Daybreak and we ’ re packed before Breakfast , again we want to beat the heat , but it ’ s a lot less oppressive at this time of the morning , so we risk textile jackets without liners and hope we don ’ t evaporate . Croissants and coffee , then it ’ s off to Grasse and the Route Napoleon , following the same roads the wee man took on his return from Exile in 1815 . His troops must ’ ve had good calf muscles . Wending its way skyward out of Grasse , it heads more or less North through the foothills of the Alps for some 300 kilometers to Grenoble , and we were going all the way , and then some .
It ’ s something of a biking pilgrimage , so the roads busy with travellers on two wheels , each giving us the traditional left hand out acknowledgement as they pass heading south … my arm gets tired waving back such is the frequency of the traffic !
Initially the road sweeps and twists around the hills that mark the beginning of the Alps , zigzagging it ’ s way up and down spectacular valleys and gorges as it makes it ’ s tortuous way North . An hour in we make a fuel stop in a valley floor town and refresh ourselves from the effort of constant turns and hairpins . By the pretty waterside town of Sisterons , the road has flattened out and gone all straight on us , but it ’ s pleasant going and we make decent progress . The sat nav takes us on a few shortcuts , down sleepy lanes and past tumbledown Chateaus to break up the journey , as we bear down inexorably on Grenoble .
As we hit the expansive suburbs of Grenoble , it ’ s closing in weather wise again , thunderheads speckle the sky and dark , glowering clouds crown the surrounding peaks with grey wreaths . We hit a Tour de France Party in Grenoble and town ’ s closed , so we ’ re diverted around the edges and finally once more we climb ever upwards into sleepy alpine meadows . Just out of town we ’ re halted at a Gendarmerie National roadblock , the “ Tour ” is passing just up ahead and the roads are closed for an hour . Deciding against a massive detour , we head back to a roadhouse café at a petrol station we just passed and fill up on petrol and a leisurely but delicious chicken Provencale , and wait … Soon we ’ re off again and before long were crashing into the back of the camp followers , miles of motor-caravans heading back from the “ tour ”, more cram every available gap in the roadside , people lunch on isolated picnic tables and wait for their lift home . Hundreds throng the roads on foot as they make their way back to cars and buses . It ’ s a traffic nightmare !
For dozens of miles we constantly overtake the snake of metal , it ’ s predominantly one way traffic , as it seems everyone is following the tour and heading home , or to a future stage to do the same again . So it ’ s relatively easy going on the wrong side of the road . It chokes back up at every town and village , but eventually we clear the blockage .
At Bourgoin-Jallieu the storm finally break on us , and I do mean on us as penny sized splots of rain merge into more meaningful sheets of precipitation . We stop for waterproofs , but were already soaked . Ploughing on it soon clears to clouds again and the increasing heat warms and dries us , as we head out of the mountains and onto the rolling French countryside . After a few more miles on arrow straight N roads , we close in on Bourg en Bresse and our resting place for the night . A somewhat past it ’ s the best hotel at the railway station , but with a garage for the bikes . We settle on a Chinese from the next door restaurant and munch the all you can eat Buffet , until it ’ s all we can eat !