Friday thirteenth. Dad’s birthday. The apartment at 27 rue Jacquart is ours. And I’m on the train to Annecy, to finish off my Tour de France project. With little sleep, thanks to early Effi, and warmer clothes than ever (it‘s never been this late during my decade long three-day cycling sessions). I fixed the tour only last week, and due to early automn-ness plus severe busy-ness it’s been the last possible moment anyway to get this done. Three rather standard stages of some 200+ kilometers each with not too much vertical meters. The only unknown is the weather, although the forecast is rather encouraging. Started in 2015, I am very excited to close my loop through France within a decade (it’s year ten, with three years where I couldn’t make it: 2017, 2019, 2020).

Summer is gone, and administration tasks keep hassling me. I feel pretty close to being burned out due to those endless requests, dysfunctional services and headache-loaded paperwork. We were supposed to sign our new apartment today, but random requests from notaries that only started on the very last-minute first jeopardized and then postponed the signature. Luckily this is not the only challenge I’m facing, my N26 account is now finally French and requires to be changed everywhere, which allows me to finally get rid of my SG account, a bank I’m not willing to do business with anymore. And then there are several public services where only few processes function as expected, like the impossibility to change my freelance home address since I’m not a French citizen. Headaches all over, I’m very much looking forward to my final Tour de France weekend next week, where this decade-long loop cycling loop through France is looking forward to be closed.

Back on the Eurostar after three days of roaming through vibrant Rotterdam. Quite a cool place, and this time I got heaps of sun. Only good things happened, all three of us had an amazing time even though we missed by two days the Tour de France Femmes. Back to Pantin now, it’s Sunday and everything and everybody looks good.

The Games are over! And what Games it were, to be called Jeux from now on to praise everything that just has happened in Paris. Easiness, smiles & joy are back in town. None of the expected problems popped up, none of those complainers kept complaining once the ball was rolling flame was lit. 15 days of celebrating people, sports and the city. I’m confident that those days will have a lasting impact on the city’s attitude well beyond the Games, it’s the end of a chain of bad things that happened here (most importantly the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan in 2015 and the that never-ending corona drama). It feels so much better to finally live in a friendly city again, and on top of that we have amazing weather. My four intense Olympic days, always with Max and our bicycles, brought us to Club France, road cycling on the Belleville climb, basketball at La Concorde, kayak cross in Vaires-sur-Marne and track & field athletics in the Stade de France, it went by super fast and was much fun, especially with the Boevinks and the quick visit of Seb & family. Since then I’m back to work, until tomorrow when the next vacation chapter starts with Rotterdam (followed by some days in Liverpool Brittany and a week in Rome Maupertuis).

Back home! Two amazing weeks in the South are behind me, everything worked out like a charm and couldn’t have gone better. Driving through beautiful Provence and the Alps, following two thrilling Tour stages with out rental bikes, spending time with Adam & family, meeting the girls for a week on the Sea and another in the hinterland, and wrapping everything up with a reverse trip back to Pantin, this time with Max. A couple of Olympic days will follow before I’ll return to my two favorite work projects, which I both really miss.