And So ......The End

This will be the final post that I write because, well, the journey is over.

I have just sent all the remaining money to Parkinson's UK and The Alzheimers Society and for the record I have raised over £1000 for the former and over £1100 for the latter.

All that remains now is to fill you in on the last three days of the our trip to France.

After the Etape was over and we left the Alpe D'Huez, we headed back over the route in the car so that Amanda could see where I had been, stopping what seemed, every few miles to take photos and video footage.
Our destination was a small Chateau on the outskirts of Chambery, which we hoped would be something of a treat.
We arrived to sauna-like heat and were given a room in the annex with no air conditioning, which we had specifically booked. Amandas blood was boiling since she had complained and got a "it's not our problem" sort of comment from the lady on reception. She instructed me to get on the Internet straight away so she could check the booking (one of those moments to do exactly as you are told) and before we knew it we had been moved into a fully air conditioned room. This is despite the fact that Amanda can only speak roughly three sentences in French and one of those is to ask for an ice cream :-) Good job though, it was boiling that night.
Once settled, I cleaned the bikes behind one of the buildings using shower gel from the room (I thought they might object and I forgot my own cleaning liquid). This gel was really posh stuff as well. As I washed down Lord Trekington (my bike) I could almost sense him making the kind of orgasmic sounds that the girls in those adverts do.

We had always wanted to see Lake Annecy, so I set about plotting the most direct route possible, with Amanda looking increasingly worried as she saw the profile. After much debate, I had cracked it. around 71 miles and a couple of decent climbs to keep me happy.
The following morning though it was grey..... we got all our stuff together and put our waterproofs on from the off, although it was not raining at this stage.
Not long after we left the hotel though we started up the Col De Plainpalais which was over 16km in length. Then as we exited a tunnel, the rain started.... torrential and cold. But we were ready for it and we knew how lovely Lake Annecy was.

The rain was getting worse though and was steadily soaking us to the skin. We were fortunate, I suppose that we plotted the route to be harder on the way out. Not least because as the day wore on, Amanda was too tired to catch me up and strangle me..... You see the route was a good deal longer because of the numerous hairpin bends... in fact 82 miles in total. And it rained, boy did it rain.

We finished this climb and not too long after, were on another, the Cret de Chatillon, which takes you up towards the ski resort of La Semnoz, which I found out later, has been used in the Tour De France.
This climb is shorter but much steeper and the incessant rain would not give up as the beautiful scenery unfolded all around us.

It was getting colder though and as we got towards the top, the wind picked up and the sheltering trees disappeared to reveal the "Plateau" restaurant - it was shut - sob, but Amanda got behind my wheel and battled her way to the top.

A 17.4km descent into Annecy was next, in rain so strong that it was a struggle to see. With fingers constantly on the brakes to prevent our speed getting out of control, both our hands and fingers were going numb, and we were having to wring our hands to get the feeling back.

We arrived in Annecy and eventually found a cafe. We were frozen and the only place that we could find only had an outdoor covered section.

Amanda was shivering as she ordered two coffee which were tiny ( oh for a mug). We ended up having four and they still didn't warm us up, and neither did omlette and chips.

We were actually looking forward to getting back on the bike to get warm again when we had a blessing in disguise, a puncture. Ordinally we would use our little compressor to re-inflate the tyre but hand pumping with a mini pump was just what the doctor ordered.

We turned away from Lake Annecy as the rain stopped and the sun came out! and began the long but shallow climb of the Col de Leschaux

Amanda was beginning to smile as we made good progress and the better weather continued - this was of course to be short lived. As the extent of the extra mileage became evident, so to did the final climb of the day, the Col Des Pres (pass of the meadows), and it was as lovely as it sounds. But Amanda had, had enough and was giving me the death stare.

We got to the top and were greeted by more black clouds in the distance, so it was back on with the jackets and another freezing cold descent back to the hotel.

We showered, changed and laid all the kit out in the room to dry before heading off to Carrefore for comfort food.

The Col Des Saises

One of the things that caught my eye was when watching the 2009 edition of the Tour De France. Stage 17 involved a climb called the Col Des Saises, and when the peleton descended into the town of Flumet, there was a fantastic helicopter shot of an amazingly curly road with all the rides going down it.... here is the video.

We had both seen this and I was desperate to do this descent.

Without going into too much detail, the climb was long but not too severe and although there was enough low cloud to prevent us seeing Mont Blanc, the rain held off.

The run down is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone, especially as rather than turn right as the Tour did, we went left and headed down the valley along side the river, the road cut into the rock and there were more bridges and tunnels than you could shake a mini-pump at.

A small climb back over the Col De La Forclaz and we were back at the car and heading back for our final evening.

It should have been something special really but it was Bastille day and most of France was shut down. Carrefore it was then. More comfort food and a couple of cans of 8.5% beer - slept well that night.

Thanks for reading THE END