Riding through the French Alps

Today was all about riding in the Alps of France.  We road through 9 mountain passes, were often above tree line, and saw many snow covered mountains.  The views we saw today were better than views of mountains we have seen before.  This is not like the Blue Ridge, the Appalachians, or the Rockies.  The Alps are wonderful because of the quality of roads that exist to easily take you to see them.  We took many pictures of views from the top that are posted below the text.

We could not help noticing the thousands of bicyclists on the same routes we were riding.  It is one week before the 2015 Tour de France comes to the French Alps.  Today was a beautiful Saturday, one week before the professional riders arrive, so bicyclists throughout France are trying out the route themselves.  Several of the routes we drove had signs posting that the road will be closed on July 19 and July 24.  Towns have decorated the route with red polka-dots.  The road surface is marked with encouraging words for specific riders or teams.

On the back roads we saw 3 outdoor weddings.  It must be customary to decorate cars with flowers and bundles of wheat, because the cars parked on the side of the road during the wedding were always decorated in this way.
We arrived after 7:30pm for a late dinner with 3 courses.  For a starter Odile had a plate including tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and fresh herbs.  Mark had mini-ravioli stuffed with greens in a mushroom cream sauce.  For a main course Odile had skewered monkfish wrapped in local ham while Mark had rack of lamb with scalloped potatoes and a stuffed tomato.  We shared a bottle of dry red wine.  For dessert Odile had skewered fresh fruit with a dark semi-sweet chocolate fudge for dipping, while Mark had warm chocolate cake with a fudge center, with fresh raspberries and vanilla custard and caramel for dipping

We are sitting in our hotel room at midnight tonight, with our window shutters open.  Below us, a band is playing in the square with a large crowd listening to the free concert.  The music is eclectic. Most music alternative rock, with an electric guitar, electric bass guitar, drums, piano and a cello. Most of it was in French, and some had audience participation as if they all knew the song that we had never heard.  The amusing thing is that when they do a rap song, the words are all in English, i.e.  "boys in the hood...

Tomorrow we have breakfast at 8 am followed by a ride around Southern French Alps, which includes the highest pass in Europe, Col de la Bonette.  The mountain pass climbs 2802 meters, about 9200 feet.  We stay in this hotel for 2 nights before traveling to Italy.

Here are pictures taken in the French Alps: