The Final Ride

The last day of the trip dawned bright, but slightly cloudy. It soon cleared up, though. For the last ride, Martin and I headed for La Berarde. I'd ridden up last Friday, as part of my preparation for La Marmotte. This time the idea was to have lunch there, and then head back into Bourg d'Oisans for an ice cream. There was also the small matter of gaining the additional 40 kilometres or so to get me past 1000 kilometres for the trip.

We set out around 10 am, and worked our way to Venosc, before starting the most difficult part of the climb, just below Plan du Lac. This section is above 10% for a couple of kilometres. We stopped for a breather just before the top of this section, where a huge rock, next to the road, casts a cool shadow across the road.

Taking a breather next to a huge rock

There are only two types of rocks in this valley. Those that have fallen, and those that are going to fall. This massive rock slide is across the other side of the valley from the road.

There is evidence of rock slides everywhere

When I arrived a couple of weeks ago, the road to La Berarde was blocked by rock falls. We passed a couple of places which looked like fresh falls that had recently been cleared.

Recently cleared rock fall above Saint Christophe

Once in La Berarde, it was time to begin the serious business of finding lunch. We opted for Le Fourney.

Le Fourney

Martin chose a Crepe, but I went for the Assiette Montagnarde, a mix of hams and cheeses with salad. Needless to say it was delicious.

Assiette Montagnarde at Le Fournay

While we were chatting after eating, an English couple approached us to see if we could sell them some Euros. It seems they hadn't realised that the restaurant didn't take credit cards, something not uncommon in the smaller villages. I was happy to oblige. It turned out that they were camping at Rochetaille for a couple of days, and didn't really know much about the area and what there was to see. I ended up showing them how to get up to the Col du Galibier, using Google Maps, naturally!

The road to Le Bararde

On the way back down, I realised that a whole section of the road to Le Berarde is actually built across a series of ancient rock falls.

Plan du Lac, lovely as ever

 We paused briefly at Plan du Lac to take photos, before the final descent to the valley.

Even the baragge looked good today

Once down, we headed for Bourg d'Oisans, and Gillys. They have an ice cream stall set up outside. It was time to devour a large cone, with two scoops, and to watch the world go by.

Gillys in Bourg d'Oisans

After that, there was nothing for it to ride back to Le Velo Jaune. I've ridden on 13 of the 14 days I've been here, covered 1027 kilometres and climbed a shade under 25,000 metres. That's just under three times up Everest from sea level. All those numbers are a bit more than last year too.

I had a shower, and set about the sad task of dismantling Coco to pack her into the car. It took a while, but with that done, loading up in the morning should be easy.

Shawn orchestrating pizza production

Pizza was the order of the evening for dinner. It was a fabulous way to end the holiday, watching the sun go down and the light ebb away, before turning in for my last night here.

The famous Le Velo Jaune pizza cutter in action!