Day seven begins with the now normal dawn chorus  at around 6am. The dawn also reveals a really very strange municipal campsite with a handful of pre fab, plasticky looking structures, largely unoccupied (we think). To be fair it does have probably the best showers in terms of heat and power (ie not in looks or cleanliness….oh God no not cleanliness!) that we have had so far.

We have named the campsite, as is our want, with all the campsites, “not Bob” on the basis that the campsite we were aiming for yesterday but which was closed when we got there was called “Camping Robert”.

There are some more running repairs needed to Dans pannier this morning and so there is much huffing and puffing before we head off. Most of this time is spent with all three of us on our knees rootling through the undergrowth looking for a dropped nut that in fact we never did find.....fortunately we have another and they manage to cobble something together (notice the word “they”….like I am getting involved!)

Eventually we do get going and a quick check of the map suggests we only have 54 miles to do today to get to the foot of Alpe D’Huez, one of our milestone quests on this trip, although nearly all of those miles are going to be up.

Immediately after we leave “not Bob” the road heads down, and down and down for about 8 miles until we reach the town of Voiron where we decide we should stop for coffee.

Worryingly eight miles of down probably means even more up later!

The views of the Alps are now getting spectacular and of course very, very scary.

As we cruise towards Grenoble the roads are now the most unpleasant they have been so far on our journey (apart perhaps for the very scary tunnel in Paris) and we are actually on dual carriageways for some of it....it’s really not good (hence no photos!)

Eventually we do find a cycle path by the side of the river heading into Grenoble and start to enjoy the scenery a bit more.

We take a small detour to the seventh wonder of the world (IMHO, if only today)….

....to pick up the bits we need to do a better repair on Dans pannier, to get a new burner (yay, tea and beans are back on the menu!!) and some spare bolts to replace the ones used yesterday (@Sarah Indge, you can relax again!). Fully fettled we head off back to the cycle path and into Grenoble proper. 

It’s immediately apparent that Grenoble is just one of those places everyone passes through on their way somewhere else, very much like we are. It’s a strange, grubby, unkempt place at least what we saw of it, and not at all the “gateway to the Alps” that I had so hoped it might be. So with nary a dawdle (nice work Nick, literally nobody says “nary a dawdle” anymore) we push onwards and upwards. 

To avoid ridiculous, and frankly simply undoable climbing today on the smaller, potentially prettier roads we (and by we I do of course mean “I”) have elected to follow the path of the A48 and then the D1091 as it winds its way through the mountains....it’s busier than we might prefer but it’s more direct and only gently rising as it take us slowly towards Le Bourg d’Oisans, our destination for the day.

In the context of cycling from London to Rome “Gently” means that we climb around 1500 feet out of Grenoble over the course of about 20 miles which to the uninitiated is still very much enough to make you notice and, dare I say it, bring tears to your eyes, and soreness to your swonicles. It is basically the equivalent of climbing 170 flights of stairs (that’s one hundred and seventy!!!) carrying an extra 15 kilos of weight each, and having already climbed several hundred flights over the previous six days not too mention 600 plus miles ….and this is not even anywhere near our hardest day!

Safe to say it’s a very long hard grind then to Camping Colporteur at Bourg D’Oisans where we discover, the most helpful campsite owner we have ever met (let’s call him Pierre for arguments sake). Not only is he positively overjoyed to see us he also has a not so surprising supprise for us. The wonder of Amazon (which clearly is short for “bloody amazing, how do they do that?)  has made all my London to Rome wishes come true with a replacement solar panel (and yes i do still think the branding needs work) that i ordered yesterday……incredible right?

Once Dan has given his campsite toilet approval (don’t worry, just humour him) we set up camp and as you can see for the first time since Dieppe, it’s damp and grey. If you zoom in and look closely at the more scenic photo above (ie not with Dan in it) you will perhaps make our our next destination, Alpe D’ Huez. It’s over 1km vertically above us (a lot of flights of stairs) and essentially the Wembley Stadium of cycling and we are going up there, with our panniers.

Unbelievably we have cycled the length of France in just seven days and covered over 600 miles. We are tired, exhausted, a bit thinner (perhaps!) but overall really proud of ourselves “vive les trois hommes”

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