Sunday, after requisite pan au chocolates for breakfast-dessert and grabbing some jambon-baguette sandwiches, we drove to Notre Dame de Bellecombe to start our ride. We climbed from there up the Col de Saises and then descended to the town of Beaufort. It was a perfect sunny day and we enjoyed a lunch stop in the green valley before continuing on for more climbing up to Lac de Roselend. The Alps are incredibly steep. We calculated we climbed for about seven miles at steady 7-10% grade. This climb has been used in the Tour de France and I enjoyed reading the writing on the road, as I turned over the pedals... slowly. My respect for the Tour and what those guys do is even greater, if that’s possible! Turning around at the lake, Deb smartly found a different way back that avoided dropping all the way back to the valley floor and involved some narrower, less busy roads to Hauteluce. At this point, we’d been out for some time and done a ton of climbing, so we stopped for a Coke and some water in this quaint hillside town and enjoyed the late afternoon light. This was a perfect energy replenishment for the last 9k climb back over the Col de Saises and a fun, chilly descent back to the car.

--- Deb's got the goods ---

--- descent and view off the back of the Col de Saises ---

--- something about a baguette sandwich in the jersey pocket makes one feel truly French ---

--- why does it never look as steep as it was in pictures? ---