Day 12 Sardonne

Wash day. Rode down to Allemont on the valley floor, immediately below a fairly new dam, for wash powder and some local food - a Cotes du Rhone Villages, chocolat noir menthe, petits fours patissiers, pain speciale de campagne, grandlait frais, Lavazza espresso italiana, and, from a roadside stall, some little cheeses that appeared to be a hundred years old.






All the houses on the valley floor are new since the dam (photo from dam wall), and many are in the usual chalet style, but of modern materials; the old village stretches up the hill to the right. While there I learned from a rolling local news display that my planned route over Col du Galibier is ferme, and not likely to open for 2 weeks. Luckily my alternative via Glandon and Croix de Fer are OK. I'll check again before I leave on Tuesday morning; with no internet the local sign is all I have.

Here's the view from beside Le Sardonnier west towards Grenoble.





After drying my stuff hung on rock walls (the sun angle determined the position of my drying rack), I set off on a run to Alpe d'Huez, a famous bike-racing terminus. Sardonne is centre-right here





And again.





And here's the area. Sardonne is at bottom left.





I did about 9 km uphill, partly going round the village trying to find the shortcut.





but pulled up a km short of Huez as the wind was getting stronger and colder. The road I was on gets quite narrow (1 car at a time) after Villard-Reculas (2 km from Huez) but is otherwise excellent,












so I will be able to ride around the mountain tomorrow to get there rather than going down, along, up. The rustic wooden posts above are fake, stuck onto steel supports, as you can see if you examine the closest one at Picasa.







Some fine views to be had on the way.

The bit up to Villard is a bugger; it's recently been gravelled, and the 5 mm loose gravel is so deep in places it has developed corrugations. Not good on the BMW (I did a little of it yesterday) but I saw a pedaller on a racing bike coming down the hill through it and he was looking grim!






Don't run off here, eh?

Got the F1 result from the publican in Villard-Reculas, (same as usual, he said)





and watched a set from Roland-Garros while enjoying a local brew before heading back about 7 km downhill (found the end of the shortcut on the way up).

Called Lizzie from my turn-point before Huez at 1500 m; she and Rudi are in Ladakh, sleeping tonight at 3500 m, and catching a bus tomorrow that goes over a pass at 5000 m. Show-offs.

That's all for today; now I have the chance to cook my own dinner! Poisson a la provencale, poelee a la parisienne, and brocolis en fleurette, all frozen from the Spar marche. Followed by the Bruch violin concerto, some cherries, chocolate and a little red. Life on the road is tough - and to think, Geoff, I could have been in a tent.