This past Saturday was the 4th annual DCR Open House. It’s when I open up the doors to the DCR Cave (and Bertie’s Cake Studio) and we also organize a morning run around the best sights Paris has to offer. Here’s the recap of this annual event!
The Morning Run:
First up was a test of how badly you wanted to get a workout in. Saturday morning saw the temps drop to the coldest points since last winter, about –4°C for our starting time. As I’ve said before, if you live in Finland, then certainly your situation is less ideal right now. But as seen in the below photo, the cold weather running clothing wasn’t apparently fully ready yet for everyone.
And even if they had the cold weather clothing physically, we might not have been ready yet for sub-zero temps. No worries though, for those that braved the chilly weather, the empty city streets were worth it.
We ran along the river for a bit, before zig-zagging our way up to the Louvre:
Then it was through the Tuileries gardens and past Concorde to meet back up with the river and continue our trek down towards the Eiffel Tower.
After making the short climb up to the top of the steps of Trocadéro, we grabbed a group photo. Unfortunately, the La Tour Eiffel kept its top on, hidden in the clouds.
After that, it was back down to the river for the run back across town. We were near the end as we ran across the plaza in front of Notre Dame – complete with its newly established Christmas Tree.
And then finally one last bridge to cross before a hundred or so meters back to the DCR Cave.
Huge thanks to everyone who came out and ran.
And in particular, also thanks to Harry, who’s not only been the only person to come out for the runs every year, but also actually make the trek from the Netherlands each year to do so. He’s the one in the diagonal split green and yellow top. Huge props!
After the run we had a massive pile of fresh from the boulangerie around the corner pain au chocolates and croissants. Of which I neglected to take a picture of. My bad!
The DCR Open House:
After everyone went back to their homes or hotels to warm-up, the real party kicked off that evening with the full open house. This is where we convert the bakery portion of the Bertie’s Cake Studio into a feast table. The Girl then bakes up a couple hundred mini cupcakes and I hit up a few local spots for some meats, cheeses, baguettes, and then of course wine. Lots of wine.
Before long, the place was packed! Not only people upstairs, but also downstairs in the actual cave. Upstairs was where all the food was, and downstairs all the gadget goodness.
I did ‘guided tours’ downstairs every little while – giving folks a look at all the gadgets in the cave.
This time of year it’s a bit of a game of things going in and out related to indoor trainer season. So a pile of trainers just went back to companies last week, and then in the next few days the Wattbike will find its way out the door as well. My general goal is to basically end the calendar year with everything back with their original companies (short of things being announced just after the start of the year).
In any case, here’s a super quick gallery:
If you want a more thorough Cave Tour, I’ve just uploaded a new DCR Cave video tour, complete with some of the sketchy underground tunnels that even the open house folks didn’t get to see!
In any event, back upstairs it was time to do some giveaways! Clever Training sent over a pile of goods, including two Garmin Forerunner 35 GPS watches, as well as a bunch of goodie packages. These sat under the gadget tree with care:
Everyone put their names on small pieces of paper in a 9” cake tin and I drew the initial winner. After that, each winner drew the next winner’s name.
Oh, and yes, that’s The Girl in the background to the right, holding little Peanut 2. The gentleman above just won himself a FR35.
After the drawing, folks stayed around till after 11PM drinking the bottles away. Regrettably, we somehow ran out of wine – draining the DCR Cave cellars. Not sure how that happened, I’ll ensure it never occurs again!
Fear not – I think folks still had a good time (likely, because all the wine went away!).
A huge thanks to everyone who made the trek. Be it from across the street (literally!), or from Vancouver, Seattle, Atlanta, the UK, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, and many others that came in for the event from elsewhere. You’re awesome!
By this time next year we’ll be in a bigger DCR Cave that’ll be even more awesome for the annual open house. I’ll be sure to stock the wine cellar in time for it!
Thanks again, and great seeing everyone!
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Prior Year DCR Open House Posts: 2014 | 2015 | 2016
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Looks like a good time, maybe one year.
I am looking up forward to coming next year! I have been saving up this year to be able to come to Europe (I live in Singapore) but my mum passed away a month ago so it is bit difficult to travel for me. But next year, perfect!
Sorry to hear about your mum. :(
Hopefully next year I can see ya in the Cave!
What comes after 4rd? Or was this years event sponsored by Ford?
Cut and pastes a bitch :)
Dave
It’s funny, I had the title all written manually, and then decided to make it match the previous years…grr..
That last pic looks like it came straight from an English 60/70s sitcom.
;-)))))
A Dutch and a frenchy but you are right !
It was my Actor Studio Training time…
Goed bezig, Haagse Harry! :-)
Peanut 2 doesn’t really have a ring to it. How about the Cashew?
True, but if you just shorten it to P2, then it’s perfect. :)
Tx again Ray for the great croissants, folks gathering and the late Ht-Strava-Zwift discussion ! ^^
See you next year or sooner !
Sorry for keeping you late Ray, but there was definitely some interesting discussions happening! I wasn’t expecting a Perth vs France talk. A great night (and great cupcakes). Thanks again and looking forward to the next one. The watch has been passed on to a good home :)
Always happy to stay late and chat!
Thanks for making it!
Have to ask how the canyon bike build is going? didn’t see it in the cave yet so perhaps still under way?
The frame came in yesterday, completing the parts I was waiting on. So will probably build it up a bit later this week after I finish a few other things.
Hi, I wonder when you will publish your review of the Samsung Gear Sport?
Working on writing today, and just about to head out on another run with it.
Bigger cave?!
Much…much bigger.
Right now the entire studio (DCR Cave + Bakery + Offices + Laundry/Storage room) is 92sqm. The DCR Cave portion though is only roughly 18sqm. Almost all of the gear is in there, save older trainers that are shifted to a sketchy storage area behind the cave (dirty, not sealed well, and less than awesome).
Upstairs in the bakery portion I do some unboxing stuff, and the offices just basically have our desks and a couch. The storage room is roughly the same of an American bathroom (non-master), and is just bakery storage only.
Anyway…we’re looking for a new DCR space in the 100sqm range (or total DCR + Cake Studio space in the 150-200sqm range), which would allow me to have proper storage, more room, etc…
We’ll shift away from needing retail/street level space to purely backoffice type space. That’ll happen in the new year.
Hi
Can you tell me where and what make are your stackable drawer baskets that you keep tool, go pro stuff etc in
Thanks
Congratulations Ray! You have created a great community of sports/tech enthusiasts!
Dude….. I’m so jealous. I love be Paris. How cool to be able to run around that city every day.