Goodbye South of France...Can't Wait To Come Back

Good morning…

It is the afternoon here and I am writing from the Nice terminal, waiting for a flight to Frankfurt and eventually Tel Aviv. Ellen is hiking in Greece with her sister and best friend so I am going to work in Tel Aviv for a few days and see some friends and then start working my way back home.

We covered a lot of ground on our bikes the last week. We climbed over 20,000 feet and covered hundreds of kilometers, but obviously it is a drop in the bucket for all the wonderful passes and terrain at your fingertips. My bike was a gravel bike built by Festka called ‘The Scout’. It offered fantastic performance in the climbs and descents. The wider tire of the gravel give me such more comfort and enjoyment in the descents where I can comfortable cruise more than 40 miles per hour. We climbed over 20,000 feet and had some incredible descents.

I loved this picture of our group from a few days back and this one of me on some great switchbacks…

In one of my most interesting reader interactions, I was invited by Klaus on the left to play golf at Monte Carlo Golf Club. I could not join for golf, but met him for a drink and we had a great conversation. Klaus was a cotton trader and professional Hang Glider back in the day …now 80.

On the right is his pal Alberto Repossi who recently had his third generation company Repossi (an Italian jewlery house) acquired by LVMH and his daughter Gaia continues to run the business. Alberto is a lovely guy, drove me back to hotel and I wish I could have asked more questions

If you follow me here you know how fascinated I am with brands, especially those of LVMH so it's like this whole day and chance meeting manifested itself.

Think about how few third generation brands there are in the US, let alone second generation brands...

Of course we talked about Bitcoin and shitcoins because 70 and 80 year old men in South of France are curious. Klaus is a believer and Alberto would have nothing to do with any of it and is focused on 'red' stones these days.

I can’t wait to come back and explore more of the region.

Have a great day.