September 12, 2024
Day Thirteen - Le Bourg-d'Oisans to Grenoble
All downhill from here. I left pretty late from the campsite at the bottom of Alpe D'Huez, knowing that the day's riding would be quite straight forward, being almost entirely downhill to Grenoble. What I didn't know was that the road I'd be on most of the time would be like a busy British A road. Rather unfortunate! On the bright side as ever, French drivers haven't (I assume) been whipped up by their media to have a hatred of cyclists, so it was another day of riding without any major issues involving drivers.
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The weather was quite subdued. Not particularly warm, nor sunny. In parts it was quite windy too. Maybe I'm making that last one up, it's not in my notes! Ah wait, yes it is. I should do a better job of checking my notes!
After turning on to the main road heading towards Grenoble, I recall a road cyclist (lycra and all the kit) buzzing past me, no hello or anything. At least the day before there were so many people riding up the climb that it'd be ridiculous to say hello to all of them. It can get a bit lonely on these cycle trips, but then there are advantages to riding alone too.
I tried to engage my pedalcell dynamo but it sounded like there was some metal on metal. I checked several times to see whether anything drastic was happening to it, but the state it appeared to be in, perfectly normal, did not match what I was hearing! I persevered with using it anyway, did get some charge out of it but suffice to say the dynamo didn't prove to be as effective on this trip as I had hoped. As I think I've already said, I don't want to use it up hills, and descents don't last long enough anyway...plus I'm taking photos along the way! I'm not sure whether I will bother with it in the future.
There were lots of appealing views on the way to Grenoble, seemingly this part of the world just has vistas all around you, cliffs, white peaks, forests, often wherever you look. I think by the time I was riding to Grenoble I had become a bit numb to it. Of course, the bicycle is the best way to enjoy such scenery so far as I'm concerned! "It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them". Smart guy, that Ernest Hemingway!
The closer I got to Grenoble, strangely the surroundings became quite familiar. Why? I've never been here before.
Don't believe me? Here's the meme I've seen plenty of times before:
Looks like the water level was much lower when I visited so I suppose it would have been a paddle. In their defense what the sign is actually depicting is that cyclists should take the off ramp off the N85. Here it is on Google Street View. Encountering this amusing sign was rather pleasing and an enjoyable surprise.
As I approached Grenoble, lunch was on my mind. getting closer to the city, I encountnered an excellent cycle track being built - fantastic! It was good to see the planners in city hall knew what the world needs more of, despite what some closed minded people might think. Before I had managed to buy my lunch, suddenly my shifting stopped working. Hmm, I've been here before! The shifters themselves were dead. Just as well I had some coin cells ready and waiting to go just for this circumstance. It feels good to be prepared! Swapping out the batteries took me a little bit longer than I would have liked, and yikes, those contact springs inside the shifter are delicate! Fortunately I managed to avoid snapping that off, that certainly would have ruined my day. Shifter batteries replaced, soon after I spotted a patisserie and boulangerie. Everything's coming up Littlehales! I parked my bike outside and clumsily pointed at what I wanted.
The campsite wasn't far now, I'd already decided that I'd eat my lunch at the campsite rather than some random roadside. Once I did arrive at the campsite...bad news, reception closed for the next hour. Frustrating! Then it started raining, with no obvious sheltered seating nearby. Can't I eat my lunch in peace please? Bother. A quick scramble to look at my phone for any local parks. I did manage to find one a 30 second ride away, but no shelters in there either...not ideal. I do get a bit precious about where I eat my meals on these trips. I can't make every waking moment of such trips amazingly enjoyable and fun, but where I feel I can exert some control to improve the meal eating situation, I feel it's worth doing. So the park was a dead loss...but next to the park, tram tracks! Huzzah! Grenoble really does no how to build a city. Tram tracks, cycle tracks. Good stuff! And what does a tram stop mean? Shelter with seating! Winner. I donned my packable jacket and got eating, knowing the campsite was just aroudn the corner and the reception would be open again soon.
With mountains in the background and the occasional tram passing by and letting passengers alight and board, it was quite relaxing. I'm definitely a bit of a public transport geek. I'm happy to have lived my life up until this point not having had to drive a car (If you know me, that won't come as a surprise to hear me say that!), and I've always thought trams are a bit more civilised than buses. Again, of course I would say that, I'm from Blackpool! We've had trams for decades!
Lunch eaten and reception open again at the campsite, it was time to get back there. It felt a bit like a gated community, you had to enter a code to get in, and the receptionist on the intercom didn't speak English. Oh dear. Well they let me in anyway. By this point there was a bit of a downpour, so I was a bit perplexed when they insisted on showing me where I could camp. I was happy to wait a few minutes until the shower passed! Well, whatever keeps them happy I guess. As an aside, another campsite with a lounge area. That worked for me! There were a few other cyclists at this campsite, but not really anyone who appeared to be roughly the same age as me, sadly.
I don't recall what actually happened setting up my tent - I know I managed to pitching it in the rain, which is the main thing.
Next on the list of things to do was by supplies from a local supermarket, that went pretty smoothly but they wouldn't let me walk in with my bike, bummer. I have no idea what I bought there, other than it would have been some breakfast for the next day, so I'm afraid I'll have to save you from that minuteau!
Getting back to the campsite, the next thing to do was ride in the city centre. There was at least one retro video game shop I wanted to visit. I don't know how other bikepackers/cycle tourers do city visits, but for me it usually comprises of restaurants, cafes, video game shops and just getting a general sense of the outside of the famous landmarks. I suppose if I'd gone on this trip on a cheaper bike I would have been happy leaving my bike locked up outside but not so much with the Orbea. Oops. Now my Triban has electronic shifting, switching back to it for cycling trips is rather tempting. I don't think I'd go back to using pannier bags however as it makes the whole journey much much slower! Perhaps the very basic aluminium frame combined with bikepacking bags would be a good combination, but I'd miss the hydraulic brakes. I digress!
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Riding in to Grenoble was an absolute delight. I was looking forward to getting back to Paris for an afternoon of casual cycling in one of the utility cycling capitals of the world, but Grenoble made for a delightful surprise. Crossing the Pont de Catane sur le Drac bridge was a particular highlight, with the Chartreuse Mountains to my left in the north, with a rainbow in between - delightful. To add to the pleasure of the occasion, both the bridge itself and the A480 highway on east side of the river were jammed with traffic. I had comparatively peaceful protected cycle tracks to travel along. Lovely!
As I got closer to the city centre, I found myself stuck behind what I can only assume was a father on his electric scooter riding with his young son riding a small bicycle. He must have been somewhere between 6 and 10 years old. This is how cities should be designed. It almost brought a tear to my eye! I wish all cities could be like this. Of course if you know me this won't come as a surprise!
Finding somewhere to park the Orbea bike outside the video game shop was a bit of a challenge - I wanted to lock up right outside the shop, but much to my surprise, despite the abundance of people cycling in the city I couldn't find anywhere.
I ended up locking up against a lamppost at the end of the street, hopefully inconspicuous enough despite it's bright green paintjob! A quick glance in the game shop was all I needed. I took a few photos of what they had in their glass cabinets to send to my friend Jamie. I'm yet to do that as of time of writing - having looked at the photos just now, they're a bit too blurry to look at anyway!
Next up, time to finally get some too good to go bag purchases. First stop was a sandwich shop. I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to take what I'd purchased back with me on the bike, but yet again the Jack the Rack at the front of my bike saved the day! Such a versatile setup.
I cycled back to the campsite with my cheap eats, riding along a delightful cycle track along the Drac river once again. This time I had the Vercors Massif mountain range to my right, to the west. I could see myself living in Grenoble. Stunning mountain ranges in every direction you luck, but it's still a city with lots of people living there, with good opportunities for socialising, I assume. Does it have a Critical Mass ride? Doesn't look like it. Never mind, you can't have everything!
I got back to the campsite to drop off what I'd bought. Next stop was a pizza place in a shopping centre for another Too Good to Go purchase. Was this really the way I wanted to spend one of my last days on holiday? Well, I got to see more of Grenoble and enjoy riding my bike in a more casual manner than I had been in days previous so there's that. I think I might have looked if there was any live music in the city that night, but didn't get anywhere. Again I would have been faced with the problem of where to lock the bike.
The ride to the pizza place turned out to be a bit longer than I'd planned...I think it took about fifteen minutes each way. Pleasingly no-one batted an eyelid when I walked my bicycle inside the shopping centre. Clearly the fine people of Grenoble are cultured and intelligent! As much as I think cycling should be permitted on pedestrianised streets, I tend to assume cycling in side a shopping centre (or mall for any Americans reading this) is just asking for trouble, so I didn't consider that. I was just glad to not have to lock up outside! While I waited for the right time to pick up my cheap pizza, I got a message from my sister Ellie asking to no longer get the emails from Garmin about live tracking...I assume (and hope) that she figured my mum and dad would still be getting the emails.
That reminds me! Mum was checking up on me most days, watching my progress. It was pleasing to know a relative was checking up on what I was getting up to every day. Maybe in the future I'll just get the emails sent to mum.
Cycling back to the campsite was fine however most of the roads between the two locations were a bit wide and busy. It wasn't so bad though.
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I arrived back to the campsite, and it was time to eat my dinner. Cold pizza. Suits me! The lounge room for the campsite was pretty good, the only issue was it was a big room shared with the toilet entrance and washing up sinks, so constant doors opening and people walking in and out. Added to which, all the lights were motion activated on a short timer! Somewhat unfortunate. The pizza tasted good anyway. I'm pretty sure I had it with some freshly squeezed orange juice, typical for me!
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