After the descent back to the hotel it was lunch time so we did it up with our pal Mark from OR. It was a 3 hour affair complete with two bottles of wine and lake views. Things don't get much better than this. 
This was our last day on the road so we wanted to get the most out of it so after lunch we decided to try paragliding off of the mountains! Wow unreal. 
L'Abbaye was one of the coolest places we have ever stayed. It is definitely worth a return visit.
This place was a dream come true; a beautiful, swimable lake, gorgeous rooms, lounge chairs next to the lake with drink service, and fine gourment dining. We had the good fortune to stay here two nights....we wish it would have been a week!!!!
Today was a special treat. We decided to ride Glenn Erickson's beautiful custom tandem from Albertville to the small village of Beaufort to visit the cheese factory. Theoritically this was a rest day, but we couldn't pass up a chance to ride this bike. I was anxious to ride a bike with disk brakes on the front and back...wow what a difference in stopping power!
After the "big tour" we were famished as usual so decided to settle in for lunch at one of the cute little local hotels.
This was one of the best lunches of our entire trip. Check out the fresh lake trout!
The ride from lunch was a bunch of fun rollers where we took advantage of Glen's wheel dragging us into our hotel next to the freeway in Albertville.
We decided to take a little different strategy this morning; skip breakfast and leave early with a plan to eat at the first major town we hit, Vizille. So we rolled out at 7:30am and had a beautiful 40 km descent into Vizille. So far so good. We found the local grocery store and patiserie, at breakfast and then found the rest of our group had caught up. Great..... From here we turned north and road through many hillside villages, climbing on and off. We came upon a "road closed ahead" sign. In the past we continued on since bicycles are usually able to pass. Not this time. The local bridge gapping the river was out and fenced off. We turned around, climbing back up to the beginning of the descent and for the first time we were LOST. Using our very lame broken French we were able to find our way to the "other" suggested route. This was an easy ride through some larger cities finally ending up at the quaint village of Allevard. It was a VERY HOT day and beers and Perrier were in order.
Once again we had a climb to the lovely hillside hotel in Pinsot. What a crazy day.
Most cycling enthusiasts only dream about riding up the great Alp d'Huez, we actually got to do it, and on a tandem. The mountain was buzzing with the tour only two days away. There were hundreds of cyclists climbing the mountain with us along with campers, vans, and other vehicles at EVERY turn. I have to hand it to the Dutch and the Germans; they were out in force and were already in party mode. Check out these two guys at turn 8, about 2/3 of the way to the top, complete with chairs, table, beers and party cranks, cheering us on "allez"! 
The climb starts off at over 10% for the first few kms then settles down to around 8-9%. Each turn is marked with a number starting at 21 with the last turn as 1. On the signs are past winners of this stage. The views were spectacular. We actually rode up with a young 13 year old Belgium boy. What a stud. Who says you have to have a fancy bike, the right pedals and shoes. Needless to say he went by us about 2/3 of the way up. I don't think it was fair that his mother brought him fruit and water at every turn!
The views were stunning with mountains all around you. One can only imagine what this place is like in the winter. It took us 1 hour and 38 minutes to reach the top, only about an hour slower than Lance! What a memorable day!
On the way to our lunch stop we couldn't pass up a shot of this road side greasy spoon in honor of our daughter Kelly:
After a luch of meats, cheese and fruit from the local "Casino" store we began the long gradual ascent up to the summit of the col d'Ornon.
But the descent to Bourg d'Oisan was worth it!
Bourg d'Oisan is the cycling mecca in France, especially two days before the tour arrives to climb Alp d'Huez. They have all kinds of wild things going on. Check out this 10 foot diameter frying pan perched over a real log fire. We never made it back to see the results but it smelled good!
Our hotel was 10 miles out of town but we figured it would be an easy ride....not so...a major 10% grade landed us on the doorsteps of our hotel. We had a spectacular view from our hotel room complete with a waterfall and local vegtable garden.
A long winding 2800 foot descent was a gas and put us on the northern edge of Provence as we observed the beautiful lavender fields. The temperature climbed at least 10 degrees on the way down putting temps in the low 90's....summer was here in Southern France. We had a typical Williams lunch in the town of Die...check out the local produce on these salads; a nicoisce and chevre (goat)...Yummm!
Thinking all would be easy after lunch it seemed like we climbed the remainder of the afternoon amidst a background of thunder and about 10 minutes of refreshing rain showers before eclipsing the summit of the Col de Menee. The descent to Chichilianne was fast and easy and with the thunder clouds above and the famous Mt. Aiguille in the distance, all quite dramatic. All in all a 70 mile + day with 6,000 feet of vertical climbing!
From the summit of the climb we descended down a step grade then back up slighty to the beautiful ski village of Villard de Lans. There were partook in a great pizza lunch.
After lunch we rode the dramatic rock canyons that followed the river west to our turn off before heading back UP to our hotel in Rencurel.
The day started off nice and easy along rolling farmland until we made a wrong turn and found ourselves climbing 15% grades in the countryside just north of lake Paladru. Our goal today was the infamous Col de Romeyere in the beautiful Vercors National Park. 
This was a big day, 74 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing. From the hotel our first stop was in Seyssel for "farmer's market" day. Wow, check out the giant rotisserie trailer and my favorite Frenchman grilling. He spoke perfect English and gave Maria and I some delicious samples of smoked chicken wings! 
mountain on a beauftiful canal. 
From the lunch stop we climbed again this time wtih views of a beautiful vineyard valley, similar to Napa but much more expansive. 
The remainder of the way to the hotel brought us through lush farmland laden with corn to sunflowers.
