Bike: Moutiers / Salins-les-Thermes to Albertville, 19 miles, 1100 feet of climb
Accommodation: Gites de France les Ecureuils (Airbnb).
Since we had a short ride ahead of us, we started by stopping at the local boulangerie for a pain au chocolat and palmier cookies (pastries that look like a pig's ear). It was all downhill from there. Until we got to Albertville, and then we had to climb up to our gite above the city. Before leaving Albertville, we tried to find a restaurant for lunch, but every place we went to was fully booked. We decided to push on to our gite, then walk down to the grocery store and cook our own meal.
It was fun to return to a familiar place and people. Fabienne greeted us warmly, waved us up to our gite, and asked if we wanted to wash clothes. We thanked her and said no; we have a washer in our apartment in Grenoble and will do that during our rest days.
By the time we had showered, it was over 90 degrees, and we laid down for a half-hour before trudging down the hill to the market. An hour later, we were back at the top of the hill, taking our second showers.
 |
| Every day is pain au chocolat day. |
 |
| We are oh-so-French with our baguette bungeed to the back of the bike. |
 |
| This was our second chance to climb Col de la Madeleine. We passed. While we were in Moutiers, Stage 4 of the Haute Route Alps cycling event went through town, after climbing the Col de Glandon and Col de la Madeleine on the way to the final climb to Meribel--95 miles and over 13,000 feet of climbing in one day. We watched some of the riders go through town in the early afternoon. |
 |
| Albertville. Only a few of the windows on the tall pink building are real; most of them are trompe l'oeil. |
 |
| Looking up the hill to Conflans (a small medieval city) from a square on the edge of Albertville. Our gite was to the left of Conflans, at about the same elevation. |
