Annecy

Monday 27 June

Uneventful run yesterday, across from Chissey en Morvan via Autun where I cashed some Euros and filled the gas tank, through a lot of vineyards, not so much grain cropping, mostly hedged paddock land, Charolais cattle, and some red and whites, probably Simmental, to Tournus, start town for TdF Stage 7 across to St Claude, a stones throw from Geneva.

This stage section was over higher ground, alpine pasture type of place the cattle get put out to for summer, great cycling territory, and just as interesting en moto.

Sorry no pics for this traverse part, my Nokias been playing up and is flat battery today, tried my new Ideos, takes good pics, but should really be named Idiot, its another one of these system protected dicks of things that dosent want to connect to anything unless you kiss its arse, and wont do it automatically either, plus there's no instructions. Give Nokia its due, it recognised itself as a supplementary drive E: right off the stick and I can access the pics anytime.

The TravelSim chip I bought supposedly to get cheapest cellphone coverage similarly has been a crock, I keep getting a daily email cheerily welcoming me to the service, oxymoronically asking me to phone in and share with them how marvellous they are, plus I think there's also some sort of service lock I have to extricate myself of from 2 Degrees. It works by you dialling in the required number, then they call back from the central service point with the connection. I've been waiting days for any reply.

Vodafone's global roam has been fantastic though expensive and coverage is excellent, at 65 million pop there's hardly anywhere uninhabited here, and I can text direct to anyone back home straight from my contacts file, as any of you can to me.

Have been riding in 33 deg temps all day, progress on French roads so slow to create a decent draught, I've dispensed with the jacket now, and its bf hot inside my helmet. There are hundreds of bikes on the road, the standard wave is the American point to the road with the left hand. The French also have a point with the right foot which means farque-oveur, I'm coming in, lane splitting is de rigour round here, but I'm happy to stay in the traffic queue, with all the ancient twists and turns in the streets you really need to know where youre going to be so bold, plus the traffic lights arent all that prominent hanging from all sorts of odd places, it'd be easy to miss a red light, touch wood, dont think I have yet. 

You'd think this was MotoGuzzi or Ducati country, but the most common bike I've seen is a cut down short-base Suzuki, cant see the capacity but its a naked in-line 4 with a bob tail and fat back wheel, an ideal choice for these small and sometimes winding roads. A girl on a Guzzi passed me today, tanned legs in shorts, blonde locks flowing out from under her helmet, and was followed by another woman on a yellow Daytona, auburn curls under the helmet and slim in full leathers, sat on my tail for so long I started to think she was following me home, but no such luck!

Found an open patisserie for lunch, another coffee cream covered in sliced almond, plus a bun sort of thing with a big arrowmint slab confection thing on top, that turned out to be a custard pie underneath. There's always a nearby doorstep to sit on to do the lunch justice, then an espresso in an across the street cafe.

Here at Lathuile, just south of Annecy, the Lac scene is spectacular, blue, blue water and towering masifs with rocky limestone bluffs, but its a Taupo on serious steroids, the traffic is horrendous, nose to tail all the way from town to here, somewhere between 5 & 10 km, hordes of people enjoying the sun and water, fair bit of boating too.

This B&B, La Grange de Julie, http://www.lagrangedejulie.com/ is a previous old barn renovated by proprietors Sylvie and Jean-Francois into a delightful place to spend a couple of nights or more. Actually the place is so good, a couple of nights dosent do it justice.

Out of my bedroom window I can see the peaks across the lake, and watch the parapentres glide down, the thermals must be pretty good, they seem to hover for ages in the one place, then swoop off to another hoverspot before spiralling down to the landing area in a nearby open green.

I lost my way to the recommended restaurant for dinner last night, finished up opting for a roadside canopied cafe's steak, chips and salad, and a tongue hanging out for a Heineken, normally I wouldnt drink the stuff, maybe its a different brew here. I was also drawn in by a sign saying only French beef used here, but quickly brought to recollected earth, the Charolais beef is stringy. Most continental European cattle descend from draught animals and no amount of generational breeding will ever rid of the beast of burden musculature, paticularly where cross-breeding isnt a clean word, although I'll concede the milking strains may have a difference.

My old  hosts years past told me blandness was also important so the French culinaires didnt have competition for their saucieiry and flavouring, they also mentioned travelling to USA and being blown away by the size, flavour, and juiciness of US feedlot steaks.

Today, on Sylvie's advice, I rode up the peak across the lake to Col de la Forclaz, where a view of the whole lac is ensured, and a further 20 min walk up to the top gets you to the launch spot for the parapents, fascinating, think I might get one and try jumping off the hill behind my house, notice a fair number of tanned of limb women engaged in the sport too.

A couple of motorcycle cops shot past me on the way out, resplendent in their blue short-sleeve shirts, just like the LA CHiPs in their khaki ones, so I dont feel so bad putting my jacket away in this heat.

Wended my way down the other side of the TdF type road from the Col, to the old-town part of Annecy, little streets winding beside a canal, a veritable cafe/restaurant alley, the town pops around 60-80,000 depending how far out one includes, and was grateful to find a free motorcycle park handy to the action.

Saw a cafe dishing out huge sundaes, so ordered myself an "Avalanche", was a bit disappointed at its size when it came, chocolate chartreuse the menu said, till I got up to leave and felt a bit unsteady, so 6 cafes further along, I had to go inside and order a salad, beef, bacon, cheese, tomato, egg, to shut the liqueur down.

This afternoon I had a swim in the lake, there's a beach just down the way from here and a fair bit of topless around, the water was great but the bottom a bit stoney on the feet. I rode down in my shorts, doing as the locals do, gassed up on the way home, its a big day tomorrow, 5-6 hours to Cannes.

Tonight I find the restaurant I missed last night, have to fill the hump for tomorrow, campari with olives aperitif, tournedos de beuf, a nice inch thick fillet, not stringy this one, wrapped in bacon, with fried potato and veg, with a glass of house red, and here in France you cant possibly get a bad one, topped off with a couple of scoops of menthe glace. Nice place, under parasols on a 9pm evening, Queen and some gentler French balladier in the music pipe, http://www.aubergedes4saisons.com/