The Pyrenees and A Patio Dinner Up High

Yesterday was Stage 10 of Le Tour de France, and today is Stage 11. We're finally in the mountains and I couldn't be happier. Yesterday's pull through the Pyrenees showed surprises - Contador falling off the back, along with Quintana, and Froome powering through to win the stage handily. We'll see if he used up all of his energy today, though, because today is a BEAR. Today we get three major climbs, Aspin (cat 4), Tourmalet (HC) and Cauterets (only Cat 3, but an uphill finish) - 188km of pure pain. Even though I'll be HUGELY busy today, I'm still going to have the TV going and hope to catch most of the race, even though it may be in pieces.

Tuesday's stage had this amazing, steep ending at the
top of La Pierre Saint-Martin. It was HUGE and Chris
Froome (Sky) conquered it in fine style. 

Looking at today's profile, the mountains are dominant with the peaks
of Aspin, Toumalet and the finish at Cauterets. Such fun! I'm so happy that
the tour is finally in the mountain stages. 

I'll be looking at more wallpaper samples today and trying to put removed items back into one of our cases. I only have a few weeks before Sharon comes for her annual visit and right now there's no way she could even walk into her room. Time to start resettling after the carpeting. I have a city water meter dude coming to fix something that supposedly is wrong with my water meter, and of course I have laundry and yet again, more laundry, making the beds, grocery shopping and cooking. Eeech! In other words, the usual Wednesday. Thank goodness I'll have my hour in the late afternoon to chat with Aearwen.

Louis' is the patio restaurant on the rooftop of Cosetta's
Italian Restaurant. Great food and a nice atmosphere with
the option to dine inside or out. We were outside enjoying
the summer weather. 

Yesterday's quiet evening turned into a more public one when DH texted me, inviting me to join him and his friends for dinner when I got off work. That sounded good to me, so I fought the traffic and the insane parking to join them on the patio roof of a local well-known Italian restaurant. It was actually very pleasant (I was good - long sleeves and a hat), a soft breeze and the sun going down lowered the heat a bit. It was fun to see Matt and Andre, Mike and Keven, and the food was really good. I'd do that again.

It's not the best picture, but so it goes. Cosetta's Italian Restaurante takes
up a half-block on St Paul,s West Severnth street. The three story
restaurant opened a rooftop patio and calls it Louis. That's where we
were last night. I'd go again, the food was excellent. 

Today is my "day off" and, as usual, I'll be running all over town after I get done with the gym. I hope each of you has a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow, of course. Happy Wednesday!