We had a great day Sunday…. rode down to BdO and then up a crazy road to a tiny village Villard Notre Dame through 3 tunnels, two of which were pitch dark and drippy. We had lights but they were of limited use. Two of the tunnels had serious curves in them. They would have been impossible without some sort of lights on the bikes. The attached photo shows the only tunnel which you could see through and was not totally pitch dark. “Dark as the inside of a cow” describes the other two tunnels.
short easy tunnel on the shelf road on the climb to Villard Notre-Dame
view of the valley from the shelf road on the climb to Villard Notre-Dame
on the road to Villard Notre-Dame
on the road to Villard Notre-Dame
The road went along climbing a ledge road under the cliff for the first part, then got into the trees and switch backed up to the village with stunning views. The village had a bar/cafe where we stopped for some Orangina and cokes. The town hall had an open bathroom (BYO TP here in France) which was cleanish and welcome to see.
Villard Notre-Dame
above Villard Notre-Dame
Like most villages, there was a “town pump” which is always running with fresh cool clean drinkable water pouring into a trough. After filling our water bottles at the font we had a nice conversation with a fellow who had driven up with his wife for lunch at the cafe. It turned out he is a cyclist and we talked about our route and it gave me an opportunity to mangle a bit of French. I have been enjoying speaking French and trying to remember it. Some people play along and humor me, others immediately switch to English and then I humor them. From Villard Notre Dame we headed up through the cow pastures on a paved road which soon turned to unpaved, but good going. We knew this was going to happen. The road opened up onto vistas of the valley below, the town of BdO and a superb view of Alpe d’Huez. We stopped for more pictures and then continued on.
The famous Alpe d’Huez climb from across the valley
Unlike riding at home, the riding here is much more difficult, the climbs are much steeper and longer – steeper than Colorado and California, too. But here I stop all the time for photos and to admire the views. When you get a climb without views then they are really really tough. 😉
After the road reached a saddle the pavement resumed and headed down to another tiny hamlet Villard Reymond. VR is inside the giant National Park des Ecrins (as is most of this area) and is closed to cars. We rode through the village to an auberge where we had a giant lunch of salad, gazpacho, beef stew, glazed carrots potatoes gratin (I had extra carrots instead of the potatoes) and then sorbet. We passed on the espresso – didn’t want to overdo it, if you know what I mean. We also did not have wine or beer because the ride resumed with a fun 6 mile steep winding downhill into the Col d’Ornon valley. I am getting better at the descents and enjoying them more. Still, Larry is way out ahead as Monsieur LongGone, followed by Chris and I bring up the rear.
We turned left up the very familiar Ornon road for about a mile when we turned off for the road to the “center” of the village of Ornon. The well paved one lane road climbed and wound steeply up the hillside through small groups of houses which appeared to me to be vacation homes. This area is in the National Park and close to some of the best skiing in the Alps. We reached a point at which we all “cried uncle” and turned around and zoomed back down to the main Col d’Ornon road where we turned back uphill towards “chez nous.” It was another 2 miles of not so steep uphill home which seemed quite welcome to the three sweaty hungry adventurers. Total: 27 miles and 4100 vertical feet.
Le Rivier d’Ornon from across the valley
The afternoon saw a few of the riders who had not yet returned straggle in with tales of their adventures. After some recovery beverages (water with electrolytes) and few glasses of wine, some of Guy’s tasty dinner was served and we ate and collapsed into bed.