7 July - @ Chapelle en Vercors

Shock, horror, grief and disappointment! One of our favourite roads in France is no more! The Grand Goulets, the most beautiful part of the road from the south Vercors to Pont en Royans has been replaced by a very modern, very flash, very well lit tunnel! Efficient, of course, and the locals are well pleased. The road it replaced was carved out by hand in the 19th century and featured many short tunnels and long galleries overlooking the rapids and waterfalls of the river Valraison. It was often closed due to rockfalls, was inaccessible in winter and it was probably only a matter of time until a bus full of pensioners got trapped or crushed, but we miss it none the less. It was one of those French roads that is barely wide enough for one car but carries two-way traffic through the judicious use of small passing bays. These usually work surprisingly well as people think ahead and watch carefully. When these don't work, shoulders shrug, hands wave, faces redden and an embarrassed, usually foreign, driver is helped to reverse his motorhome just enough to untangle the mess. At least the Petit Goulets, further down the valley, are still intact but are a mere shadow of their more vertiginous cousins. The rest of our ride was beautiful, with cooler temperatures and very little traffic. It was another short day, just 65 kms, but that left time for us to get haircuts in Chapelle before dinner.

Yesterday we cycled another favourite road, the Pas de l'Ane, on the last day it would be open this summer for more urgent road works. That only leaves about a dozen beautiful routes in this area for us jaded island cyclists.

Tonight we will give our hotel's kitchen a chance redeem itself after a below-par dinner last night. It was a good enough beef stew with pasty polenta and undistinguished crudities, followed by a tasty but dense and unattractive frozen kiwi parfait glace. Usually hotel kitchens make an effort to please their "pensioners" (those on the bed, dinner, breakfast package.) Maybe it was the chef's night off. We'll stay another night regardless, but we'll eat elsewhere tomorrow unless tonight is up to scratch.

We've just about reached the point where we will turn around and head back to Strasbourg. After another loop (Gorge de la Bourne and Combe Laval) tomorrow, we will descend the Col de Rousset on Thursday and head east for a return via a few of the more tame Alpine passes, crossing over to the Ain valley to take us back to Alsace. Lots more great roads and great food and wine to come, I'm sure.