June 14th: Briancon to Arvieux

 I always remembered Col L’Izoard started right from town quickly and steeply, and I wasn’t wrong. It didn’t take a single kilometer before I was exchanging my helmet for a cycling cap, and so had Mark, who had found a cap that fit him earlier on the trip. Arturo had foolishly promised some non-bicycle-touring friends that he would always wear his helmet, so he kept his helmet on for the entire trip despite the cycling in a heat wave.

Col L’Izoard isn’t notable for being pretty or long, but what it does do is to take you from the northern French Alps into the southern French Alps as the terrain changes completely, from pine forests to Colorado like desert scenery with dry dusty looking terrain everywhere that wasn’t immediately next to a stream.

We rode past the Napoleon Refuge 100m of vertical distance from the top, where once again there was a summit monument and a café that didn’t serve anything more substantial than ice cream. Just looking at the desert scenery was enough to make me hot, so Boen and I ate an ice cream each before starting the descent.

Xiaoqin had started the climb up the L’Izoard from across the street from the Logis de France hotel. When we saw her she said the hotel we had hoped to stay at said they were full! Arturo and I kept going down until we had cell signal, and then started calling. Through some confusion, Arturo called that very same hotel who had told Bowen and Xiaoqin that they had no room and this time they said they had room!

When we got there the manager explained that we were very lucky as someone had called in a cancellation just before Arturo called. It turned out that the confusion meant that we had a chance to stay at another Logis de France hotel. We ordered the half pension, and after eating an excellent lunch, found that they had a working swimming pool, our first of the trip!

So quickly used the swimming pool and the hot tub. While discussing things, I laid out the options for exiting France. We could ride up to Saint Verans off the Col Agnel highway. Saint Verans is the tallest village in France at 2000m, and it could serve as a base for hiking if we took an extra rest day then. The alternative was to ride Col du Vars, then ride over Col de la Bonnette and then Col Lombarde for the exit from France. My original plan for riding over the Col Tende had long been shattered by construction on the French side blocking transit and was no longer feasible given the pace we were moving.

Well, the car was fully charged from the day before, and it wasn’t a long drive, I suggested. Why don’t we drive to Saint Verans and scout it out? With that, we were out of the swimming pool into civilian clothes and Arturo and I drove to Saint Verans. The road was indeed exciting but looked very exposed, and the climb up to Saint Verans looked painful, with several sections exceeding 10% grade.

What broke against Saint Verans, however, was that it looked like there was only one out and back hike, and it involved a lot of time on a fire road. Col du Vars, Col de la Bonette and Lombarde started to look better as a plan. We were still in need of a rest day, however. We noticed that Col du Vars had a Napoleon refuge with a good reputation as well, so we called them and asked for two nights. “No. We can do just one night.” Was the reply. We booked the half pension for one night, and decided we could transit down the mountain the next day to Jausiers so we could attack the Col de la Bonnette with fresh legs instead.

Dinner at a Logis de France hotel is always excellent, and this one did not break the mold. To my surprise, the service was very fast as well! I had set expectations with every one that French dinners could take 3 hours, but so far we had not had that happen to us!

My Garmin XC200 pedals complained that they were running low on battery, so I took the opportunity to add wax to the drivetrain and replace the batteries on both sides.

Our after dinner walk was pleasantly cool at 8pm, as we took a small loop. The hotel was near a stream which made the place looked a lot less like the American West.