misty view of Ornon from le Rivier d’Ornon

Wednesday was planned for rest and conveniently it rained cats and dogs.  There was no frustration when the weather was so awful.  We needed the rest.  Larry and Chris had ridden 8 days straight, I had taken a day off on the 5th day but I still welcomed another rest day.  We drove to the town of Venosc – a tourist village on the back of the Deux Alpes.  It has a gondola to take people to the top and the mountain bikers (mountain bike = “velo tout-terrains” or “vtt”) took their bikes on the gondola and rode down.  We walked around and checked out the picturesque village which is closed to cars.  There were some restaurants and gift shops, some of the shops closed for lunch – something we would never see in the USA. We returned to BdO for lunch and the skies opened.  We lounged in a restaurant after eating, then moved to a patisserie for dessert, then wandered the village during a break in the rains searching unsuccessfully for gifts.

The shopping in BdO is limited to hiking and biking stuff and some very tacky tourist trash.  I picked up a stuffed whistling marmot for Lisa.  The marmots are seen when high in the mountains.  When you ride by they stand up and whistle.  The other wildlife I have seen while riding is limited to geckos, grasshoppers and butterflies. There are the farm animals and usual pets.  I still haven’t seen a dog on a bike.

Thursday it was still raining, we are seeing some symptoms of  cabin fever.  Larry just put on his rain jacket and went out for a walk.  I might have to head for the bat cave to clean my bike.  Or I can surf the internet.