for years. This was also the first time we took the bikes on the train in this country — one of those not so accessible trains with steep and narrow stairs and toilets that flush on the tracks. And we were not the only ones with the idea of bringing a bike on-board.
On the first day we rode from home to the station Grenoble Université – Gières, and then from Annecy station to our hotel in Sevrier, some 8 kilometers South of Annecy, a total of 14.73 kilometers. On the second day we rode from Sevrier to Grenoble via Albertville, a total of 133.5 kilometers with 725 meters of climbing and 954 meters of descent.
Sevrier is like an American small town, with no real center but just houses along the highway, a bar, a hotel, and maybe a couple of shops, and a garage. We walked around a bit to find a bar to watch the Fifa World Cup match between France and Argentina, and then spent an hour in a crêperie tasting craft beers from Brittany while waiting for the Mexican restaurant Adelita to open for dinner (BTW, this restaurant is highly recommended: food is good, service convivial, and they speak good English, I think one of the servers did not even speak French).
The next morning we started at 7am. following a bike path towards Albertville. There were literally hundreds of riders on the road already that early in the morning when it was still nice and cool. The temperature rose throughout the day reaching almost +40C in the afternoon. After Albertville we saw very few riders.
Around 1pm. when in the town of Chamousse, still in Savoie department, we found the restaurant La Table d’Auré open. Our presence in the restaurant/hotel lobby caused some profound confusion, if not outright shock, among the staff. Once they understood that we wanted eat, they seated us, not in the same dining hall with other lunchtime customers, but in a separate room by ourselves. We found that a bit strange — it has never happened before anywhere.
After lunch the temperature got almost intolerable for riding, even if there was a breeze when moving. We took frequent breaks to hydrate ourselves with warm water. When approaching Grenoble we made some bad decisions and got on a bumpy gravel road for more than 20 kilometers. We were home at 7:30pm. after a long day, which included riding for more than 9 hours.