The Alps at Last

It was all going so well. We'd had an easy journey across the channel, and cruised our way to our first overnight stop. We were almost past Lyon on the second day when we hit the queues. It seems as though there were several accidents in the area today, and we ended up queuing in the remnants of one of them. Still, it could have been worse and by early afternoon we made it to Albertville and bade a fond farewell to the peage.

We were definitely in the mountains. With time to spare, we headed up to take a look at the Col des Saises, which I won't be riding this year. Actually, having now seen it, I'm in no hurry to add it to my bucket list. As a climb its fine, but it's very busy, as the bustling resort of Saises is at the top.

The view north from the top of the Col des Saises.

On the way up we caught our first sight of Mont Blanc. There are few places to stop to photograph the views on this climb. We did the best we could.

Mont Blanc from the col des Saises

After returning from Saises, we drove to the Barrage de Roseland, yet another impressive hydro electric scheme in the Alps. Oddly, there was a film crew there, complete with drone, filming a member of the ladies Frances de Jeux team, presumably for some promotional material.

The Barrage de Roseland and the lake that it holds back.

We drove back over to Bourg-St-Maurice via the Cormet de Roseland, a high mountain pass. I'm planning on cycling up this tomorrow. It looks a bit of a beast!

We found our stop for the next few days with little difficulty and spent a pleasant evening at dinner with the other guests and the proprietors, only one of whom spoke any English. We seemed to get by with some simultaneous translation and a helping of school French. 

We ended the evening watching stars and planets starting to appear over the mountains, and helping Marie, the lady of the house, use her iPad to identify them. When she asked about the fast moving icon that had appeared on her screen, we realised that it was the International Space Station passing over. It's the first time we've seen it. It's very bright and moves very fast.