This is the second part of our trip. You can read about the start here.
Day 9 and 10
We got started very early since we had a big day. A short ride into Manosque to catch the train to Briancon. That got us in to Briancon at about 1pm. We needed to climb to the Col d'Izoard, descend the other side and climb up to Saint-Veran (the highest inhabited village in Europe). It was a journey of only 30 miles, but over 6000 feet of climbing. And we had half the day to do it.
GO!
The ride down to Manosque was easy. The town was still pretty much asleep that early. We stopped into a fast food bolangerie. Adequate, but not up to the small village versions.
We actually saw our first McDonalds down the street from there, but they didn't open until around lunch. Apparently they don't serve breakfast in France. Who want pancakes and McGriddles when you have croissants?
With breakfast done, we headed to the train station to wait for the only train that day to Briancon.
On the train we just had to stash our bikes wherever we could find a spot. Then we kicked back and watched the French Alps get closer.
Ummm, those look pretty high. You sure about this?
Off the train, we headed to the climb.
This is another very popular Tour de France route - like Mont Ventoux - so we got the usual signs all the way up.
Unfortunately we did this climb on a Sunday. Apparently that means that every Ricky Racer type with a motorcyle was out to see how fast they could do this climb. We saw 10 motorcycles for every car on this climb and the majority were going at top speed. I'm a motorcyclist, and would LOVE to ride on this road, but the way these idiots rode (too fast, all over the road) was beyond stupid with so many other vehicles out there.
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The climb was tough, but doable. And so beautiful. This was my first close up look at the Alps and I was quite impressed.
Switchback maaaaania
Almost there...
Lots of motos
Top of the world
down she goes
No guard rails here
This rock spire reminded me of a feature on the AZT.
You'd think that all of this downhill would be total joy and pleasure, but there is a downside (see what I did there). All of the braking made our hands ache. We had to take breaks on these extended downhills to get feeling back in our hands/fingers. Tough problem to have - right?
We get to ride through that village in a bit
nearly at the bottom
Fort Queyras is open
Italy is just over the climb on the left.
We arrived in town later than usual, but still had plenty of daylight. It stays light until around 10pm in this part of the world. After settling in it was time for dinner - with a view.
Yeah, that's not bad
I gotta stop and give a big THANKS to Jean-Claude. For this leg of our trip we were essentially following the second half of the Route des Grandes Alpes. Saint-Veran was not on route - we had to make a detour to get there. We went based on Jean-Claude's recommendation. And, damn, it was a great recommendation. Saint-Veran is located in the very beautiful Queyras Regional National Park - which is apparently not well known outside of France. One lady told Nancy that she hadn't seen many English speaking people in Saint-Veran. Too bad - it is well worth visiting.
Fortunately we had a rest day the next day, so we had a chance to explore the area a bit.
We set off the next day on a little hike – just because rest days are for death marches, right? We took a dirt road out of town. That afforded us great views of the surrounding mountains, but the wide gravel road was not the most interesting hiking surface.
When we turned to head back to town there was discussion about that trail down in the valley - near the stream. However, there was no trail to get down there. So, in AES fashion, we bushwhacked. Trails are merely suggestions, after all.
Nancy was concerned that we might not be able to cross the fast-moving stream, but we found a convenient log over it. Actually, log might be overstating it. Large stick. We had different ideas on how to cross - as seen below.
A little easier to cross here
A nice bit of shade
Water was everywhere
This ancien canal was a pretty good trail
All the grass you can eat
Back to the village
Back in the village there were interesting buildings
And, of course, cafe with fruit tart.
That tart was delicious
Rest days eventually come to an end, and this one ended on a bit of a stressful note. Looking at the forecast for the next day there was a 100% chance of rain. We knew we had one big pass the next day (Col de Vars) and were a little concerned about the weather turning bad near the top. We decided to head out with the sunrise and try to get over the pass before the weather got bad.To hedge our bets Nancy got some info for a taxi service which could take us to our destination if things were really bad.
Day 11
Up and out early.
It was mostly downhill from Saint-Veran to the start of the Col de Vars climb. We did that 20 miles in about 1.5 hours - including photo breaks. And photo breaks were necessary - we were riding through a scenic gorge for part of the way.
The mist certainly added drama to the morning
After this tunnel we saw an interesting sight - a snow plow on the road. Except it wasn't plowing snow, it was pushing rocks off the road. Nice.
It was still a bit iffy looking at the start of the climb, but we decided to press on.
Time to get out the rain gear. Before Nancy could even get her jacket on it started to rain.
It rained a little, but not for long. Surely that wasn't it. Soon after we rolled into Vars, found the boulangerie and got the usual cafe and croissants.
That was a really nice break, but we still wanted to get over the top ASAP. Onward. Soon as we headed out it started to rain again - hard. We ducked into another building and waited it out for 5 minutes. It slacked off so on we went.
After passing through a touristy ski village (complete with a disco), we reached the top.
Is that sunshine I see?
Time to head down the other side.It was pretty steep.
One of a couple of times we waited out the rain
Got checked in, dried off and strolled around the village. We were in another great B&B that had the best breakfast of the trip. Don't know how she did it, but Nancy picked really excellent places to stay.
Day 12
We slept in and had a big breakfast. Much more relaxed than the previous day.
We knew we had 2 1/2 climbs today. We figured the first would be the toughest and the second would be a little easier and the 1/2 would be cake. We figured wrong - way wrong.
The first climb, over Col de la Cayolle turned out to be easier than expected. The average grades where in the 4-6% range. We hammered it. Plus, it was really stunning. This was definitely my favorite climb of the trip. I just kept going "wow" and taking pictures.
That's our route
yeah, watch out for bikes
Tight squeeze
mutton
It may look like a postcard - but it is real
Marmottes seem to be a thing in France. We saw a bar called the Marmotte, we saw them in TV commercials and we saw this sign. Never saw the actual critter though.
And back down. The other side was magnificent as well.
We rolled into Guillaumes and got some lunch.
Good stuff
About this time we're thinking "today is going to be a breeze". Well fed on fresh boulangerie pizza, we were ready to attack the next climb, the Col de Valberg.
While there were certainly nice views - it was nothing like the earlier stuff. But more to the point it was steep. It is listed at 7% average grade, but it felt steeper. It felt harder than the previous climb - which we expected to be the tough part of the day. And, of course. it was hot. This one made me pretty cranky. All bad things come to an end and we did reach the top.
Enduro World Series will be here in September
Of course, what goes up, has to go back down. The down was another dramatic, steep descent.
A random fort on the side of the road
We finished this descent and knew that our finish for the day was somewhere before the top of the next pass. We thought it was about halfway up the climb.So, we'd only have to do 8 out of the total of 16km. Turned out the place we were staying was on the other side of town and much further up than expected. We ended up only 3km from the top. While that was good for the next day, it gave us 76 miles and over 10,000 feet of climbing for that day. Needless to say, we were beat.
This was our least favorite place we stayed on the trip. It wasn't bad, just not very good. A bonus was that this was an Auberge which meant that they served dinner. No need to go out a forage - yay! Being close to Italy we found that a lot of Italian-esque food on the menu. Have to admit the homemade spinach and beef cannelloni served that night where just the ticket for recovery.
Finshed at last
The next day was our last day of biking.We needed to get 52 miles to Menton (on the coast of the Mediterranean sea) to catch a train at 1:30 for Cassis. We were at 4200 feet and the end of the trip was at sea level. Should be cake, right?
Day 13
Needless to say, we were up early - didn't want to miss our train. It was actually chilly - elevation and all. A quick 3km climb to the pass got us warmed up, but then we had another wicked downhill with tons of switchbacks. Ok, maybe not chilly - maybe just cold. Nancy ended up sporting her rain jacket and windbreaker for warmth.
We stopped into the first decent sized village and the only place open was a boulangerie - perfect! It was a very welcome site to find the lights on and the bread freshly baked at 6:30 a.m. (quite early for France). We tried warming our hands on those little espresso cups, but that didn't work so well. I could have used a big ol' mug of steaming coffee.
After that brief stop we continued down.
And then back up. This next climb (up to Col de Turini) was pretty stout, but it didn't feel so bad. By then we had gotten pretty used to the big grinds and we motored right up this one. The top was not much to see. A couple of lodges and a group of Germans getting ready to do some VTT downhilling - using the ski lift, no doubt. Wimps! Most importantly, this marked the last big climb. It was all downhill from here (with the exception of a moderate uphill before Menton).
Classic England and France - together
We finally made it to Menton, found the train station and had some time to kill. So, that meant a stroll down to the beach for some lunch.
Ummm, the beach is not sand - it is little round rocks
It was a little disconcerting being here. Traffic was crazy and people were everywhere. We had gotten used to the sereneness of the Alps. Back to the real world. Finished lunch caught the train and started the next segment of the trip - post bike.
The last part of the journey is here
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