We left the camping just after 10am and headed first on the highway before taking the much smaller and more pleasant D roads passing through small French villages which quite often look deserted, as always there are signs of abandoned property everywhere, I assume rightly or wrongly that like in Italy family houses don't get sold, they get locked up and left it appears. We stopped for lunch in Les Voivres and the nice roadside eatery that is Le Pont des Fees, sitting in the sun watching the world go by (well actually not much going by) alongside the bikes, bliss.
We headed to Rioz to the municipal camping and found what we thought was a quiet spot but mistakenly camped alongside the main road so it turned out a bit noisy. Toilets and showers were excellent, it appears the municipal campgrounds have upped their game and most appear to even have toilet paper supplied, changed days and all for 16 Euro a night. We headed into town and walked the length of it but it appeared to be closed so ended up at the Kebab place at the end of the road to the campground, turned out that thankfully it served more than Kebabs so a nice meal was had with some cold beer. Arriving back at the campsite i quickly realised I'd left my camera on the seat in the Kebab place, Fi ran back to retrieve it and luckily some honest person had handed it it in further reinforcing my view that most people are good , honest and kind. Overnight some hefty thunder and lightning to wake us up but we were dry so all is good.
Waterproofs donned as we left but it was warm so I changed to my mesh jacket, we stopped for fuel on the Lyon ring road and the sky was black as night, big storm brewing I thought however the sky towards Grenoble seemed to be clearer so we took a chance and removed the waterproofs, sometimes getting wet from the rain is marginally better than the boil in a bag effect of waterproofs in hot temperatures. There was heavy rain and lightning expected so we booked into a Hotel in Grenoble for two nights to sit it out. Grenoble is a nice city in the old town, it has very much a student vibe but the newer part reminds me of a large Aviemore, concrete and souless like many ski towns. We managed to secure essential supplies, whisky and M&Ms, Aberlour 12 year old for only 23 Euro, perfect. The hotel bar though charged us 17 Euro for 2 beers, needless to say thats all we had! A full day sightseeing in Grenoble before finally getting back on the bikes and heading through the Alps.
We took the small road to Briancon, spectacular but busy , held up for 20 minutes in a landslide but that allowed us to get clear of the traffic, the Triumph and the ER6 performing well on the multiple hairpins, some sections you could get a good rhythm going but spoiled inevitably by the Lycra louts emulating their Tour De France heroes and riding like complete pricks. A nice days riding ending up in a busy but nice campsite at Embrun, also recommended! Some bike maintenance, chain lubed and a small adjustment to the ER6 Clutch.
More to follow!
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| Roadside eating |
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| Didn't fancy it at first but good grub (Not Kebabs) |
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| Fi with her Dads beer (Local brew, tasted ok) |
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| Grenoble, old town, nice architecture |
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| The castle, reached by cable car |
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| No sure about this |
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| Putting your life in the hands of a plastic bubble |
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| Operated by some not very large wire rope |
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| Going up |
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| still going up |
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| pretty steep! |
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| The Alps |
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| Street scene |
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| Eating time |
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| Beer time |
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| Landslide gives us an opportunity to skip the queue |
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| Pretty |
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| Glacier fields |
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| Photos don't do it justice |
