Grenoble to Porte-de-Savoie

July 8, 2023

Leaving Grenoble this morning James commented that it was the first city we left where he felt sad, and as if we could have easily spent a few more days. There was lots going on, lots to see, and the cycle infrastructure was quite good and well utilised so it felt like a really livable place. We'd need to live somewhere else though because 2 bikes, a trailer, and 10 bags on spiral stairs is no fun.

It was easy to get out of town and soon we were cruising along the river on a smooth, shady, cycle path. Being a Saturday morning it was well utilised by really athletic people. One man who was out running while his kid biked stopped to ask us about our trip while we were having a mid-morning break. Pretty soon after this we headed away from the river and across the highway, closer to the cliffs on the north of the valley. As we got closer we started to make out dozens of paragliders in the distance. There was a constant stream of them jumping off like lemmings.

We pushed a bit longer than usual for lunch so that we could sit across from their landing sight and at Lumbin watch them coming in. There was also a picnic table, water, and a playground so it was a pretty perfect spot. There wasn't so much shade though and the day was really heating up. James' Garmin measured 38 once we got going again. It was in the sun, but then again so were we. I worried about Tobias sleeping in the trailer. It has mesh on the front so there should be some airflow as long as we are moving. Lots of people seem to ride with the cover off, but James is worried he'll get covered in stones and dust.

After lunch we carried along the foot of the cliffs, though the path became barely used farm roads and varied in surface from lumpy bumpy potholes to brand new seal. At one point I was sure I'd buckled my wheel as I went much too fast down into a ford and underestimated the angle coming out. We passed by lots of agriculture, including a small kiwifruit orchard.

We mostly stuck to our route 63, except at one point where we skipped the climb up to Barraux and took the more utilised road instead. It was too hot and our day was already feeling quite long so the prospect of a climb so late in the day wasn't good.

Tobias woke just outside a bakery so we stopped for an ice-cream, coffee, soft drink, and cake. We were hot and tired and hungry I guess. It was just 4km from there to a supermarket. Tobias is usually pretty stoked to follow me around and push his "little trolley" but today he stopped full of excitement as we reached the second aisle and pointed to the "noisy auto" behind the check out and said "mama hold on" about his basket. Please no one ever tell him that if you put money into those things they get more exciting because he had the best time in that thing while I shopped. I could hear him narrating his drive while I was walking around "toot toot", "noisy auto", and my favourite because it comes from our trip "car back".

From there we had just another short ride to a camp spot near a swimming lake. We lost all sight of walnut trees by the end of the day and started getting back into vines again. They offer far less shade. I was so sweaty checking in that the pen kept slipping from my hand. We put our tent up in the worst spot on our pitch and by the time we came back from a swim it was in the full sun. Luckily the other corner of our site was shady so we moved it over there. After dinner I became the 3rd victim of a bee sting this trip. I don't remember them hurting this much when I was a kid. Perhaps I should have had more empathy for Tobias and James.

It was still 30 degrees when we were getting Tobias off to bed so he was sweating despite wearing nothing except a slaapzak. I'm going to try a new tactic of adding a layer when we come to bed, hopefully without really waking him, so that he doesn't melt in the evening but is warm enough in the morning. Its much nicer being out here camping in this heat though. Its quarter to 10 and you can feel the air cooling down. In Grenoble it was hot all night and the concrete was still warm in the morning.

We have a shorter day tomorrow, though it could be just as hot.