Then, silence.
Well, a month or so has passed and... voila... we're in France.
We flew in to Frankfurt, picked up our van from Sixt, and were away. We drove south, crossed the Rhine River from Germany into France on a cute little ferry and got to our first stopover, Colmar.
I think KKB chose Colmar as a destination mainly because of Heinrich Haussler's TDF stage win there last year. We checked in to our hotel (which we now know to be the second smallest hotel room ever) before wandering through town to find something for dinner.
KKB wondered out loud where it was that Heinrich's famous victory happened as we ambled along. Truth be known we were both probably a little disappointed that there wasn't anything to signify Heinrich's win but given it's colourful and crucial role in World War II, the people of Colmar clearly have other heroes to dedicate their public spaces to.
It's a beautiful city and we were both glad to have spent some time there, and hopefully, one day we'll go back!
The next day we continued south towards the Alps and decided to head back to Vizille, where we'd stayed a couple of years previously. It's a lovely town with a full history - it sits on Napoleon's Route and is home to a chateau that played an important role in the Revolution, now a museum.
The accommodation in Vizille isn't as palatial as it's major tourist attraction. We stayed in the smallest room in the world, complete with a bathroom which boasts the smallest bath in the world and a very strange multi level floor...
We put the bikes together in preparation for the first ride of the trip the following morning. KKB and Mickey were intending to tackle Alpe d'Huez, but I ended up sitting it out in favour of a swim - only to find that the pool at Bourg d'Oisans didn't open until late that afternoon - by which time we'd be well on our way to our next stop, Mt Ventoux.
Sacre bleu! Only in France.
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