Chens-sur-Leman to Cluses

Today's route

So it turns out we weren't in Switzerland over night after all. How stupid did we feel? I was wondering about it – we passed through a sort of checkpoint thing on our way out of Hermance (14km from Geneva) whilst looking for a campsite recommended in our very old, but gratefully borrowed (thanks Nic) copy of the Rough Guide to Europe. Of course we didn't understand any of the words on this checkpoint, and there wasn't a barrier or anything, so we just drove round it – thinking maybe it was for lorries or something, maybe a noise restriction thing or the like (I don't know, make your own story up :) ). And then, when we were at the campsite (which was lovely by the way) when I asked how much it was the guy quoted in Euros. At the time we thought it was just because we were so close to France or something, actually it turned out we were so close to France were were actually back in France!! It came to me this morning, all the pieces, and when I looked at the map ..... confirmed!! Doh.

Anyway.

Had a run this morning – 35 minutes for me, 10 for Jon – he had to dash back to the site for a call of nature (any of the runners amongst you will know what that's like), to make up for it, he took the bike and went to the boulongerie to get the obligatory croissants and baguette (one handed cycling required) while I was finishing up my run (6 x hill sprints, just for good measure). After a great warm shower (no lake swimming this morning – didn't really look that inviting) and breakfast we headed off (forgetting about the dirty water container under the van on the way out – it's fine though, please don't panic) – today was the day for the Tour de France!!

Our plan was to head south to Samoens to try and catch the riders going up the Col de Joux Plane – the final climb of that day's stage, and a staggering 11.7km at an incline of 8.5%! And it was baking hot.

We got to the village at about 1pm, the Tour “Caravan” was due through at about 3pm – so we had plenty of time. We parked up with a load of other people at the side of the road, but then decided to hike on up the hill so we could see the riders climbing. It was really hard work – and that was after sitting around all day in the van – imagining doing a climb like that on a bike having done 175km already that day, and a couple of thousand or so over the previous 2 ½ weeks was just incredible. Impossible to imagine really.

We walked for a couple of km up hill and found a reasonably shady spot on the hill, with a bunch of other people. It was perfect.

About about 3pm the Caravan came up the hill – basically this is a bunch of Tour sponsors driving cars or decorated vehicles up the hill throwing free stuff, playing music, waving, etc. Jon had confidently predicted that I would love it. He was completely right, I did love it – all that free tat, including these rather lovely rubber bangly things - obviously going to welded to my arm from now on!!

I was in my element really. Of course there were some risks – I was wearing shorts & a bikini top and was a sitting target for the chap spraying water from the back of a float :)

Eventually the cyclists came up the hill and they looked like they were really feeling it by then – unsuprisingly. There were a couple of guys in a breakaway off the front, and then a couple of minutes behind that came a small group with the yellow jersey rider in. For about 40 minutes after that there were single riders or small groups until finally the peleton (main group of riders) finished it all up.

Was it exciting? And was it worth the mad dash down France – feeling like there was a bunch of stuff we might have like to have stopped and seen but couldn't because we had this deadline to meet and had to get on? Well I think so, yes. Although, I must admit it wasn't quite as exciting as I thought it might be – maybe because a lot of the big names from previous years weren't there, and maybe because where we were there weren't big crowds of people, it was great to see though – it's such an amazing competition, and all those men with sexy cycling legs :)

By the time we got back to the van, drove over all the stuff stored under the van (second time today, my fault this time though) and finally set off – it was about 7pm. We then spent the best part of 2 hours trying to find somewhere to stay – all the near by campsites were full (unsuprisingly), there were no good car parks or river banks to pitch up on, things were looking a bit sorry. We went through Verchaix (full), Taninges (full) and finally the site at Cluses managed to fit us onto a small bit of grass near the main entrance. Sorted.

It was quite a nice pitch as it goes, and the site was alright – although it did appear to be on the industrial side of Cluses – there were lots of trees and the facilities were nice enough. We also had enough space by the side of the van to try the sun canopy – which we are very pleased with!

Dinner, wine, shower in the dark (how was I to know they were going to switch all the lights off at 11:30pm?), bed – no plan for the morning.