Sunday 13th September 2015
It is still raining when we
wake up and it continues for most of the morning. But by 11am the skies
are clearing and an hour later the sun comes out. We decide to stay a
second night at Camping Versoyen.
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| Our pitch at Camping Versoyen |
So at last a chance to
remove the panniers and top box and do a little riding without lugging
an extra few hundred pounds of luggage around. It is suspension
adjustment time.
We have a nice circular route planned
through the Vanois National Park. We start by heading north up over the
Cormet de Roseland.
In many ways it is a typical Alpine pass
road. It begins with a few tight hairpins just to get you in the mood,
all in heavy shade from the deciduous trees that are still in full leaf.
It is a little slippy from the recent rain except where the sun has
dried the few stretches of road it can reach.
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| Above the tree line and into the sunshine |
Then
it matures into fast stretches of road with sweeping curves as the
trees thin out .From 11 hundred to 14 hundred metres the road climbs in a
series of a dozen or more tight hairpins up and out into the light and
finally onto a long looping high and twisty road completely above the tree
line now. This is where you can get little snow blizzards even in
September. But today it is fine. It's a good workout as we get used to the
new geometry of the lighter bikes.
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| Cormet de Roseland |
We stop at the
refuge just below the summit for coffee, all clouds and bright sunshine,
at Le Plan de la Laie. The altitude here is 1,822m. There is absolutely
no traffic.It is a cracking run down the north side. The road runs
along the shore of a big lake. We ride to the dam at the end, Le
Barrage de Roseland.
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| Looking down on the Roseland lake |
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| The Roseland barrage |
The next section takes us down a
steep valley on long fast curves, the carriageway often carved out of
the ravine sides with overhanging rock walls on the right side. We ride
on down to the busy town of Albertville.
Then onto a
fast dual carriageway for 30 miles or so before we turn off up the road
to the Olympic ski resort of Plange. It's a dead end road but we take
it just to enjoy the 21 hairpins in the 15 kilometre climb. We know
there are 21 because they are all numbered, strangely down from #1 at
the top down to #21 at the valley bottom.
In
the ski village at the top there is a monument dedicated to the brave
men of the British Royal Air Force who lost their lives on supply runs
dropping tons of equipment and explosives to the French Resistance in
these hills.
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| RAF Memorial |
Finally we head back to the campsite at Bourg. It is still blowing a gale but so far the rain has held off.
Time
for food. We walk through the woods from the campsite, cross the fast
flowing river on a a creaky footbridge, and emerge in the town.
We
find a restaurant that is advertising Fish and Chips. Gotta try that,
Brits abroad and all that. It's ok but Jim it's not fish as we know it.
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| Hairpin #21 |
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| Le fish et chips |
But the wine is good. Bondone has beer of course, just can't get him interested in the local hooch.
It
is raining all the way back to the camp. Snug in our tents the heavens
really go for it tonight. Lightning and thunder for hours, drumming
heavy on the tents and sending me into a dreamless sleep.
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