June 2, 2025
Le Chéloup to Beaufort-sur-Doran
A short ride today, just as well considering the weather. A few days ago, today’s forecast was clear and tomorrow’s too, with rain on Wednesday. It definitely rained today and Wednesday’s forecast is still wet, with some decent weather tomorrow. We have 4 nights in Beaufort; the plan was 2 day rides and a rest day. We shall see.
Our accommodation last night was interesting. The B&B is called Le Clos des Lys and it’s in La Maison des Contes de Fées. In other words, it’s contiguous with the Fairy Tale Museum.
Al took a few photos of the sign, the exterior (with our hosts), and in our room.
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All that aside, our hosts were a really sweet older couple (older than us, I suspect) who spoke very little English but he especially was really interested in mountains and asked us a lot of questions about mountains and wildlife in Canada. The dinner they provided last night was tasty and filling: a green salad, tartiflette (potato gratin with Reblochon, a regional cheese), and tarte aux myrtilles (we never get tired of this one). Breakfast this morning was also good: orange juice, fresh pastries, baguette, butter and jam, and of course coffee with hot milk.
Back when I booked this place, it was right on our route over Col des Saisies and down to Beaufort. Then, in April, I received an email from our host letting me know that D218B would be closed between Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe and Col des Saisies, though the closure would be above the B&B. No problem if I chose to cancel.
So I looked again at the options and there really wasn’t anything else, so I revised our route to go back down to Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe to cross the Nant Rouge river and then up through Crest-Volland. It was a fast descent through ND de B and steeply up to Crest-Volland.
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It was up and a little down and along but we finally joined our original route at 1 km below Col des Saisies. We had started at the marker 10 km from the summit and ridden 11.5 km to this point, so the detour added 2.5 km and probably ~250 metres of climbing to our day.
At the top, we layered up for the descent. It was pretty and would have been spectacular in better weather. As it was, I never bothered getting my camera out and didn’t even stop for any photos with my phone. Until we got to Hauteluce and I braked quickly (no slamming on brakes in the wet) to look at the church.
We arrived in Beaufort wet and just a little chilled around quarter to one. We didn’t think our room would be ready (check-in time was given as 3), but we found our hotel, which had an open restaurant. Perfect. By the time we finished lunch, unloaded our bikes, and checked in, our room was ready.
Later, the rain let up for a while and we made a little explore.
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1 week ago
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Our hotel restaurant is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so we chose to eat here tonight. When it came time to go downstairs, the rain was coming down hard. We were happy to stay in and the food was good too.
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Today's ride: 29 km (18 miles)
Total: 484 km (301 miles)
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1 week ago
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