Day 44 (14/7) - Bastille day bliss

Bastille day, Reuben and the boys were up early to climb Mont Ventoux, Bill decided not to join us, it's 21km at 7.5%, but don't let that fool you it peaks out with a good 6km at 9%+, cruel and unusual punishment. The number of cyclists on the mountain made it feel like Brunswick street, Fitzroy at 8am on a Monday morning in spring. The camper-vans and cycling fans lined the road up the whole mountain and the atmosphere was electric. After making the punishing ascent we tried to descend but it was bedlam, children, police and TDF workers all vying for space on the skinny windy road while we wanted to rocket down at 80. Going down the mountain on a different road we ended up doing a run through the gorges de la Nesque one of the most spectacular roads I have seen let alone ridden. As Matt put it, "Best ride of my life, Ventoux on Bastille day and gorges de la Nesque".

After the ride Reuben learned Anne-Marie had politely and diplomatically moved Bill on after he used up the other cars drinking water washing himself. Anne-Marie gets stuff done. We watched the TDF riders come through town before starting their own painful assent of Ventoux in the now nasty mid afternoon sun. The French Air Force did salute them with a fighter jet formation doing a coloured smoke display over the peak as they approached the finish.

Reuben with the Alcatel Android before the race.

Pointing to Mont Ventoux with our commemorative matching jumpers.

Day 43 (13/7) - Billed a bit to much

We left Lyon and drove to town of Bedoin a charming little town at the base of Mont Vontoux and the craziest busy place we have seen so far. Cycling fans just everywhere. Freeloading cycle tourist in tow we found the only place left to park was in a bare field.  It was very hot and dry and Roo's hitch-hiker Bill hung around and began to make a nuisance of himself, without the resources of the camper-van the field was an unforgiving environment for tent camping, but he persisted despite numerous better environs for him.

Mont Vontoux in the distance

Following the crew through dry olive country

The view of Bedoin from our field park

Day 42 (12/7) - Grenouille Persilees (Parsley Frogs)

We had one of the better sleeps we have had so far in the belly of the whale (no mean feat with the heat mosquitos and noise) followed by an enjoyable lazy day. While the others went into town we slept in, rode our bikes to a nearby suburb and enjoyed one of the best meals so far, what were we saying about little restaurants on the periphery of cities. We enjoyed fat frogs legs cooked in garlic and parsley with a side of little boiled potatoes, very tasty and lots of them.

With our bellies full we lazed in the afternoon sun, watched the Stage of the tour and Reuben made a friends with Bill a Chinese cycle tourist also following the Tour. After a brief negotiation we agreed to give him a lift 230km to the next stage.

Anne-Marie prepares to enjoy a  local specialty, cheesy ravioli

Reuben prepares to enjoy another local specialty 

That's a pelvis and leg bones.

Trying to get the blog up to date....

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.