To the Aples, dummy! Macon > Chambery [7/11>7/13 - 105mi]

After the Tour hubbub was so quickly over, I pedaled along the first section of their route into the countryside and continued south until it got dark, ending up at yet another ridiculous French campground. [So far, all French campgrounds have been flat grassy parks with people established there as if it's a summer cottage: RV trailers that have an extra room enclosed in canvas/plastic; there are swimming pools, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, food trucks, etc. Not my thing needless to say.] 

At this point, it was time for a serious reappraisal of my approach to France. I've been in a real funk mentally since arriving in Paris and it's not getting any better. Frustrated by boring scenery, the language barrier, a lack of interesting folks along the way and marginal weather, my mood is suffering and my physical ambitions are following suit.

So I have to change something, and quickly. My general plan was to trend down the wide valley between the Alpes and the Central Massif mountains, catching the Tour a couple more times and ending up in the Riviera. But that would all but guarantee more of the same boredom... and this is no way to spend a French cycling tour.

A little pondering and I'm asking myself "why am I not where I love to be: in the mountains?!?" Something I remembered Eszter re-posting on her blog a while back: "Don't worry about meeting people; do what you love to do and the people you want to meet will be there too." So I made the concise decision to head east from Lyon instead of south, get the heck out of this valley and into the French Alpes. I felt elated thinking about it, and relieved that my momentary lapse of reason had culminated with a bit of good judgment. It'll be hard pedaling in those mountains, for sure, but anything beats these dreadful rollers through the farmland and boring little villages.

Didn't take many photos along the way, suffice it to say I had a different agenda than on my mind. Lyon seemed like a neat old city and the people there came across as more friendly than in Paris. They were more willing to speak some English, too, which was helpful. I discovered I could take a train directly to Chambery and then climb up to catch the Tour at the top of the Col du Granier in the morning.... so I raced directly to the train station but missed the last train of the day by mere minutes. At this point, what I should have done was find a cheap hostel, check out Lyon for the night and catch the first train in the morning. Frazzled, what I did do was ride well into the night, another 40mi, sleep in essentially a ditch for a few hours, and catch that same early train from a little town along the route. Saved some cash this way, at least.

Anyway, by the next morning I was officially in the mountains! Feeling great and eager to tackle the the climb up to the Col du Granier (from the north) at 1230M in time to catch the Pros hit the summit from the east. There was a steady stream of roadies of all types & ages heading up the climb; every single one passed me- but I was the only fool with a full touring load going up the ~3000ft to the top. It was hard, it felt great! The hell with the wine country!!!