Book Learnin' : Alain de Botton

From The Architecture of Happiness:

"Suspicion of architecture may in the end be said to centre around the modesty of the claims that can realistically be made on its behalf. Reverence for beautiful buildings does not seem a high ambition on which to pin our hopes for happiness, at least when compared with the results we might associate with untying a scientific knot or falling in love, amassing a fortune or initiating a revolution. To care deeply about a field that achieves so little, and yet consumes so many of our resources, forces us to admit to a disturbing, even degrading lack of aspiration.

In its ineffectiveness, architecture shares in the bathos of gardening: an interest in door handles or ceiling mouldings can seem no less worthy of mockery than a concern for the progress of rose or lavender bushes. It is forgivable to conclude that there must be grander causes to which human beings might devote themselves.

However, after coming up against some of the sterner setbacks which bedevil emotional and political life, we may well arrive at a more charitable assessment of the significance of beauty - of islands of perfection, in which we can find an echo of an ideal which we once hoped to lay a permanent claim to. Life may have to show itself to us in some of its authentically tragic colours before we can begin to grow properly visually responsive to its subtler offerings, whether it be in the form of a tapestry or a Corinthian column, a slate tile or a lamp. It tends not to be young couples in love who stop to admire a weathered brick wall or the descent of a banister towards a hallway, a disregard for such circumscribed beauty being a corollary of an optimistic belief in the possibility of attaining a more visceral, definitive variety of happiness.

We may need to have made an indelible mark on our lives, to have married the wrong person, pursued an unfulfilling career into middle age or lost a loved one before architecture can begin to have any perceptible impact on us, for when we speak of being 'moved' by a building, we allude to a bitter-sweet feeling of contrast between the nobler qualities written into a structure and the sadder wider reality within which we know them to exist. A lump rises in our throat at the sight of beauty from an implicit knowledge that the happiness it hints at is the exception."

Attack of the Killer Bridge

Gabe del Rossi, showing signs of fatigue. Could it be the ride or Marc's endless rants that are having this effect?

Today I did a nice 4 hour ride with Gabe del Rossi through the Avant Pays de Savoie. It didn't start off too well, though, as I ate some serious wood on a slippery bridge halfway out the bike path on the north side of town. It's a path I've taken many times before, only this time it was slicker than I have ever known. Now, I am not one who lays it down much, but this time I was sure happy to be travelling at a slow enough speed to be okay. But man, I ate it pretty well, and good ol' Gabe was there to take the piss out of me when it was clear that both I and my bike were okay. After that, it was pretty smooth sailing. Check out the pics for a firsthand view!!!! The reason I am not in any of them is because I am the one always taking the pictures.

Col du Granier, January 2007

Your author!

Pics from Training this Winter

Mom and I in the Chartreuse.
Gabriele Del Rossi and Helen Lanoue in the Chartreuse, nearing the Col de Cluses.

Authorization...

Your Author on the Mt. Ventoux in 2005.

Bike Washin'...

Here's my friend Gabe, giving his bike a little wash in my building. That Pegoretti is like his child. On the ground you can see our washing utensils. That old bike in the picture is my car. I use it to get around town.

THE DAILY WISDOM - New Year's 2007 Edition

"It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"

-Henry David Thoreau

Holiday Fun

This is the first Holiday season that I've spent in Europe in 28 years on the planet. I may be getting old (Gabe says I can now count myself among the 'almost 30 somethings'), and the earth may be getting tired, but are both still trucking along enough to know that the best possible use of my time these days is cycling on it while the air is still breathable and the climate still livable. Recently, a high pressure weather system has camped out over the Rhone Alps, making Chambéry a sunny and pleasant place to ride over the past week. We've done a three hour ride almost every day possible, with today being the first where I woke up to wet roads. Perhaps no biking today, but we are here still desperately waiting and praying for snow.

For all those getting ready to celebrate the New Year in style, I wish I could say something earth-shatteringly meaningful. For now I'll just wish everyone a healthy and happy 2007, and hopefully you'll take it on a bicycle. If not, then a good new year's resolution might be to head to the nearest bike shop and pick up a new one. Now that's a resolution we can live with!

7 Hour Delights!

Lately the weather here in the Alps has been untouchable. Warm, sunny, and just right. This week I went for two 7 hour bike rides with some shorter rides mixed in. Yesterday, my friend Davide and I went for a ride over the Col du Galibier and the Col de Sarenne. The Galibier happens to be one of the longest climbs in Europe and the Sarenne is quite steep the entire way. People always speak about 'Alpe D'Huez' when the truth is that the col on the other side is probably twice as hard! I was able to keep a good rhythm on the way up, and even pass a nice couple on a Harley with an american flag on the back...quite happy with myself considering I am not racing!

Earlier in the week I tackled the Joux Plane followed by a near five hour ride across the Aravis and Bauges mountains to Chambery, three cols included. The Joux Plane is tough. I could easily understand why one would want a little extra bit of Landis' juice running in the system! A little? Heck, a lot! I rode the whole thing in the 39/24 with sections in the 27. Granted, I am not super fit at the moment, but it's a good climb to remind you to keep biking!