From Mende we popped 3 hours back North to see some friends now living in Clermont-Ferrand. It was great to see them and meet their lovely girls – even if I did receive a dodgy makeover and glitter nail varnish thanks to their daughter Robyn. Clermont-Ferrand is a lovely city with some impressive architecture and a huge cathedral too.
After a total of 14 days on the road in the van we arrived in Bourg Saint Maurice within the Tarentaise Valley in The Alps. The Tour de France will pass through here on the 18th and 19th July – cool! This is where we plan to be for the next three and a half months so we have rented an apartment and it was nice to sleep in a normal sized bed with a bathroom close by. Our apartment (with the best equipped kitchen ever and a beer fridge) looks across to the ski resort of Les Arcs and we can see the funicular that can take you there in 7 minutes. After such a lot of snow this winter, there is still quite a lot of snow on the mountains and the pass to drive to Italy remains closed at the moment.
The challenge now is to find routes for running and cycling that are not going to kill us straight off with the steep hills and altitude. Today we had a drive around and bought a couple of books with mountain bike trails. These should test our French language skills and also give us an idea of some good routes. We can’t wait ………… watch this space for updates.
