On our last day in Paris we caught the metro across town and picked up our lease Renault. The process went smoothly and we were soon stuck in Parisian traffic in our nice but small Renault. Back at the hotel we had an epic struggle and an hour later finally got all our gear inside. Leaving at lunch time we headed south from Paris through the beautiful Chateaux of the Loire Valley. The next day we continued south towards the French Alps and the Tour de France. After a long drive on expensive toll roads we got to the foot of the climb to Courchevel a few hours before the riders.
We extracted the bikes from the car and started to ride up the stage. The climb was long but the crowds and friendly riders around us made it an easy climb. About halfway up we stopped and settled in to watch the publicity caravan go by. After my experiences at Blois I was an old hand now and we got a lot of free stuff and, most importantly, we grabbed free cold beer from the Buckler van.
The riders soon came by and it was a small front group that swept past. Lance looked comfortable (further up this climb he attacked and dropped all the other key riders) and we were excited to see Cadel Evans still in the front group at this point. We dropped back down to the car through the traffic jam and managed to squeeze into a nice campground in the valley.
The Tour descended from Courchevel the next day before climbing out of the valley over the Col de la Madeleine. In what was a long day they then had the Col du Telegraphe and then the Col du Galibier. We hoped to see them on the later two climbs but the road was blocked before the top of the first Col. So we parked the car and rode the 7km to the top. We checked out the very top before picking a spot just below the peak. Some freebies and cold beer livened up the wait. The riders came through early afternoon and although it was more crowded we had a good view as the wound up the hairpins below us.
To get back down to the car we noticed some walking trails on the alpine slopes beside the road. We took the chance and it paid off with a singletrack descent that ended right beside our car!
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