Le Tour Part 1 - Chamonix and Tignes

I’m writing this on my first weekend back, reliving the adventure but with a cold. So far I’ve only got sick twice in England, both times after going to warm places! I blame the lack of green tea on my holiday.

This is going to be a long, mulitpart blog, because even though I was only away for 2 and a half weeks, I packed so much in that it seemed like a month at least. Oh, and if you hate the Tour de France, better tune out now….

I got to Charles de Gaulle; found my baggage despite that airport’s dodgy reputation, and after a few hassles getting the car I drove out of the airport. I was concentrating pretty hard, ok, drive on the right, don’t turn the windscreen wipers on, there’s a sign (quick flick through the dictionary), “autre directions”, “tout directions”, great, everything going well, on the highway – so, where am I? Hmmm, Versailles???? I somehow turned right instead of left and ended up going all the way around Paris on my way towards Lyon, a nice little 150 odd km detour! But there was no way I was going through Paris when I realised my mistake, so all the way round I went. (Next time I get a GPS).

That sorted, I headed out onto the magnificent Autoroute heading south east. I spent a lot of time on these roads, and they are just so quick and painless at 130 km/hr (maybe not so painless for the two nasty accidents that Bastille Day, the only two I saw the whole trip). Good facilities all the way along, and worth the not inconsiderable tolls I paid. Spent the night at one of the “aires” and the next morning I made it into Chamonix in the Alps.

I really recommend the sleeping in the car holiday! I was perfectly comfortable in the car, and over the whole trip I must have saved at least a whole day in time from not packing, checking into hotels, searching for hotels etc. Soooo convenient, just wake up and go! At night, finish what I was doing then drive off to a good spot and sleep.

Heading into the mind blowing scenery of the Alps, I stopped to take my first photos. (And a bit later, I remembered to take the sepia setting off .)

Driving into Chamonix, the first thing you see is the téléférique heading up to the top of Aiguilles de Midi, the mountain next to Mt Blanc. So I did the first of only two real touristy things on the trip and headed up there. It was 26 degC at the bottom but -2 degC at the top (and don’t think I didn’t pat myself on the back for this unusual level of preparation) so I took my down coat up! You landed at the top, as shown here, and then took what was effectively a lift up to the last little bit. A cute touch – where you’d normally see floor levels the lift was displaying metres, and lots of them! Well over 4000 m. You can see Chamonix down the bottom.

Now, I was under the understanding that Mont Blanc is the largest mountain in Europe but a vehement fellow traveller insisted that there’s a bigger one in Russia somewhere. Whatever, this was definitely the highest (terrestrial) I’d ever been.

I had my first mini tour experience up on the mountain here. Meeting an elderly NZ couple, they told me that they’d been on the mountain the day before with a bunch of aussies painting boxing kangaroos on the road. I was later to meet these guys.

Coming down one station, I got off and traversed the mountains to Glace de Mer. It was just so sound of music – you know that scene at the end when they’re all walking to Switzerland? Oh, and this was the “easy” path – those alpine types have a somewhat different definition I’m thinking.

Glace de Mer, literally Sea of Ice, is (was?) a glacier. I was pretty tired by my first big day in France, so I didn’t walk up the hill to see if I could find the ice. (No comments here on global warming given my big driving contribution. Although, my little French diesel car was great – 1000 km on a 40 L tank.) Finally it was back down to Chamonix by quaint train. After the, well lets just say somewhat less than summery weather in England, this was the start of what was to end up an awesome tan (for me)!

Quick drive around to find a good spot to park the night (next to a waterfall, lovely) then into town to look around. Gorgeous place, must go off in ski season. I found a good Irish bar showing EuroSport with the highlights of that day’s big mountain stage into Tignes and Oh NO!!! Tragedy!! Rogers crashes while in virtual Maillot Jaune and is out of the race!!!

The next day I headed out the tour proper. Nige had given me some excellent advice about making sure I was at the stage a day early because they shut the roads, so I headed into Tignes, just for a quick look at where they spend the rest day, on the way to Col du Galibier. And what a great choice that was! Tignes itself was interesting after Chamonix – another ski resort village but all new after the original village was moved to make way for hydropower. And I was going under those very same anti-avalanche half tunnels that I’d seen Rogers go under on the TV, cool!

A short hop away was the next day’s Village Depart, Val d’Isere. And there were cyclists just *everywhere*! All wearing their favourite team colours, so it took me a little bit to realise that, hang on – that really is T Mobile! And look, there’s Lampre!! The team car behind was the dead giveaway, not to mention that even the fittest amateur cyclists on the road had anything like the pros’ physiques. On the “rest day”, the cyclists still had to get out for a couple of hours just to keep loose.

I gave a lift up the mountain to a couple of lovely French ladies who’s husbands were on bikes (giving my oh so basic Français its first work out) and they got really excited when we drove around Christophe Moreau! (Don’t hit the cyclists, don’t hit the cyclists – Jocelyn: do NOT hit the cyclists….). Saw a lovely moment – the team member (directeur sportif? maybe) in the car following the Cofidis team leaned out the window and chatted to one of the random amateurs for a while as he was following his crew up (I was stuck behind waiting for a passing opportunity on the narrow roads). After he left, I passed the amateur who still had the most enormous grin on his face, absolutely made his day.

Then, driving out along the route proper, I had my own great thrill when I realised I was driving right behind Predictor Lotto team! Now, I think Cadel’s just great, so get ready to hear quite a bit about every time I spotted him. They were shooting along at a fair pace, and on the mountain roads I couldn’t really keep up in the car some of the time. Cadel had that characteristic little tilt of his head chatting casually with a colleague, but I couldn’t work out – where was Robbie? Quick count, there were 7 guys (down to three by the time I overtook, shot ahead, hard brake, leap out, take photo – “go Cadel!”), oh well, Robbie must be off doing something else. I only heard the bad news about him the next day from the boxing kangaroo painting aussies on the mountain. They said they’d seen him go by alone, long after they thought the race was over, and he was there, but there was just no one home – blank face of pain.

Still driving along the ridiculously long and mountainous stage, I got my first real taste of the tour logistics when I passed this long (and much longer than shown in the photo) line of trucks….



Finally got to the legendary Col du Télégraphe and then on to the base of Col du Galibier, the final climb for the next day. Man, my beasty little car was struggling up some of those hills!