Another big day of cycling for the boys as they planned to tackle Col de Sarenne. They were up and excited and feeling good after their ride yesterday. Jude and I were to hike up to Lac Bessan.
But first to breakfast . Our view this morning was nothing short of spectacular. The valley was filled with clouds and only the tops of the mountains were peeking out. The view from the terrace changes every hour, but this morning was the best yet.
As we were about to leave I got an email from our Airbnb host on the Riviera. She no longer rents her apartment and only thought to tell me when she got the reminder from Airbnb. Jude and I madly scrambled to find another one and check the terms with Airbnb. We have one in Cannes. The apartment may not be as good but the locations looks really great.
Disaster averted we started our uphill walk. Everything was still cloaked in cloud and looking pretty. The street outside our hotel and up to the village has the barricades around for the Tour de France on Saturday. It will come right past our hotel and we have a balcony with a street corner which is going to be the perfect location.
Everywhere you go here is up or down a hill. We walked up into the village and then up and out onto the mountain towards the lake . It is a really pretty walk with a steady climb. We made great time with quite a few stops to take photos. Looking back at the village was gorgeous as it was enveloped in the clouds and really pretty.
Then we got to the lake. Wow! It is breathtakingly beautiful. The water is clear and surrounded by green grass and majestic mountains and then there were all the clouds hovering, completing the postcard. We walked around the lake and enjoyed the peaceful location. There were quite a few other people there but not enough to distract from the enjoyment.
We had a delicious lunch in the restaurant up there, stuffed vegetables and sangria. There was a loud table on a gourmet bike tour who did disturb the peace a bit.
Then we walked down. The cloud cover had all started to lift and we were walking into it. The vegetation is lovely on the path, lots of pretty flowers and grasses. There were also a lot of noisy grasshoppers and couple of giant ones. The fields are fenced with electric wire. There are no signs of warning like there is at home . Jude did manage to get a little zap when she was distracted taking a photo of the awesome view! There are a lot of cows with their bells on. It sounds lovely, very Alpine!
Back in the village we had a poor cup of coffee. Coffee can be a bit hit and miss over here. We have had some cafe au laits which have been beautiful double shots with milk on the side or they could be like our flat whites, and some cappuccinos that have been like flat whites or come with whipped chantilly cream. Jude's cappuccino today was a double shot with lots of froth. She's giving up and sticking to au lait from now on. We walked back down the hill to the hotel where we caught up with the boys and heard all about their riding day. They had done well and were pretty pleased with themselves.
We watched the end of stage 18 of the tour and relaxed. I did hear someone snoring at one stage!
Dinner was at Pinocchio, another recommendation by Sophie. It was in the main shopping strip in town. On the walk there we noticed flags hanging from hotel balconies in support of tour riders . We will have to put up our Aussie flags.
Our waitress was a young, no nonsense girl. When she was ready to take our order we needed to be ready and get on with it. She was friendly and good humoured in her bossiness. I had a delicious goats cheese salad and the others all had pizza. Then I had an impressive lemon tart for dessert. It came with chantilly cream, framboise cream, a meringue and some caramel sauce. Jude had a nice looking pannacotta with framboise sauce. Apparently that was good too, but I think mine was better. We sat upstairs in the restaurant, out on the balcony. We had a good view of the ice rink on the other side of the street. Ken seems keen to give it a go, but no one else is interested. We think there could be some injuries to that old body.
Another day in paradise, we all worked hard today.

21.190 steps
16 kms
The boys rode 55.2 kms
Climbing elevation 2,741 metres