April 27, 2023
Day10 - Day Ride to Combe Laval
Otherworldly
When I was in my late teens and doing a lot of hiking and climbing in the Rockies, I bought a pair of Galibier Vercors hiking boots (from the MEC which at that point was a small shop in an old building in the Kensington area of Calgary - the second MEC shop in Canada after Vancouver). I knew they were made in France and that Vercors probably related in some way to the Alps. But that was the limit of my knowledge and investigations.
The boots served me well and got resoled a few times, but they eventually were retired and forgotten about as was the word Vercors.
Thankfully we’ve had a chance to get to know the real Vercors. This place is stunning and given my overwrought description of yesterday, I could go even further based on what we rode today, but I’ll spare you.
You will have another session with aunt Betty’s photo album a bit later (this time her two weeks in Cancun with Edith), but for now, here’s a short verbal description of the day.
We’ve taken up residence in Pont en Royans for three nights and will be doing unloaded day rides for two days. You could easily spend a week or more here doing a different and amazing ride everyday, but since we need to spread our love around France we’ve limited ourselves to two.
Today was the Combe Laval, one of the most famous balcony roads in France, or the world for that matter.
Approaching the Vercors from the Rhone valley, you are faced with sheer cliffs up to 1000 m high, or more, interspersed with very narrow and steep gorges that lead to the broad and lush alpine valleys above. Yesterday we rode down one of those gorges, today we will ride up a different one, albeit a little less dramatic than the Bourne gorge. We’ll then continue to climb more gently through the Alpine valleys dotted with farms and quaint villages and then return by riding over one of those 1000 m cliffs.
This is going to be fun!
We started by riding a few km’s South to St Eulalia en Royans where we then turned east onto the very quiet D518 to start the climb. We immediately encountered a short tunnel of about 50 m. After about another 200 m we encountered a second short tunnel … this pattern repeated itself a few more times, setting the tone for the day … tunnel / open / tunnel / open … in a rhythmic pattern. We were now in the very beautiful Vernaisson valley where we would continue the consistent but gradual climb through to the 1.7 km Grand Goulets tunnel (well lit, wide and very little traffic), and then on to the lovely village of La Chapelle en Vercors where we stopped for a picnic lunch.
The day to this point was glorious, full sun, brilliant blue sky and lush green pastures. After lunch the climb continued, still very gradual but our elevation was constantly building. The landscape started to change to more forested alpine and it was clear that spring was still a few weeks away at these higher altitudes. The trees were just starting to bud out with very few leaves yet, quite a contrast to the now lush vegetation in the lower valleys.
We had decided to take the shortest route to reach Combe Laval, so after La Chappell, we headed west on the D199 to Col de Carri, our high point of the day.
By now the sky had clouded over but it was still warm and we had great visibility. The D199 then started a very nice gradual decent to intersect with the D76 which led to Col de la machine … and then the Combe Laval.
After La Chappell we were essentially on our own. We saw one motorcycle, one car and two other cyclists until we reached col de la Machine. Even then, there were minutes between cars and or cyclists, and bikes continued to outnumber cars.
The brooding cloudy sky, the rush of a pedal free easy downhill and the anticipation of seeing Combe Laval were now palpable, and as the road continued a few hundred meters down past Col de la Machine we got sight of the Laval cirque in front of us.
Yesterday was ‘OMG’.
This was ‘OMFG!”
This road appears to be going over a cliff into a massive canyon!
We spent the next few hours exploring and navigating down this wonder. Enough said, slide up to Aunt Betty and her photo album to get a better idea of what this place is.
If you are a SOTD fan, you might want to scroll to the bottom now and start it up. It’s a long one and in IMHO a perfect metaphor for todays ride. There’s also a lot of pictures to get through!
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SOTD - Ravel’s Bolero
I started this post with a pretty random reference to a pair of hiking boots I had in the the late 70’s. They were great boots, and classics, but that was largely lost on me then. Also in the late 70’s the movie ‘10’ came out and thrusted Dudley Moore and Bo Derek into relative stardom. The movie also put Ravel’s classic work Bolero into the mass market conscious. It was certainly my first encounter with the work and for a long time, in my brain, it was associated with this (now) pretty lame movie (but few 19 year old males thought of Bo Derek as lame).
At the time Maurice Ravel composed Bolero he was considered France’s greatest living composer and Bolero, his masterpiece. It’s a simple melody that build with repetition. It starts with the constant repeating beat of a snare drum that continues through the whole piece, not unlike the repeating tunnels at the start of our day.
Then the melody is overlayed with flutes. Very nice, very simple, not unlike the ride through the pastures of the Vernaisson valley. More and more instruments are added, all repeating the same simple melody, with the same tempo, as the crescendo continues …. Very much like our continual climb through the evolving landscape. The drama of the piece increases considerably about 3/4 of the way through as the full full orchestra is now involved ….. our quickening pace as we ride down from Col de Carri. Finally, the timpani and bass drums thunder in as the wonder of the Combe Laval is revealed. Full fortissimo, a cacophony of sound and furry all ending in a final whirlwind crash of exhaustion.
Have I overplayed this? Maybe, but for France’s greatest road what else would suffice than France’s greatest composer’s greatest work.
Enjoy.
Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 334 km (207 miles)
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1 year ago
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1 month ago
Funny, I never saw the Torvall and Dean ice dancing, I do remember hearing about it. I guess I better check it out. Have fun on the ride in the spring.
1 month ago