or me, find my hotel, La Closerie des Genets. I searched and searched, going back and forth down the street I thought it should be on. Finally, I decided to park in a parking garage and ask someone for help. But as I was walking up the street I found the hotel, tucked down a side street. The door was locked and no one answered. I was finally able to rouse the owner after some more knocking and he checked me in.

La Closerie des Genets is a fine little hotel if you are looking for something inexpensive and don’t require much. My room is very small, there’s not much in the way of drawers and storage areas. No desk. No phone. But, it’s clean, quite and cheap. I’m only paying 40 Euros per night, which is very, very good. So, I can live with the lack of extras as I’m trying not to spend too much money on this trip. There are certainly better hotels in Vence, but even the next step up is about twice the price.

I got settled in, upacked most of the carry on stuff I had with me and gave the British Airways lost luggage number a call. They said that, yes indeed, my luggage and bike had arrived at the Nice airport. I asked if they were going to deliver it to me that evening. Well, they couldn’t really say. I asked if someone could call me and let me know. If they were not going to then I’d come and get it myself. They said they would. About three hours later, no word. I called again. Same runaround. They weren’t sure when it would be delivered, but they’d have someone call me and let me know if they were not going to deliver today. An hour later I realized no one was going to call me and there was no telling when they’d get around to delivering my stuff. It was almost 7:00PM by now, so I hopped in my car and headed for the airport. Picked up my bike and bag and headed back to Vence, getting very tired now, as I’d only had about 2 hours sleep in the last 24 hours.But, I was very happy to have my bike and luggage.

Back at the hotel I put my bike together (for the most part), gave Carole a call and went to sleep.

The ticket agent said something about trying to get me on an upcoming flight (seeming to blame me for showing up late). I explained that my flight (on their airline) had been late, it wasn’t my fault. I was put on the next flight, which luckily was only about an hour and a half later. Of course, that flight got delayed as well. I spoke to the ticket agent about my bike and luggage. She was able to look them up via the computer and told me they probably wouldn’t be getting to Nice until the next day (Saturday). Had breakfast at a great little place called Giraffe. Wandered around the terminal a bit, looking for a Wi-Fi connection, but couldn’t find one. Finally got in the air and was off to Nice.

Unfortunately, I had to go to a new terminal and I had to go through security again. The ticket agent at least waved me to the front of the line. And then it was a mad dash through three terminals. I arrived in time, they put me on the plane, covered in sweat and at almost immediately we were off. It was apparent though that my bike and my luggage did not make the flight. The best thing to come out of all this was I found myself in a three seat section with on one else! This is almost unheard of on overseas flights these days. They are almost always completely full. What this meant was that I could lay down and sleep on the flight, a true luxury, which is exactly what I did. I managed to get a couple hours of sleep I think, it’s not easy to sleep on those seats.

Next stop London.

Flight was supposed to leave at 11:15, but a sudden thunderstorm put us behind. We changed gates, waited for a plane to move out of the way and finally left Nashville about an hour late. I’m on my way.

I like to do this about a week before I actually leave, just so I can make sure there aren’t any problems. One year I did my big cleaning the day before I was leaving and when I got the bike back together again there was a problem with the gears. That was no fun, figuring out what was wrong and getting it fixed knowing I had to leave the next day.

Here’s a photo all squeaky clean. I’ll take it out for a good hard ride tomorrow and make sure everything is running smoothly, but right now everything looks good.