Posted by: Becca

We've been home for two weeks now. After finishing up some much needed maintenance at the cabin and getting ready for classes (they started August 24th), we finally had time to sit down and go through all the pictures from our trip. I'd like to say we picked just the best, but neither of us are very good at throwing anything out! Click on the photo below to see our favorite photos.

Posted by: Becca

We left Bourg D'Oisans for Lyon today. Before we left, we had to pack up the bikes. Not a fun activity, especially in a musty basement. Kyle documented the process:

We had a fairly uneventful drive to Lyon, we only had to drive the wrong way on the highway once. We maneuvered through the city the old fashioned way, with a map. That may have been why it took so long to find the place we were staying, Artelit. The name Artelit means art and bed, it was a very appropriate name. There are two rooms, each decorated with a variety of antiques and art pieces that the owner, Jean Frederic, found interesting. Jean was an amazing host. He whipped out a map as soon as we arrived and gave us the rundown on where to go, what to see, and where to eat. To top it off, he gave us a card that was good for two free breakfasts at his friend's patissiere. Here are some shots of our room:

Lyon is the second largest metropolitan area in France, we were staying in a portion of the city referred to as Old Lyon. One of the churches we visited was built in 1180, so I'd say old was an appropriate adjective. We did some sightseeing near Artelit and then headed across one of the two rivers flowing through the city (both the Saone and the Rhone are in Lyon) to a restaurant recommended by Jean Frederic.

The food choices were quite a bit different than in the Alps. Lyon is known as the gastronomy capital of France. It lived up to its title. Our dinner on the first night was at Le Bistrot de Lyon. Kyle had feta and lamb stuffed eggplant and I had tuna steak, they were delicious. The second night we went to Les Enfants Terribles. Duck and ravoli were the highlights of our three course meal. See for yourself...

Posted by: Kyle

Last night's dinner:
Wood-fired pizzerias are by far the most common type of restaurant in the area. We are very close to Italy, and I guess everyone does like pizza. We had some really good pizzas last night. We also split a salade Lyonaise, which has become one of our favorites. It's pretty easy to have at least one egg at all meals here. This was a two-egg meal.

Today's ride:
Today we rode over the Col du Galibier, another famous mountain pass from past Tours de France. At 2646m, it was the highest pass we've ridden since we've been here. It's very popular with cyclists, and the road was busy all the way up. Again today we had our photos taken by two professional photographers on the way up each side. It's a great, long climb, and the views were amazing. Coming up from the south side there were km markers that told elevation and grade.

A few photos from the ride.

And some from the top.

We rode up and over the pass, and had planned to ride down the valley on the other side for a while before turning around and heading back over. Unfortunately, I got a flat on the way down, and when I was fixing it I saw that there was a big gash in the sidewall. The tire looked like it might not hold together for too long, so we headed back from there.

La Grave:
On the way back to Bourg d'Oisans we stopped at the town of La Grave, a small town known for its skiing. We found an amazing bread shop, where we got two of the best sandwiches ever.

After lunch, we walked around and checked out the town. It's a really nice place. I'd love to come back in the winter for some skiing.

Tonight's dinner:
For dinner we headed to La Rive Guache, a restaurant in Bourg d'Oisans to see what sort of meals we could find that topped with eggs. The first was, of course, our usual salade Lyonaise.

Then we had some pasta. Unfortunately, only Becca's came with an egg. She had the capalettis carbonara.

No egg for me, but I did have crayfish, along with smoked trout, on my capalettis Rive Guache.

Posted by: Becca

Part I: Last night's dinner
I think that a key part of getting the most out of a trip is to make sure to enjoy the local food at every meal. That's why our blog is a little foodcentric. Last night at La Romanche we tried two local specialties, tartiflette and tartibleu. The were casseroles of potatoes, bacon, and cheese. The only difference between the two was the type of cheese. The tartiflette had reblochon and the tartibleau had blue cheese. Pretty tastey!

Others things noticed in the restaurant:
1. The best we can tell, most of the other tourists here are from the Netherlands. Everyone in the restaurant was Dutch and a Dutch soccer game was being shown on the tv.
2. It is less expensive to get a glass of wine than a coca cola.
3. Sleeveless shirts are acceptable dinnerware for European men. Best if paired with capris and a man bag.
4. Tax on alcohol is 19.95%.

Part II: Today's fun
After a trip to the supermarket to buy a picnic lunch, we headed to La Berarde for a hike. When we got there the parking lot was completely full. It was absolutely amazing the number of people out for a day hike, going for a climb, or heading out on a backcountry trip. They were all shapes and sizes and ages too. You would think we were in the most active spot in the world! The trail followed a river to the base of a glacier. About an hour in to the hike we stopped for a picnic.

We spent the rest of the time hiking (guided by signs that told us how long each hike should take) in the Ecrins National Park and soaking up the beauty.

Posted by: Kyle

After two somewhat rainy cold days, the sun was out this morning and it began to warm up again. We headed out on our bikes toward Col du Glandon and Col de la Croix de Fer, two mountain passes frequently featured in Tour de France stages. Our cycling guide book says that Lance Armstrong considers the Col de la Croix de Fer to be among the most beautiful passes in all of Europe. I can believe it - it was definitely the most incredible road ride I've ever been on.

From Bourg d'Oisans, we headed up past Lac Vernay, where we swam last week, through the town of Le Rivier d'Allemont, a very nice small town with great mountain views and plenty of flowers.

Here are some pictures from the way up toward Glandon and Croix de Fer.

Becca, being careful to watch out for sheep.

One thing about riding around here is that since were staying in a valley in the alps, every ride seems to go straight up - often for a very long time, and often very steep. Some days we'll climb for nearly three straight hours. Yesterday, when I looked at my bike computer after three hours of riding, my average speed was 9.6 mph - that's a very slow, but not very easy first three hours.

It was a very quiet climb up toward the passes today, with very little traffic, though lots and lots of cyclists. After a while it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere - until, about 5 miles before the summit, a professional photographer with a giant camera jumped into the road and started taking my picture. After snapping off several photos he ran along side me and gave me a card from his photography business with a code on it that I could use to find my pictures for sale on their website. A half a mile later there was another guy from another business doing the same thing. They have photographers on many of the popular climbs in the area all day, every day all summer long, including several spaced out on the way up to Alpe d'Huez. There's a constant stream of cyclists riding by all day, so it's probably pretty good business.

There were probably 100 cars at the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer. There's a cafe up there, and people were hiking and picnicking. Some photos from the top.

On the way back down we made the short trip up to the Col du Glandon.

Then went to the Chalet du Glandon for lunch where we split a salad with potatoes, cheese, eggs, and bacon and an omelette, also with potatoes, cheese, and bacon.

Posted by: Kyle

Today was the second cool, cloudy day in a row, but unlike yesterday it wasn't raining this morning, so after breakfast we headed out on our bikes. Our ride today started up the road to Alpe d'Huez, but only for the first four switchbacks or so to the town of La Garde en Oisans. There we turned off toward the town of Auris en Oisans along a road know as Les Balcons d'Auris. It was a similar sort of sketchy mountainside road to the one we climbed up yesterday on the other side of the valley.

After a long climb along the mountainside, the road descended toward the town of Freney en Oisans.

From here we headed up the Vallee du Ferrand for the long climb up to Col de Sarenne.

We climbed into and then up and out of, the clouds on the way to Col de Sarenne.

From Col de Sarenne we had a cold downhill into Alpe d'Huez, where we had what I think can only be described as the lunch of champions. A bacon, egg, and cheese buckwheat galette.

On the way down the road from Alpe d' Huez to Bourg d'Oisans we had a little more time than when we were racing up it last week, so we stopped for a few photos. This guy is the Alpe d'Huez mascot. He's a coypus, kind of a local French beaver - he's not only the Alpe d'Huez mascot, he's also a local delicacy.

Each of the 21 switchbacks on the road to Alpe d'Huez has a sign celebrating past champions of Tour de France stages that climbed up this road. Turn 11 is dedicated to the Frenchman, Bernard Hinault, for his victory in 1986.

Posted by: Becca

Today we took the day off from riding our bikes and drove to Italy. We went to the home of the 2006 Olympic sking events, Sestriere. The drive was full of twists and turns, tunnels, and amazing views. The town itself was pretty small. We had a nice lunch of pizza and cappuccinos before leaving. What was a little weird was that the waiters spoke to us in French instead of Italian. I don't understand either, but Italian seemed more appropriate...

After lunch we headed to Briancon, France. The guide book said it was the highest town in Europe, this doesn't quite make sense based on the elevations of some of the towns we have visited on our bikes, but maybe I am misunderstanding the definition of a town. Briancon itself was pretty big, but it was built around a small, medieval village. We stopped with about one million other tourists to check it out. Besides being a fort at one point, the road that passes through the center of the town has been a Tour De France finish.

After Briancon it was off to Les 2 Alpes. This was quite a mountain resort, full of people, ski shops, and restaurants. We wandered into a Festival of Hay and watched little kids, maybe 10 years old or so, race donkeys. This is probably something that wouldn't happen in the US due to liability issues, too bad, because it was hysterical.

Posted by: Kyle

Six days a week in the summer there is a farmers' market in a different town in the Oisans region. Saturday the market comes to Bourg d'Oisans, and is actually set up along the street right below our hotel window. There was an amazing selection of produce, cheese, bread, meat, olives, honey, and all sorts of things.

After walking around the market and having some breakfast we went for a ride up a road that climbs up to the small village of Villard Notre Dame from Bourg d'Oisans. It's tough to describe just how amazing this road is. It's very steep, very narrow, and in spots is carved right into the side of the mountain.

There were also several tunnels to ride through. A few had a slight curve to them, so you couldn't see one end from the other, and one of these was long enough that we had to ride a short way in complete darkness.

There were great views of Bourg d'Oisans and the valley below, as well as Alpe d'Huez, across the valley.

After a long climb, we reached the small village of Villard Notre Dame.

Beyond Villard Notre Dame, the map showed that the road turned to "field or forest track", which eventually connected to another small village, Villard Reymond, high above the next valley to the west. We continued on to see if we could make it all the way there on our road bikes. The first portion of road was great, mostly paved and just a little gravelly.

The road eventually turned to dirt and got a little rough and rocky, but was mostly all rideable. Though here Bec had to walk a particularly steep and loose section.

We eventually made it to Villard Reymond, where we had some omelettes for lunch, before beginning the long descent down into the next valley.

Before heading back to Bourg d'Oisans, we climbed up to Col d'Ornon, which was on the bike course from the race a few days ago.