Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année from France

Jeff has decided to pursue a career in opera and give up cycling. Click here to hear Jeff's singing of Vive Le Vent "Live the Wind" It is set to the melody of Jingle Bells and makes absolutely no sense. You decide, should he give up cycling?

Marché de Noël in Grenoble.

Brian is afraid to order a crepes. Jeff has absolutely no problem speaking French when it comes to his stomach!

Our little Christmas tree.

Au Secour "HELP"

Yes this really is Megan in the snow with only a skirt and jeans jacket on. I thought it would be fun to take a bus to the top of Chamrousse to check out the snow. Public transportation is very good here. Brian warned that we really were not prepared to go to 1700 meters in the winter, but I said, not to worry. We will just take the nice warm bus to the top, see the snow, hang out in the lodge and return less than an hour later. Well...easier said than done, the next bus was not for three hours at 5:30 and then it never appeared. CRAP. There is no such thing as a nice warm ski lodge to hang out in in France, only bars and small restaurants, luckily they don't mind how long you stay. Click here to hear Megan's phone call to her dad (her English is getting bad, I hope she meant to say "us" and not "me"!

It really was beautiful on top of Chamrousse, this is the view down to the valley.

Brian did get Megan's message and we were rescued some 5 hours after arriving. Jeff and Megan did go sledding, skirt and all. Jeff did have a jacket but he had donated it to Megan. What a brother.

Megan's Danse Classique or Ballet

Megan's Ballet class in Eybens. Megan is the third girl to the right. If you would like to see a little video of one dance click here: Ballet Video

This is Megan's class walking to gym. This street is right outside our house. The kids walk about 10 min each way to gym two days per week.

Championship de ISERE

Now that is dedication to your brother! Megan rode her scooter 45 min just to cheer her brother on at the Championship de Isere Cyclocross race . Isere is our district so it is similar to a "state" in the US. Jeff's team C2S put the race on.


Not a bad place to warm up. The mountain range in the background is the Vercors, to the West of Grenoble.


This is one of Jeff's teammates, Quinton, super fast and super nice.


Quinton's dad in the red with the ax, making final course preparations with Jeff's coach Phillip.


Start of the 13-14 year olds, they started on the Velodrome and although Jeff started on the front line he is not too speedy off the line. Jeff also crashed in the first corner out of the velodrome and promptly proceeded to last place! Not to fear, just wanted to make it a little more challenging for himself.

End of Lap 1, Jeff moved up to 4th place. It is a lot of fun to hear all the people cheering for Jeff. Jeff's teammates and families have all been really great.

On Jeff's last lap when he had moved into second place, he was caught by one of the parent's looking back over his shoulder to see where third place was. In French of course, the dad was screaming and chasing Jeff yelling "Never look back, always look straight ahead." This dad was still yelling at him as he made his way to the finish "always forward, always forward" Megan had to translate for me...Jeff fought his way to a Strong second place finish.

This is Quinton on his victory finish, like I said he is super fast and super nice. After the awards, Quinton gave Jeff his trophy. A gift to remember the team.