Neil & Sharon's Tour de France Trip 2013: Days 13 -16 The French Alps

In the Alps we stayed in Serre Chevalier, a valley surrounded by magnificent mountains with many ski runs, in a small ski village called Chantemerle.

Chantermerle

After much discussion it was decided that the riders would tackle Alp d'Huez the day before the TDF stage due to road closures precluding the bus from getting close enough to make the ride achievable, combined with the forecast of rain for the 6+ hours on the mountain. There is a definite Swiss feeling to the Alps in both the architecture of the buildings and the cuisine.

Swiss style cafe in Vauban, serves fondue too.

There wasn't much for the non-riders to do in the Alps except visit the nearest town which is split into the old town of Vauban and the new of Briancon. Vauban is a charming medieval walled village with lots of cafes and shops, and street entertainers including children in a school holiday program dressed in French army uniforms with replica guns acting out marching to battle and proceeded to shoot each other. Wouldn't be allowed in the new PC world in New Zealand. Over the three days in the Alps I had coffee, lunch and dinner in difference cafes in Vauban.

Vauban

To our surprise we had a visit from Grant Robinson and his wife Tracy who didn't know exactly where we were staying but managed to find us by asking everyone if they knew a kiwi called Neil Butler. Their perseverance paid off when they struck it lucky finding our bus driver Pierre. We had a lovely catch up over dinner hearing stories of their travels over the past year.

The next day Vikki Forster and Ben Pitchforth arrived in Briancon for a couple of nights. Over dinner caught up with their travel through Italy and with Neil's university mate, Tim King who lives nearby. During the day Neil ticked off another Col (Izoard).

On our final day in the Alps the riders took on both sides of Col de Galibier. Vikki & Ben took me to Turin in Italy for the day. We drove over Col d'Echelle which was very pretty and parked at a small Italian village to take the train to Turin. We only had a couple of hours in Turin but it was a fantastic introduction to Italy with pizza for lunch followed by gelato and of course shopping.