Day 85: Col de la Forclaz to Praz-sur-Arly

Monday June 27, 2005, 71 km (44 miles) – Total so far: 5,000 km (3,107 miles)

Camping on the Col included breakfast in the adjacent hotel so we got away early and were on top of the Col des Montets by 10.30 a.m. Once in France the road deteriorates badly through the national park, but you’re compensated by the views. The views from Montets were amazing, one of the visible peaks was Mont Blanc (4807m). We then had a short freewheel down to Chamonix which proved to be one of the nicest of the famous Alpine resorts we’ve visited. Nice to see the French have done something about the weather since we were last here, it’s lovely and sunny today, 28°c.

I replaced the camera with a Canon Powershot A250 similar to the G2 that we should never have sold. It fits the SD memory cards from the broken Ricoh and runs on AA batteries.

Lunch was a very tasty spaghetti bolognese which was very reasonably priced too. So is tonight’s campsite in Praz-sur-Arly, at only €8 for the night it’s much cheaper than the campsites in Switzerland and Austria.

Chamonix is almost inaccessible by bicycle from the French side and we had to leave on what appeared to be a giant motorway on stilts. We were even hooted at by some drivers who thought it was an auto-route, but it seemed to be the only way down from the mountains.

I’ve just eaten a delicious trout for dinner in a nice restaurant thanks to the supermarket in Praz being closed on Mondays. We must get used to cooking for ourselves again or we’ll soon be out of cash.