Rest Day!

Monday was a rest day for the riders, but we still had to work. Since we had not been able to get to the Sky team on Sunday to rebuild some wheels, we did it on Monday instead.
The teams stayed put in the same place, and so did we. We woke up at Le Castellan, had breakfast, and then away to the Europcar for a drive back to the mountaintop. It was only 40km, but in the mountains that takes a while - what with hills, switchbacks, campers, cyclists...
and SKIERS?. this guy was skiing UP the last hill, the steep curvy one from the day before:

We got to the top and did what we came for. Here is John, manning the truing stand, whilst I manned the camera. (my wheel was already done, John was just finishing up dishing)
Work done, we left to try and get in some R & R ourselves. We drove back and went for a ride - down through the valley and up the mountain at the other end. Here is the view from about halfway up. John and I agree that that must be the Matterhorn in the distance.


The scenery is spectacular, and the architecture is pretty good too. We stopped more than once to take photos in the towns we passed through. Here is the movie theatre:

and a hotel, not really out of the ordinary but the flowers were in full bloom:


And a restaurant:

After the ride, we were hungry, but wary of ordering too much food. The 19 euro meal from the previous night had been a doozy. We scaled back to a single entree each instead of the full salad, meat, cheese plat, and dessert of before. Good thing we had climbed an entire mountain, because the smaller meals also had huge servings. Between our two meals we had salads, meat (one each), two different sauces (one for each entree), and a mere 6 side dishes (3 each meal - and they were BIG dishes)

In case you have not gotten the full Alpine effect, here is a photo of the dining room at Le Castellan.
stuffed animals, real animal heads, old photos, decorative plates, folk art, kitsh art, exposed wood... all in abundance. the proprietors had a particular thing for kitties. The upstairs hallways were hung with completed, framed puzzles... mostly kitties, and a few puppies.


Another mountain sunset, and then a long drive to Aix les Bains tomorrow.

Bon Voyage!