After a day and a half travelling, we've finally arrived in the Romanche valley. The autoroute was much busier today. We were using the sections that link Paris to the Mediterranean coast. The roads were wider, the traffic heavier and the service areas more like those on English motorway.
It's quite amazing how quickly the French landscape changes from rolling hills, reminiscent of Hampshire, to full-on mountain ranges. It happens between Lyon and Grenoble. One minute rolling agricultural land, full of sunflowers and vineyards, the next, towering mountains waterfalls and snow capped peaks.
We arrived in Bourg d'Oisans at around 3pm, and decided to head straight up to Alpe d'Huez. On our first ascent, we averaged a shade over 25 mph, but that was in the car! It's a long, hard, twisty drive. The steady stream of struggling cyclists is testament to the attraction of achieving the ascent, and the difficulty of getting up it.
Here are a few views from today.
This is the airport, which the locals call Altiport. That is the runway and yes, it does dive off the side of the mountain!
There are quite a lot of mountains in the Alpes...
The lower part of the climb from further up the mountain.
The Romanche valley to the east of Bourg d'Oisans.
The forecast is set fair for tomorrow, so the plan is to ride up for real. I think it's going to hurt!
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