After adding a few bottles of take out wine to my bill and significantly increasing it in the process, I paid up and put the few things I'd taken out of the car back in. I'd done the old satnav comparison of motorway and none motorway and the difference looked too big. I was after an easier day and 4 hours or 6 hours... I went for the 4 hours.
The sun was out in force and the Teg was getting a little hot inside without air-con. I was still shocked at the price of fuel in the service stations (and even in supermarkets it wasn't that much cheaper).
Afer quite a few miles on some nice stretches of autoroute, including one that wasn't on my satnav (see below) I decided I'd had enough and I'd be more comfortable going a little slower on the main roads with the windows open wider and the lady in the box said that I wouldn't affect my journey time too much if I came off at Grenoble.
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| Felt like my own private motorway - it was that empty |
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| Must be getting near the Alps... |
I should have come off the autoroute after Grenoble and not before as it would have been good to avoid it. At some point I ended up on Route Napoleon which a colleague at work had mentioned should have been a good drive. I spotted soon after on the road some names painted - tour de france style. "Go CAV!" was the most obvious but I suspect he would have missed it as it was downhill and he'd probably have been sat in a group when he passed over it.
Eventually I got to Bourg d'Oisans and to the familiar high street on which our hotel was based.
I got the key to my room and unpacked the car. Stu and Dave turned up about an hour afterwards. They were keen to cycle Alpe d'Huez so as soon as they'd unpacked they kitted up and headed off for the top. I thought after a long day it was a little crazy so I had a nap instead. I think they had plans of beating their previous time up the mountain but it appears that the effects of the long drive they'd had across France plus the higher than expected temperatures made it hard work. "Ah we'll be back in plenty of time for dinner" was probably the last thing they said as they set off. Needless to say they were pushing it to get back in time. Well at least in time for the start of dinner.
We were stopping half board so dinner was included. We picked up the menu to have a look but were told by the waitress (who looked like a young Monica Bellucci) that we had a fixed menu. We were served grilled goats cheese on toast with salad for starter, mini chicken, spaghetti and green beans for main and a banana sundae for desert. The chicken was a bit of a faff but it was good food.
I was in bed for 10:30pm but didn't end up getting to sleep until a fair bit later as a friend on her way to Morocco for a hiking adventure trip was having last minute nerves. I was now where I was going to be based for the next few days so at least no more driving tomorrow.
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