Col des Cyclotouristes

June 4, 2025

The restaurant at our hotel is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays while the restaurant at the hotel next door is closed, for the evening meal at least, on Saturdays and Sundays (odd, but I think that’s what it said). There’s another that’s only open Saturday and Sunday evenings, so I guess it all works out and they all stay in business and nobody starves.

Last night was Tuesday so we ate at Hôtel du Grand-Mont next door. We both opted for a formule and, though the food was very good, there was just too much of it. And because it was so good, we both stuffed ourselves.

We both chose an entrée-plat formule, knowing we could add dessert later if we had room. This is my entrée, a chèvre salad.

We both ordered the same regional dish for our mains, or plats: diots de Savoie au vin blanc et crozets à la Savoyarde. Sausages and pasta, accompanied by vegetables we didn’t need to specially request. The crozets (pasta) came in a casserole dish to serve ourselves.

I couldn’t eat all of my sausage so Al ate the rest. We couldn’t finish the cheesy crozets but Al wanted dessert so he ordered one to share.

French interpretation of lemon meringue pie. Yummy!

Today’s weather wasn’t forecast to be good, but we had created a route for a day ride just in case. On the map of possible rides I photographed a couple of days ago, there was a “Col des Cyclotouristes”. A Google search yielded not a lot of information; apparently this “isn’t really a col” and the usual approach is from Albertville. We rode up from Bonnecine and down to Venthon.

The ride itself was fine; mostly we rode through forest but the surrounding peaks were obscured by clouds anyway. The marked col itself was anticlimactic.

There was a ford, deeper than expected. I got a wet foot.

I’ve been seeing lots of these purple bottlebrushes (no idea what they are really)

Is the sun going to make an appearance? It did, sporadically.

Some kind of orchid? Spotted leaves and hexagonal(?) stem.

Yes, the top one says “Col des Cyclotouristes”

Just as we started down, we spotted a cycling col sign. Time to practice selfies! We’re both terrible at this but we each managed to get good ones while laughing at ourselves.

Another flower I saw many of as I rode up slowly.

Part way down, wd came across Fort du Mont, described on the map from TI as a “spot instagrammable”. We’re not sure why. It’s not open to the public and we both wondered why it’s there. It’s not guarding a pass, river crossing, or harbour or anything else. It was built not quite 150 years ago and I don’t think there was any specific reason back then either. It seems to be maintained; there were half a dozen wheelie bins out by the road.

Inside the archway, there’s this. Perhaps it raises the bridge across the moat? The sign only says you can walk around the exterior walls and read info (we think, we didn’t bother).

Residents of one of the hairpin loops. There was a ram too, but it was laying down sighing over its recent shearing.

We joined the main road 3 km from Albertville, according to the sign, and rode 16 km back to Beaufort. We passed a section being prepared for repaving by grinding off the old asphalt. It was the lunch break but one piece of equipment was working in a driving lane with no single-lane-alternating light system I could see and no flaggers either. Interesting! We were both glad not to be riding skinny tires.

After cleaning up, we went to the other of the two boulangeries in town for a light late lunch. Light enough to add dessert!

Lunch dessert: tartelette aux noix. I savoured every bite.

We timed it well. The rain was just starting as we finished and headed back to our room. It’s pouring out there now as I finish writing.

Heart

Comment

Link

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	7
Comment on this entry	Comment	0