St. Marie d’Alloix to Albertville

June 4, 2019

Into the Savoie Vineyards

What a day. We weren’t sure about this route but it was absolutely wonderful. Great villages, vineyards, views. It checked all the boxes. It was rolling hills until the final approach to Albertville.

First though was breakfast at our beautiful Chambre d’hôte. We ate outside, which was such a treat, and breakfast was croissants, baguette, jams and butter, fruit, juice and coffee. All elegantly presented. We felt spoiled.

As Chief Navigator Keith uses the Guru app (formerly called Galileo) which works incredibly well for us. Last night the Open Cycles Map layer had disappeared. Keith fired off a quick note to Guru and had a response before we were finished breakfast this morning. Essentially heavy users of the app were costing them money. We have no problem paying for our use, but that option wasn’t given. Instead they gave Keith instructions on how to reinstall. It was complicated so in order to get going Keith is now using my phone for navigation. I am not a heavy user...yet!

Here is the resident pussycat making eye contact wondering what Keith is up to.

The first thing we came upon was a model airplane airport. We have one of these in the Saanich Penninsula that we bike by all the time and everything about this one reminded us of it. The guys sitting at the picnic table talking, one man flying his glider, it all was the same, except for the mountains in the background.

We didn’t realize what a physical sport it can be. He would take his glider and wind up like a discus thrower...exactly the same move...to get it in the air, then operate it with a remote control.

He would catch it each time just before it landed.

Then we were off again, only to have this guy drift by practically on a collision course with Keith. He decided to perch so far away this is a major zoom photo, but it was such a neat experience.

We have good friends who might want to call this guy to trim their hedge. This is the way to do it.

We stopped in a tiny village at the bakery for lunch supplies and kept riding. We reached Montmélian and what a lovely spot that is. We stopped there and had a picnic on a shady bench in the centre of town. What a lovely spot. What followed was an awesome part of the ride. Rolling hills, beautiful scenery, amazing small villages. We loved every minute of it.

Have we mentioned we love riding through vineyards?

Then, in a small village we met Pierre and Pierre. They are training for Ironman. We don’t often meet people in France who have heard of Penticton. That was a treat. They are two amazingly fit guys. It was such a fun encounter. We hope Pierre makes it to the Penticton Ironman. He will have fans. My family will be on board.

Keith is getting one for his birthday. Prescription eyeglass friendly and it looks great. It even has bug mesh.

They are on their way. Two incredibly fit guys. That’s Pierre on the right and Pierre on the left.

Chateau de Miolans. The Marquis de Sade was incarcerated here.

How did they build that, back in the day?

The ride continued to be fantastic and we dropped into the valley for the final spin into Albertville. We had a short section that we would have skipped had we known. It started out alright but...

And the gradual deterioration to goat track. Should have bailed to the D Road, but it looked so promising at the start.

Once off the goat track we stopped to book a hotel and figure out the last part of the route. We stopped 100 m early, because had we gone a wee bit further we would have seen the most amazing bike path which took us all the way into Albertville and realized we needn’t be concerned. There was one last glitch...we rode happily past a Route Barée sign, because we didn’t see any problems. We didn’t know, and couldn’t have known, that the bridge we planned to cross was completely closed, and even the two of us, who are very good at getting around barricades were defeated. We had to go back to the previous bridge and bike through an urban shopping nightmare to get to our hotel. If we could have swum across it would have been easier.

In the valley. Flat riding for the rest of the way.

What??? And no way to sneak around? We can almost always sneak around. Our hotel was right on the other side of this bridge.

There is the sign...about 2 km before the bridge, so it was meaningless to us.

All is well that ends well. We are very comfortable, have enjoyed the hotel pool and have had a wonderful email from one of the Pierres. Time for bed!

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 1,806 km (1,122 miles)

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Anne MathersThanks for the heads up about Guru. I have been using it on this trip. I’m sitting here outside a macellaria in Pabillions, wondering where the bikemap layer went and David has just read your blog to me, so now I know! I don’t think I will bother to re-install the bike layer. We are navigating with the Wahoo element and that’s working well for our navigation.

What fun it is to find out what we are each seeing and experiencing through the journals. Enjoy the alps or wherever you’re headed next.
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5 years ago

Kathleen ClassenWe decided not to reinstall as well. After we got back to the room from breakfast we discovered my Open Cycle Map had disappeared overnight as well. We both downloaded Komoot and so far so good. We got one region for free so we downloaded this area which gives us an opportunity to try it out before buying. It did try and route us on some silly tracks today...we knew we were staying on the D road because we were following the TdF route. Still, it was pretty good.

It is so much fun to follow each other and othernjournals...it is like getting several bike tours in one.
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5 years ago

Keith ClassenTo Anne MathersI agree it is great fun to follow one another on the respective rides. Will be fun to get together back in Victoria for post ride analysis. I think Komoot will do the trick for us now that Guru (Galileo) appears to have dumped Open Cycle. The Guru app worked great for me the past several years. But really ... charging a one time fee of, if I recall correctly, around $6 Canadian for the entire planet was ridiculously low. An annual fee or monthly fee in my opinion would be appropriate.
Happy trails!
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5 years ago