A day of Ups, Downs, Stops, Turn Arounds....

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Geo: 44.8187, 5.94772

Today's plan afforded us enough time to go sit down and have a café and pain au chocolat for breakfast. As we sat, we saw a market being set up, so of course we went to peruse. This was more like a flea market than an artisanal market, but there were plenty of yummies to be had. I filled a small bag with macarons (the first I'd spotted this trip), and picked up a cute spring green, polka-dotted tablecloth for our breakfast table at home.

After dropping our purchases at the campervan, we took a short walk so that Dejo could show me a pretty little spot that he'd passed by on the previous day's bike ride. There was a bench by a stream, and we sat there for several minutes, just enjoying the quiet. We've done a lot of driving and rushing and planning on this trip, so it was nice to have a few moments of nothing.

After wishing our new Aussie friends Bon Voyage, we popped into the next town (Embrun) to find a supermarket, and maybe a McDonald's with WiFi (since ours wasn't getting enough of a signal to help us). It had been a few days since we'd posted anything, and we didn't want people worrying, Yeah, yeah…that's it. And they forced us to order a Coke with ice. And fries. After an hour (and when lunchtime was making the place busy enough that we didn't want to take up a table), we popped into the InterMarche next door, to stock up on supplies. Guess who we saw? No, not Mathieu & Elise. Lynton & Emily! Then we needed to amble on, so that we could make it to a spot near La Rochette, as we wanted to see them come down a descent. We knew they'd come by quickly, but we hadn't had a chance to see this part of a stage yet, so wanted to have a go.

The thing about descents is this: They generally happen after ascents. Which means Up. So for us to get to a place where we could see them come Down, we had to go Up. Which we did. Along some kinda' narrow (but as always, pretty) roads. We found the bends getting tighter, and the opportunities for a camping car (even a smallish one like ours) to pull off the road, so we pulled into a spot that seemed wide enough, if slopey. In gear? Check. Parking brake on? Check. In gear, right? And you put the parking brake on? Okay. Just checking. I was nervous the whole time, about something going wonky and our campervan slipping away into the ravine. But it didn't, so that's as interesting as that story gets.

We got out the bikes, and headed Up. Ever so Up. I'm not much of a cyclist to begin with, and certainly not climbing hills. And even if I was on a good bike with the right gearing, I wouldn't know what to do with it. But I was on a rented mountain bike, with some gears, so I found the next-to-easiest one, and started pedaling. And the answer to your question: Because the easiest one was too low, and I felt like I was pedaling a video game –not getting anywhere. It turned out to only be about 1¼ miles (though 535 feet of elevation gain in that span), so I shouldn't have been whinging. But it was a big climb for me, and I'm glad I did it.

We decided on a shady spot just up the road from where we intersected the Tour path, and it happened to be near some Dutch folks (not that this is a rare thing, in France). We struck up a bit of a conversation while we waited, and when the caravan came by, we shared with each other when someone got more than 1 of something, or we got another of something we already had too many of. We did keep the l' Equipe buff, though – that was a new item, and Dejo put it to use right away, as a pirate bandana/skullcap, as he'd forgotten his hat. Dead useful, those buffs. (no, CU folks….I very much do NOT mean your team <wink>, just those bandana tube thingys that the players wear on "Survivor"😉

Once the Tour had gone by (whoosh….whooshwhoosh), we coasted our bikes down (I'm too chicken to actually let gravity fully take over, never mind pedal to assist her) to the van. Imagine the sigh of relief from me, when I saw it right where we'd left it. We had a little challenge in getting it turned around so we could go downhill, what with traffic coming down behind us), but we managed, and then…..things stopped. Serious traffic jam. We pulled over, to let Dejo rest his eyes a bit (since things weren't going anywhere anyway), and things still hadn't let up. I decided to head over to the edge of a parking lot that I thought might overlook things enough for me to gauge the situation, but no. When I went back to where I'd left Dejo and the van, they were gone. Not far, it turns out. He had seen an opening to get in the line of traffic, and took it, so I hoofed it down the road about 100 yards and hopped in. We ended up waiting in line for about an hour, and could finally see far enough ahead of us to know that this wasn't easing up anytime soon. It seems that our planned route to get over by Bourg d' Oisan for the next day happened to coincide with the only route to get into the start and end cities for the next day's stage. Thank goodness for MiFi, and Google maps. We scoped out an alternate (if longer) route, made a U-turn, and headed into Gap instead of away from it. At least we were moving, which made us feel better. We finally ended up in a parking lot in Corps, so we could walk somewhere and buy a sandwich, and then decided to just sleep there and head out early in the morning. We are getting better at finding these parking areas, at least…..

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Photos

The guys come whooshing by -- and warn each other
What a nice competitor -- he's alerting the guys behind him to the turn coming up

The l' Equipe buff that we scored from the caravan
Keeping Dejo's head from the sun, and looking pirate-y

The view from the parking lot in Corps
It may be a parking lot, but it doesn't have to be all bad.