May 28, 2025
Noyarey to Le Bourget-du-Lac
Our day started with a nice breakfast in the garden. Everything was prepared in-house by our hostess. She’s Italian and the breakfast was definitely more towards the sweet side.
We rejoined the dyke path by a different route than we’d left it, even though we’d be backtracking for the first few km. It was yesterday’s route we’d changed, not today’s. However, this meant we started by heading through Noyarey’s farms with fantastic views of the mountains beyond.
| Heart | 5 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We left the dyke path to head towards Voreppe and then through the Chartreuse towards Lac du Bourget. We stopped to chat with a man from Chambéry heading south on his first bikepacking trip, planning to arrive in Marseilles in 3 days. He’s an ultra runner, so he should get there in time to meet his wife… He was confused about how to get to the path along l’Isère and we tried to assist, having just come ftom there. But the connection, all on bike paths, is convoluted and we would never have found our way without GPS.
Voreppe is where the big climb of thd day started. It was a steady up to Col de La Placette, where Al was waiting in a shady park.
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We’d been climbing on D520A but 4 km past the summit the reasonably quiet road merged into the busier D520. Conveniently, there WSD a very nice boulangerie serving sandwiches and such with some picnic tables on a lawn. We had been thinking of deviating from our planned route to find food but now we didn’t have to. After a short break, we rode a couple hundred metres on D520 and turned onto a quiet undulating road through forest and farmland. Perfect!
| Heart | 7 | Comment | 2 | Link |
1 week ago
| Heart | 6 | Comment | 2 | Link |
1 week ago
As for uses in North America, décor comes to mind. The only other “use” I’ve seen for them is at races: ski races, bike races, longboarding races, marathons, etc. Those are small enough for spectators to easily carry and probably thd size of bells on smaller livestock like sheep and goats.
1 week ago
On our 2017 tour, we rode up the Gorges du Guiers Vif and down the Gorges du Guiers Mort. I still don’t know what a “guiers” might be but now we are going between them, or at least through the village between the two creeks so named.
Back on D520 and climbing out of Les Échelles, the road seemed headed directly toward a cliff and the map on my Garmin wasn’t very clear on how we were going to get around it. Then, as we passed Saint-Christophe La Grotte, there was a sign telling us that the turn to visit the Grotte was after the tunnel. There were no other signs except “allumez vos feu”.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I’d created a route to get us off D520 where possible and once again, we had a few km on narrow roads through rural France. When it changed to rather rough gravel, though, we turned around and retreated back to D520
Descending into Chambéry, we felt a few raindrops and there seemed to be an afternoon storm rolling in. We pedalled straight through to Le Bourget-du-Lac, although we both regretted later not stopping for a photo of what appeared to be a fire truck assembly plant right beside the bikeway.
We arrived at the Savoy Hotel dry this time, just. Today’s was only a clear-the-air afternoon shower, though, unlike the deluge that escorted us along Lac du Bourget in 2017. This time we could actually see our surroundings and we rode all the way on the bike path, which didn’t extend this far in 2017.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 3 | Link |
1 week ago
Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 358 km (222 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 7 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |