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Post trip reflections—Backroads
We are back home! It was a harried day of airport lines, plane delays, sprinting with bags at ohare just to find out that our flight got delayed 6 times, and exhaustion over managing 2 exhausted kids, but we arrived at 1am yesterday, all woke around 7-8am, and feel good to be home. Some of…
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Last morning of Backroads trip
I didn’t sleep much (though did sleep well) and was up at 545am. I decided to go for a peaceful hourlong stroll by myself, which was the perfect way to start the last day. After breakfast, we met with our tour guides for “route rap” and had a 15 miler on the schedule before packing…
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Last full day of Backroads
I awoke to a beautiful sunrise today…. We woke to a great sunrise and breakfast at our absolutely gorgeous hotel chateau rochechette. This morning, our guides started with a route rap. They’re so fun! We rode to this lovely medieval French village Langeais and had refreshments at a cafe. Here are more fun photos of…
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Day 4 Backroads. More wow
This day was even more amazing than the previous. It seems like each day gets better and I wonder how as they’re all so amazing. I’m seriously impressed with Backroads. Today, we had a Nike ride in the morning, and I managed to crash my bike while I was drinking water going downhill, and lost…
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Backroads day 3
We are about halfway done with our trip and it feels like time is flying now! The kids had “medieval night” last night, where they met a knight and did some fencing. They’ve really been enjoying the kids only backroads activities. And I had a peaceful dinner with the other mom. The kids are getting…
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Day 2 Backroads Loire valley biking

I can’t believe it’s day 2 as it feels like we’ve been on this tour for longer. S said, “the cool things we did made it feel longer.” I think the kids are settling in today. S was ready to bike this morning but Z told me his calves hurt and he wanted to ride…
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First day of biking tour
This morning, we had a delicious breakfast at our so cute hotel in Tours and then headed to the nearby train station to meet our backroads tours leaders. We were meant to do this trip with family—my cousin, her husband and my niece and nephew, but sadly my nephew had an accident recently that had…
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Travel day to the Loire Valley
Leaving Paris morning! We visited all our “regular” haunts in the Latin quarter—maison d’isabelle and the fruit stand next door, bought some souvenirs at the Saturday market, and made our way via Metro to Gare d’Austerlitz. It’s so fun to “settle in” to a neighborhood, even if just for a few days, and make it…
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Long but good day and last day in Paris
I started off the day today with a nice run as we didn’t have to get going until 9am. Then I shopped by maison d’Isabelle for our breakfast—croissants and I had a yummy eggplant cheese thing on toasted bread. Kids caught up on soccer while I did all that and then we headed to the…
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Hitting our stride…The Marais and the Eiffel Tower

It’s almost 4pm and we we at 9+ miles already. I haven’t been running much during vacation as I have tendinitis in my foot, so trying to not go over 15-20 miles a day, which you can easily walk here. Though the lack of HARD exercise has affected my ability to sleep hard and deep,…
