Day 41 (11/7) - Lyon, food capital of France

We spent the morning on the road and arrived in Lyon, the food capital of France. Anne-Marie was keen to see the new Zombie movie World Ward Z with Brad Pitt. As most English speaking movies are dubbed french (VF- version french) we had to wait until we arrived in a bigger city to find a cinema in English with french subtitles (VO - version original). It was pretty lame and Anne-Marie was very disappointed, we expected more from a Brad Pitt film and more from a zombie movie. No Guts, no blood, meh.

Lyon is synonymous with a famous french chef Paul Bocuse father of modern french cuisine so after the movie when we headed off to one of his restaurants for dinner, Le Sud. Sud means south and the menu is meant to have a southern french influence. It was an interesting experience, but nothing special, we wouldn't do it again as there is much better restaurants around. We have found the little bars and restaurants dotted around towns and the periphery of bigger cities have produced some of the more original, unique food experiences.

Through the bug splatter windscreen Anne-Marie captures one of the interesting bridges the French have built all over the country to allow them to charge huge piles of euro as a toll every couple of kilometers.

The view across Le Rhone river in the middle of Lyon at night. The building lighting was spectacular.

Day 40 (10/7) - BBQ in the Bordeaux

We drove only 30 kms away and parked the van in the town of Saint-Meard-de-Gurcon. We climbed the bike and cycled the rolling hills hoping to find some vineyards to visit, lots of vines but no wine consumed, sad. We did find a restaurant though and enjoyed the strangest meal so far, noodle soup with a hint of tomato flavour, a salad of beetroot marinated in garlic, rice with tuna and egg, omelettes (just egg) and a sloppy chocolate dessert, the wine was of course the best bit. All very simple fair but for 12 euro a bargain. Our next stage of the TDF to watch is in Lyon so we got moving and drove a couple of hours east. We parked outside a swimming pool for the night, keen to cool down from the 32C day we decided to enjoy the amenities. There was a water slide inside, watching the kids enjoying it Reuben and Matt were keen to test it out. The next thing all the other adults were following their lead, it was a funny sight to see. Matt had purchased a disposable "BBQ" (coals in a tray) that he was keen to try so after our "swim", we had BBQ sausages in baguettes and frozen supermarket escargot, French style.

Reuben rolls through the dappled sunlight on a pretty French road.

Anne-Marie rolls through the vines searching in vain for a taste.

A pretty little church in the middle of a round-about in a pretty little town.
There's lots of this kind of thing but we don't put in many pics of it because other peoples pictures are boring!

Matt and Flic cook us gourmet sausages and escargot on the disposable BBQ

MMMMMM Snnnnaaaaiiiillllllllls.

Day 39 (9/7) - Refridgerator repairs, wine and passion in the Bordeaux

We headed off in the morning to try and solve our broken fridge. A lovely french gentlemen poked, prodded, lost some skin and eventually managed to get us going. As we spoke no french and himself no English it was a great achievement on everyone's part so we gifted him a bottle of Pinot Noir for all his efforts. We stopped for a quick shop in the beautiful city of Bordeaux and had a fantastic lunch with the best table service we have had in Europe. We have come to expect 15 mins to receive a menu, half an hour for someone to take our order and one hour to get the bill, when each occurred in less than 5 minutes it was very surprising. We caught up with our camper-van buddies, lots of wine tasting in the pretty little Bordeaux town of Saint-Emilion on top of a hill. Once again France Passion comes through for us. The gruff winemaker becomes genial on realising we are Aussie cyclists not English louts and generously gifts us with his favorite cheese, an awesome wine tasting, and tips on where to eat drink and shop during our onward journey.

Anne-Marie in a quiet Bordeaux street.

The walk up to Saint-Emilion.

Erica, Anne-Marie and Lachie braving the 36 degree heat to enjoy the Bordeaux's awesome wines.

The sun sets beyond the vines as we wrap up a simple dinner at a France Passion winery.

Day 38 (8/7) - Col du Tourmalet!

Reuben and the boys were up early to tackle the Col du Tourmalet. The 5 km warm up to the base was a lot more challenging than they expected. The the 17 km climb starts out Ok at a tough but manageable 7% average but the last 6 km are a brutal 9-10%. Grunting like a stuck pig and still coughing up buckets of phlegm the eventual relief at the summit was tremendous. After a quick espresso amongst the snow drifts (a harsh contrast to the 30+ degrees in the valley below) we descended hitting a respectable but not outlandish 83 km/h. Next time I'm wearing my GoPro!

The plan was to drive to Bordeaux and spend two days wine tasting however our fridge stopped working in the morning. We followed the other guys to Bordeaux but instead of spending the night in a winery we parted ways and headed to a caravan park on the outskirts of the town itself. Reuben was exhausted from his morning ride and the long drive, we got stuck in peak hour traffic, missed our exit and ended up on the wrong side of town and to top things off the first caravan park was full. But in the end we found another one with a nice green and shady spot, all the amenities close by and a lovely restaurant on site.

At the summit, feeling the burn.

The view down the far side of the Col du Tourmalet.

The Col du Tourmalet summit greeting party :D

Caramalised Foie Gras, Mmmmmmmmmm.

Day 37 (7/7) - Tour stage 9, Exploration and romance.

We drove to the french town of Beaudean, 5.5 kms from the finish of stage 9 and set up for the race. With 4 hours to pass, Anne-Marie went exploring on her bike. She found a lovely french restaurant hidden around the corner which the two of us later dined at for lunch, delicious food and nice and romantic. She also discovered a fantastic delicatessen a town further on, it was very busy so she dragged Reuben back afterwards and the gentleman gave us a little tour describing all these different french delicacies and wine. We walked away with cheese, wine, Pate de Sanglier (wild boar pate) and some Confit de Porc. We spent the evening camped on the side of a river in the Pyrenees.

Reuben makes another friend at the closed bike shop.

Trying to find our way through the finishing town, Matt takes us up the closed finishing straight, much to the angst of the race organisers, and applause of the bewildered onlookers.

The Caravan commences.

Day 36 (6/7) - Ax3

Reuben was up at 6:30am for the short steep climb before the hot french sun hits, it was 8.5 kms of pain, still suffering from the flu and missing his BMC (his nice road bike) terribly.  It was all worth it to ride up between the barriers and under the TDF finish line arch, even if it was 10 mins behind Matt and Lachie. As usual the descent also made all the pain worthwhile. After a nap and lunch we headed up the hill in the cable car to prepare to see the race finish. All the hats, lollies and paraphernalia we had been tackling kids for the previous few days were being handed out freely, obviously with all the cameras at the finish the sponsors wanted to make sure every spectator was decked out in their gear. We found a nice spot a bare 250m from the finish, only problem was it was on the other side and security wouldn't let us cross. After a brief sprint through the forest hiding from security we emerged on the opposite side and had a perfect view to watch the cyclists fly up the mountain Reuben had crawled up in the morning. We caught up with Matt's dad who was also following the race on an all catered for, organised cycling tour that the boys were very jealous of. After the race finish we decided to go snooping while waiting for the thousands of spectators to descend the mountain in cable cars. We were impressed to see the massive tents with screens and computers set up for the media. We had a chat with Macca (David McKenzie) from SBS's Cycling Central, a great bloke who took time out to chat cycling and the tour with us.

In the cable car to Ax 3.

The crazy media and circus from above.

Chris Froome as he absolutely destroys this year's Tour for everyone else.
Perhaps we should just head to Spain?

Matt and Reuben take a moment in front of the Finish line to celebrate their first famous french climb.

Day 35 (5/7) - Proceed to the pretty, picturesque, Pyrenees.

We left the french sea side town and headed for the Pyrenees, some of the most picturesque mountains we will ever see. We enjoyed lunch at picnic tables on an island in the middle of a rushing mountain stream, visited a fromagerie enjoying some yummy goats milk cheese where  Reuben bonded with a baby goat. Not sure if all these pastries, cheese and wine is making me a better cyclist, but a few million french cannot be wrong, can they? We arrived at the town of Ax-les-Thermes, the base of tomorrows stage finish, explored the town and enjoyed a few bottles of french wine in preparation for the boys early morning accent of the Ax 3 Domaine.

Actually an island in a rushing Pyraneean river in the middle of a cute little mountain town.

Reuben's little friend.

A bonding moment.

The french like to build stuff on the highest points available.
It's impossible to properly capture the grandeur while hammering past on the twisty mountain passes.

Our view of the other van as we wind our way through the Pyrenees.