An early summer escape!

I've just got home to Romeyer after a wonderfully intense five days with the Devon Youth Jazz Orchestra at the Vienne Jazz Festival – I'm only here until Saturday, but I just can't resist the lure of a few days at lavender time: it'll mostly be gone by the time I return at the end of July, especially if this 'canicule' continues to roast France.

On the plus side, the heat will encourage me to rest: I had a heart valve repair at the beginning of April, so it's going to take a long time for the heart muscle to rehabilitate (and which is why I've not been here since the New Year). All's going well, but patience is the key, along with regular exercise (and rest) to gradually aid the rehabilitation.

On the minus side, the heat and dryness have provoked a lot of forest fires, and at the moment there's one just south of Die: with no prospect of rain, and the fire services stretched to their limit (particularly the fleet of firefighting aeroplanes), containing the fire is severely challenging. All we can really do is keep fingers crossed.

Anyway, on happier things, I've had my first Romeyer morning walk, and the butterflies are just loving the local lavender, even more than I am!

Return to Blogger?

I might make a return to Blogger here this year, given that I've run out of storage on my Wordpress blog, extra storage space there is very expensive, and one can't link from Google Photos.

Anyway, in the meantime, while I look at options, here's a photo from the Christmas & New Year stay in Romeyer!

Over to WordPress...

Well, I've taken the plunge and have moved activity over to WordPress. It still needs tweaking, as the exporting process has not eliminated some of the annoying inherited glitches from Blogger, but I'm reasonably happy with how it's looking after a few hours' tinkering. It's at https://unanglaisendiois.wordpress.com/, so do pop over there and have a look.

Time to leave

My last day here for now, and time for one last ride before house tidying and cleaning. It's been a vintage summer for getting up to Vercors - unlike last summer, this year Vercors has rarely been wearing its cap of cloud, and indeed, in the high temperatures of this summer has been a pleasant refuge on the hottest days.

So, today, a repeat of a favourite 50-mile loop up to La-Chapelle-en-Vercors before lunch. And then time to say "au revoir". Certainly a most enjoyable and memorable stay. Apart from concerts, a trip to Serbia, welcoming friends and evenings out with French friends, I've cycled 2000 miles, achieved my ambition of cycling 100 solo miles at 20mph, and put up my toilet roll holder that's been sitting on the shelf for two years. See, I do more than just ride a bike.

An ambition achieved...

I'm coming to the end of my stay here for now, and I've got no complaints: the weather has been nearly all fabulous (it's still managing 30C in the shade at the end of August), I've enjoyed the company of several friends, and also some time by myself. Of course I'll be sad to leave the place behind for a while, but I can take the memories back with me.

I'd wanted to do 2000 miles in my five weeks here, so this week needed another 400 to get there. After the tiring 102-miler to Col d'Allimas, I took a rest day the day after (and used it to sample, for the first time,  Die's fantastic open-air swimming pool). That meant that the last couple of days would need about 150 miles clocked up, and with Monday being the day when I leave (so only suitable for a shorter ride), Sunday was the day for a good long route. I fancied a flat one down to Montélimar, and with a southerly wind forecast, a clockwise route, with a decent stretch up the west bank of the Rhône was picked.

As it turned out, the legs felt good, the wind didn't play any mischievous tricks, and as I came in to Die I looked at the bike computer to see that I'd done 104 miles at 20mph, and thus, almost accidentally, fulfilled a five-year ambition to do 100 miles at that speed.  Most satisfactory. And some nice views en route too, snapped quickly.

Col d'Allimas (1352m)

The Col d'Allimas certainly qualifies for its own entry. Sitting just east of the easternmost ridge of Vercors, and just north of Mont Aiguille (pronounced 'aygwee', roughly), access is from the busy D1075-E712, which joins Grenoble and Gap. (This isn't a road for the faint-of-heart, as it carries quite a bit of fast-moving heavy traffic, though it is wide enough for safe passing, and does have some sections of cycle lane.) You can make a circular route by using the back roads between Clelles and Monestier-en-Clermont, but some main road will be needed to close the loop.

Not being on Vercors itself, this is a proper col with roughly 700m of ascent from the Monestier-de-Clermont or St-Michel-les-Portes ends, though it's not well signposted or with definitive starting points either end. The km markers don't give distance to the col either, so if you're pacing yourself, it's worth doing some homework with the map.

I did the loop anticlockwise on this occasion, which gives a dramatic revelation of Mont Aiguille at the col, but I think I'd prefer it the other way round, with a steep ascent and gentle descent. Coming from the north you follow the Gresse, alternately wide valley and narrow gorge. After Gresse-en-Vercors the road becomes noticeably narrower, but it's a short way to the col by then. The descent south is steep and twisty, with some uphill at La Bâtie, and a dramatic gorge section. This is another reason I think it would be a more satisfying ascent from the south.

The pictures tell the story from shortly before the D8A crosses the Gresse for the first time, and finish just before the main road near St-Michel-les-Portes .

Choosing routes

Having said goodbye to my Exeter friends, I'm back to solo rides, and perhaps a bit more time for reflection. While I was thinking about where to take Andy, Keith and Anthony, I obviously wanted to show off the great sights (of which you will know there are plenty around here), the different terrains within a day's ride, and, of course, to make the rides enjoyable, maybe with the odd local restaurant or café to try en route.

Fortunately the four of us are pretty evenly matched, we all enjoy hills, and can support each other with banter if the going gets tough. I suppose that the art of selecting a ride, whether it's just for oneself, or for a group, is to make the challenge appropriate, but achievable in the time available.

My own ruses round here are:

- Don't leave the return with the last 20 miles into a block headwind, especially on longer rides, and if the last part of the ride is on the D93

- Read the weather forecasts carefully, and don't assume that what is forecast for Die will be the same elsewhere. Be ready to head off in a different direction if you see that your preferred ride is going to be into poor weather (pay particular attention if riding on the Vercors plateau or over Col de Menée or Col de Grimone, as they are frequently wetter and colder than Die and further south and west). Meteociel seems to be the best and most detailed websites I've tried. But it's also worth checking live rainfall radar on somewhere like Meteox too. As we all know, weather forecasting is a science of probabilities.

- Look carefully at the direction of your route, the elevation profile and the wind. For instance, yesterday's anticlockwise ride to Combe Laval and Léoncel would have been half the ride had we had a slog into headwinds for the first 40 miles. As it was, it was a dream.

- If in doubt take an extra layer or two. I suspect we've all got it wrong at times, but the consequences of getting it wrong at 4,500ft with two hours of descent to get home are rather more serious than getting caught at Tiverton in a heavy shower.

- Assume your average speed will be at least a couple of mph lower than you are used to, especially if you are trying to make full use of available daylight: the light levels drop rapidly as the sun disappears behind mountains. Don't be too ambitious, especially if you're not used to mountains and real heat. Use something like RidewithGPS, if you can, to check mileages and the amount and profile of the climbing.

- Adjust your route or your departure time depending on the weather. Heat can be even more of a problem than cold. This summer has had temperatures up to 40C in the shade (and over 50C in direct sun) and once you're down to one layer, that's it. At least if it's cold you can add layers. So, set off as early as you can if it's going to be a scorcher, and get home by lunch, or delay if there's cold and rain passing through. Do wear factor 50 suncream if you're going to be out for more than an hour: the sun is extremely intense here on a clear day, and you will burn. The danger parts for a cyclist are tops of the knees, the outside of the calves going down to the socks, and the back of the neck.

- Take an old-fashioned map in a plastic bag. You might love your GPS, but if the battery goes flat, or the route you planned has a road closure, a map can be a life-saver. My new favourite for cycling is the IGN Drôme Départementale D26 (see photo): it's not as pretty a map as the TOP100 of the area (that's so nice I've got a framed one hanging in the kitchen), but as far as ease of reading goes, its omissions (paths etc.) give far greater clarity. If, like me, you love maps, having more than one version of the area won't be wasted expense.