After the Tour de France, it was time to spend some time in the mountains. The first full day was spent driving to a number of places in and around the Ecrins National Park. The day started off at L'Alpe d'Huez. The drive up to the top was filled (even more so than most mountain roads) with cyclists. They had their work cut out for them. Once at the top, I found some nice lakes to walk around and explore.
Just look at those nice reflections! The sky and water were so blue, with everything mirrored in the lake. Had that been all I did for the day, it would have been worth it. The non-lake views were good too.
Next stop was a drive up the little valley to La Berarde.
From there it was off to the Col du Lautaret and the Col du Galibier. As a small educational service on behalf of myself, the french road traffic agency, and all the other cars stuck in line with me, I would like to remind all the drivers of RVs to think carefully before trying to drive giant RVs up steep, narrow, twisty roads to the top of mountains. When you can only manage 1st gear and are belching smoke, that should be a clue that it's maybe not a good idea, or at least that maybe you should let some traffic past. With that out of the way, now onto the views, they were good. First at the Oratoire du Chazelet
and then at the Col du Galibier itself. The air was so clear you could see Mont Blanc clearly in the distance (just not in a picture this small) even though it is quite a long distance away.
After that, the plan was to continue on to Briançon and the Col du Izoard before turning back. But, I'd spent so much time at Alpe d'Huez that morning that I had run out of time. Something for another trip.
1 Comments:
That's really pretty, I like the stream. I think you should issue that announcement to RV drivers world-wide. I don't know what is with people and those things.
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