I woke up still feeling not 100% and glad for a day where I didn't have to do anything or go anywhere. It was the first day so far on our trip that I wasn't going to go anywhere. Anoop looked around at brochures and tried to persuade me that we should check out this or that, but I said I was staying put. While I enjoyed my cup of tea he chatted with the campsite owner who spoke excellent English. She had lived in the US for a while and met her husband in California before moving back to France with their daughter. Anoop had noticed the night before that there was going to be a friendly pétanque (boules) competition going on, but we have not yet added a set of boules to our van equipment. So he asked the owner if she had any that he could borrow and signed himself up for the competition at 3:00 in the afternoon. He returned to the van and continued looking at brochures. Shortly thereafter he realized that the base of the Col de la Madeleine was just a few kilometres from our campsite. Feeling rather energetic (and trying to see if he could make it up a "col" before Dad & Tan arrived) he decided to set off. As he waved goodbye, he casually mentioned that if he wasn’t back by 3:00 to wander up and let them know that he couldn’t play boules because he had gone off on a ride. This was about 12:00. The top of the Madeleine was 31 km away and the average grade was 6.5%. I figured the likelihood of him making it back in time was pretty slim!

I continued writing up blog entries, downloading, exporting and uploading photos until about 2:45 when I figured he really wasn’t going to make it. I wandered up and let the owner know that he wasn’t going to be back and did they have anyone who could take his place (the teams had already been made up). She replied "you"! This was what I had figured would happen, knowing that boules is played on teams. She said that her husband was also coming to play and that he didn’t speak much French. Christopher said that she had woken him up (he works California hours) to say that Anoop was going to play boules and he didn’t speak much French so would he like to play too? So Christopher and I practiced a few times since neither of us are regulars at the boules pitch. Once everyone had shown up, we were divided into 2 teams of 4. It wasn’t until part way through that Christopher and I realized we hadn’t actually been put on the same team and shouldn’t be cheering each other on! A boules round goes until one team reaches 13 points at which point you start another round. We played 3 rounds (and our team lost all 3…) until they decided to have one last one. Anoop returned around 5:00, part way through the last one. At this point my game had improved considerably and they didn’t think that Anoop would make a better replacement. Throughout the game I kept getting tips from the older deaf man who kept saying “doucement, doucement” (softly, softly) because I kept tossing it too far. As I improved, I started getting “pas mal” (not bad) and sometimes even managed to be closer to the ball part way through the round. Everyone was quite cheerful despite us losing all 4 rounds.

Afterwards, everyone headed back to the campsite to have drinks. Daniel, one of the guys on my team was quite enthusiastic about everything and kept saying that he would really like to visit Canada one of these days. He gave Anoop a glass of some wine that he had been saving for his birthday (he had turned 72 earlier in the month although you would never have guessed it!) Everyone there had been staying at the campsite for the whole summer and some of them had been going to the same campsite for 30 years. They seemed to be having a great time organizing their social calendar for the next few days before everyone headed back to their homes for the season. They were all quite disappointed when we said we couldn’t stick around until Sunday for the next boules competition and BBQ in the orchard. We had heard from Dad & Tan and they were going to be heading to France to meet us on the Saturday so we had to head out.

And now for Anoop’s ride…

It was close to noon by now (yup, we’d had a very leisurely morning) so I decided I better head off on my ride if I was going to be back in time for the pétanque friendly. I told Megs that if I wasn’t back by 3pm, could she please go and tell the other players that I was still out riding (I was hoping that I wasn’t going to mess up their numbers). I got all my gear together, pumped up my tires, filled my bottle of water, tucked away my map, point and shoot camera, granola bars and spare tube into my jersey pockets and took off.

As I had wanted a challenging ride in preparation for any potential hill climbs I may do with Rod and Tanya (who were arriving the next day), I decided to scan the map for high peaks close to the campsite. It turns out that we were only a 5 km from the base of the Col de La Madeleine hill climb. I’m not an avid Tour de France fan but I do think it’s quite an exciting event and the cyclists are almost inhuman (read: doping perhaps?) in terms of their stamina. So why not attempt one of those tough climbs, sans doping? After all, I’ve been in rigorous training these past five weeks with visits to the chocolate factory, degustations at wineries, cheese factories, daily patisseries etc.

If one is so inclined, you can rent these chip timers from the TI so that you can compare yourself against the cycling greats. I decided against this as I needed all the motivation I could acquire to get up this mountain. Our campsite is about 5km from the base of the mountain so that was a short and fairly flat warmup. I should’ve ignored the turnoffs for the Col and just stayed on the flats but I had to try it to see if I had any chance of making it up these other famous hill climbs from the Tour. The first few switchbacks are quite steep and just before you hit the first one, there is a sign that lists the statistics for the climb – it almost seems to say, “Are you sure you want to do this?” I took a brief glance at it but tried not to read too many of the details – once again, my theory being with these forms of willing self-torture, the less you know, the better. The relevant details are that it’s a 30 km ascent, 6.5% average grade, with a maximum of 14%.

For the first couple kms, the road is well shaded and so I didn’t notice the sun much. Cars and motorcycles were zipping by me and I saw plenty of riders flying back down the hill. Most drivers passed with a lot of distance but I felt it was the motorcyclists that were the most dangerous. They came speeding down the hill (and going up it) and turned blind corners at such high speeds that if there was oncoming traffic, it was almost certain to have caused an accident. Whenever I heard a motorcyclist coming, I hugged the side of the mountain and gave them as much of the road so that they didn’t pass too closely to me.

I managed to stay in my second ring in the front and about 3^rd from the easiest in the rear. I wanted to give myself enough of a buffer when the going got really tough. I passed through the small town of Ceillers which is about 15km in and I was still feeling pretty decent. When I rounded the mairie (town hall) in the town, I started to see evidence of the Tour de France. On the road was painted the names of riders that even I recognized – Wiggins, Cavendish, Voeckler…. The Tour had come through here just a few months ago and it was pretty neat to be riding the same roads. I thought I should be inspired by this but all I could feel were my legs straining to keep on pedalling. On my way up, I didn’t want to stop to take pictures as I wanted to see (as a personal goal) if I could make it to the top without stopping. So instead, I just made mental notes of where I’d have to stop on the way back down.

The views by this time were amazing, both in front and behind me. You had an almost unlimited view down the valley and off in the distance I could see a snow capped mountain – I wondered if it was Mt. Blanc but I think I was just being hopeful. Along the way, you could hear herds of Terrine cows (these are the cows whose milk is turned into the famous Beaufort Gruyere AOC cheese). They’re brown, with black rimmed eyes and have short horns. I also saw some goats and sheep along the way. The pastures above me were filled with wildflowers and every now and then, I’d pass a waterfall meandering its way down the mountainside. All this, and the fact that the roads are quite narrow (so you have to pay a lot of attention to the oncoming and passing traffic), helped distract me from the exertion of climbing.

Once out of Ceillers, there is short downhill section for a kilometer that gave my legs a bit of rest and allowed me to get ready for the rest of the climb. After Ceillers, I was out in the full sun – there was not much tree cover and it was pretty hot out – about 26 degrees, with only a slight breeze. I was sweating hard and I could see the salt from my sweat drying on my arms by this point. I was also starting to run low on water. At about the 19km mark, I spotted this furry, rodent crossing the road! I was in a dilemma whether to stop or not but I looked behind me and the rodent was still peering out of its den so I decided to stop and take a few pictures. It was a marmot and I have to say it was very obliging considering they stay clear of humans!

Soon after, I passed these two older riders from England – chatted with them for about 5 minutes as we crawled up the hill. He told me that this was probably the hardest part and we still had a few kms to go. So I switched into my granny gear at this point for the next kilometer. I didn’t know how much I had left in the tank but I was too close to the top by now to not make it so I dropped into an easier gear! I told him it was my first true hill climb and he said I was pretty brave to be tackling this one first. Well, I had done a few small climbs in the last week, but nothing like this one. I slowly passed them and continued my way up. Then as I made the second last switchback, a lady just flew by me and said “Bonjour” as she passed me. She made it seem effortless and it instantly reminded me of Tanya (always friendly and very, very fit!).

My lower back was really hurting by now and my legs really wanted a break but I was too close. I was soon at the 1 km mark and as I made the final bend, there was a photographer there taking photos of that you could later purchase. I straightened up my hunched back, opened up my chest and smiled for the photo. He got a couple photos, ran up to me and handed me his card with the info in case I wanted to buy the photos. A few minutes later, I was at the summit, standing in front of the Col de la Madeleine sign! I had finally made it and I was very pleased. Did I think I could do the other hill climbs over the next week with Rod and Tan? I had a hope now. The views from the top were fantastic with almost unlimited visibility. I looked around the top for a bit and took some photos. I looked at my watch and realized that it was 2:30 pm already by this time and the pétanque tourney was supposed to start at 3pm. I had no hope of making it back considering it was a 35 km ride back to the campsite but regardless, I didn’t linger at the top. It was cool on the ride down and I didn’t have a jacket to put on over my jersey as I had only been thinking of the uphill when I was getting ready that morning. I made my way back to the campsite via the same route and by the time I got back, the boules was well underway and to my surprise, there was Megs about to take her turn…