French Alps - Day 2

Grenoble to Embrun.

We all slept like babies, once the couple next door had finished their horizontal dancing in the night😬

 I awoke to bright sunlight and a view of the Alps, my excitement reaching 100% immediately. 

Things got better when the kind hotelier, at Hotel Amy's, allowed us to park the van for free, for the next week, and so we set off.

We a refueled and had first breakfast, before an easy start through rolling alpine countryside. The scenery accompanied by banter not fit for broadcasting, we laughed and rolled forward. 

Above and below, the view from the road between Alps de Huez and Auris. (Huez is a stage in the tour de France and, apparently, a Pilgrimage for the lycra religion).  The amount of stressed cycling shorts and ass cracks I saw, I'll never forget.  (Unfortunately)

... Followed swiftly by second breakfast. On reflection we all agreed the road you see above, to Auris, was one of the best routes of the day.

Below Briancon, a medieval walled town. Worth a visit and picturesque. You can find much better pictures online. We were passing through and getting lost - I didn't do it justice. 

Eventually road gave way to dirt tracks and Jason blasted off into the distance

 His 500 disappearing in a cloud of dust and audible laughter.

Above, atop a 1.7Km climb.

Below, the decent over the river (multiple times)

 I'm not sure if they're building a road or other infrastructure, but heavy machinery littered the tracks. 

Up to this point it had been plain sailing, but as we ascended the last off-road Col towards Embrun, things changed. Mammoth fur trees had fallen, some of them we could sneak by, like mice... 

...others were natural and impenetrable blockades. Try as we might, by climbing to the snow line or plotting other routes, we couldn't get passed and had to backtrack.

Our final destination, the old town square at historic Embrun. (pronounced amˈbryn).  We ate and enjoyed the atmosphere, speaking about the best days riding ever. 

We ate the bistro on the square, translating one of the menu items as 'Donkey Ears'.  Sounds tasty. 

At 10:30pm the barman at the establishment below, closed the bar to foreigners. (But not the locals - go figure.)

A blessing in disguise, we have places to be tomorrow. .. and It's Jason's birthday 🎂 

The streets of Embrun. Our home this evening is Hotel de la Marie, the hotelier is a kindly woman and allowed us to park for free in the garage.