Well the past week or so has been a very interesting one which included Forced rest days, topless women, Chocolate factories, day trips, wrong turns which lead to long bike rides and again breath taking scenery.

I'll start with the forced rest day. I am suffering a little (well a lot) from hay fever, yes this place in wonderful but man the flowers are killing me, so I gave in and went to the chemist to get something along the lines of telfast. My French is getting a little better but clearly not good enough, managed to get an allergy control tablet (well that's what the lady said, I bet she had a good smile on her face when I left...) took one and was feeling pretty good. About 5 or so hours later we set out to go for a little recovery ride (can't remember exactly what we were recovering from) but it started raining so I had a little snooz on the couch (A CT/JT Coma pre training Snooz...) got woken up and headed out on the bike. From the moment we left I was feeling a little dizzy and dazed but thought I have just been asleep for a good 1.5hours so it will pass. But it didn't it got worse. I was feeling very unwell in the stomach, dizzy and still not 100% sure what I was doing. We got about 11km in and stopped, by this stage I was not feeling good at all so we headed back up the hill to go home. Made it back to Base Camp Morzine. The next thing I was well and truly in a coma, I slept from 5.30 in the afternoon until 7am the next day (yes I did miss dinner and woke up ready to eat a cow). So this lead to having a forced day off training to recover from the slight reaction that I had to the "Allergy Tablet". On the plus side I ate some wicked Pizza, Caught up on my "How I Met Your Mother" episodes and "Big Bang Theory" episodes.

Thursday saw us head down the Thonon for the local markets and a swim in the 50m pool (Morzine 50m pool opens this weekend, so pumped hello tan). The Markets where great lots of local produce and everything you could imagine to find at a market. We decided to go to Evian for a swim just to try something different. And surly enough the lady swimming in the lane next to us was topless. It was a huge shock the first time you see someone swimming with her t*** out (Julz all I could think was t*** out, show us.... you get the rest). Usually French people just swim for about 30 minutes or so and get out, but not the lady she swam for as long as us, doing her vertical kicking and breast stroke (the preferred two strokes in France). It was quite entertaining but not enough to cover the pain of trying to swim solid.

Friday we headed over to Switzerland to go to the Nestle/Cailler chocolate factory. What an experience and for 10 CHF you couldn't say no. The tour was great just long enough to not go on like a billy goat pissing on a tin lid. At the end you get to see how they make and pack the chocolate and get one at the end. I thought ok well that was a little s*** if thats all the chocolate you get. Then you walk into heaven. It is a a room just full of Cailler chocolates, I have never felt so sick but happy. So many different flavors, so of course I tried everything. Some more then once. And when you thought you couldn't get any more chocolate in you go to the shop where the chocolate is as cheap as chips, so agin of course I filled my bag and came out as happy as a fat kid in a candy store (I think I will be the chocolate factory if I keep going back). Post chocolate factory we went to the beautiful old town of Gruyeres. Very Swiss and nice.

Saturday saw the first of two very interesting rides. So we set out to do an easy (Still with a few "little climbs") 3 hour 70km ride. We followed all the signs but got a little confused on one intersection so we followed the sign that was on the road but really we should have followed the map. Needles to say we ended up going up a category one climb, it was in the tour in 2010. Oh man it was hard, the end just never came, I think it was a solid 15km of going straight up. When it finely did end the view was breath taking. (Not because we had just ridden 15km up hill) It was a clear beautiful day and you came around the corner to see this full view of Mont Blanc. The only thing I was thinking was "F Yer! This is wicked, well worth the past 40 minutes". So a easy ride turned into quite a hard long ride.

The crew from Base Camp Morzine climbed Point de Nyon which is 2016m high. it was a very steep climb but again with my girl scout and mountain goat ability I made it to the top. And again what a view! (You will get sick of me saying it but it really is a magic peaceful place) It was again a wonderful view of Mont Blanc and you looked over the top of Col du Joux Plane, down into Morzine, over to Switzerland and down to Lake Geneva. Amazing.

We decided to go and do the ride we were had set out to do on Saturday but in reverse so we could see what we did wrong. Well lets just say that we didn't find where we went wrong and ended up 20km from Annemasse!! Yes we missed the turn and went the long way round to get home. So an easy 70km ride turned into a 90km ride. (For you who are coming to Base Camp Morzine we are getting all the wrong turns made now so you don't have to worry at all we know where we are going now!)

So all in all it has been a great week. Lots happening with a few km's done in all three disciplines.

This next week is looking great with a race in Annecy on Sunday and off the Scotland on Thursday for the first of weddings for 2012/2013. Michelle and Iain's wedding.

Of course I will post some more about my adventures but for now au revoir