July 3, 2023
Saou to Vaunaveys-la-Rochette
I guess I jinxed it, because Tobias woke up with the 6am bells this morning. Though it was a lot colder than it has been last night so he was probably a bit chilly. The wind started up again about 7 and steadily picked up force so that by the time we left the campsite at 10 it was pretty hefty.
We didn't go far, just down into Saou to pick up some lunch supplies and have a coffee. We really seem to struggle to find a place that serves both coffee and croissants, though this morning we managed to secure a large orange chocolate brioche to go with our drinks. I think it's intended for about 6 people but the 3 of us finished it off quite nicely.
From Saou we carried on up the valley with the wind behind us for once. We had to climb about 250m to reach the Col du pas de Lauzun. The cliffs to our left and right were stunning. Again we accidentally ended up somewhere very beautiful while aiming for a conveniently placed campsite. Tobias was slightly more tolerant and we humoured him by "motorbiking" past each other which I guess made the climb faster. It was really windy at the top so we descended for a bit and found the perfect lunch spot - it was sheltered, shady, grassy, and had a small creek. After eating Tobias took up "fishing" and James made a dam and I just lay down in the grass and rested for a while.
After a long break we got back on the bikes and headed down between the rocks for the descent. It was pretty hairy in places with the gusty wind, and at some points we actually had to pedal even though it was a pretty steep downhill. At the bottom we hit a pretty major road which was less good cycling, but did mean we found a stall selling really good fruit for much cheaper than in the supermarkets. Before too long we joined the le velodróme route for the rest of the way into Crest. This route looked pretty interesting, but it just runs in completely the wrong direction for us so we skipped it.
It was only 2pm so most of the stores in Crest were still closed so we stopped for a coffee and to let Tobias finish sleeping then called in to a small store to pick up some beer for our warm showers hosts. The last 6km was directly into the wind again. The direct route was a busy road but since we had time we took the long way in gravel farm roads.
We are staying with Aurélie and Michele in their house in the country. They have the most generous set up where they have a sleepout with a bathroom that they left unlocked for us so we could come in and have a shower when we arrived. One neighbour showed up with a punnet of raspberries and some apricots from his garden. It was well timed because Tobias had just taken a pretty big crash on his bike in the gravel, but he loves raspberries. He ate most of them. Michele's parents live next door and they came by to make sure we were okay and had everything we needed.
When our hosts got home we shared a beer then they showed us around their workshop. There were at least 5 motorbikes, 2 scooters, a forklift, 3 weedwackers and a tractor with a bucket on it. We went for a walk to Pierre's garden (he was the man with the raspberries) and Tobias was talking the whole way about all the motorbikes and sitting up on the tractor. We're lucky Tobias is so flexible and he coped pretty well with not eating dinner until a few hours past his usual bedtime. In the end he asked me to put him to bed so I couldn't really refuse. Aurélie and Michele were hanging out our washing when we were done. They host a lot on warmshowers, but don't use it so much because when they tour they usually go by motorbike and do bike trips with their camping car. They are such generous hosts and I'm really glad we could stay here with them.
Today was definitely a more restful day after the last 2 hard ones. We might have some more headwind until we reach Grenoble, but we don't have any really long days luckily.
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Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 2,045 km (1,270 miles)
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