Cowbells and mothers

The week we spent at the gite was a wonderful rest from the bikes. We had clean sheets, towels and access to a washing machine – very exciting. I think I put through about 5 loads in the first 24 hours. Being at the gite also gave me time to put my GP registrar application together. I posted this from Grenoble on the Wednesday during an “outing” there and am very glad to report (after spending about($25 printing the application and getting passport photos) that as the GP college have received it, La Poste is very efficient (and reasonably cheap!) as it was delivered 5 days after I posted it!

The gite was as mentioned situated rather high up in the Rhone alpes with amazing mountains and the very relaxing sound of cow bells. The scenery was very Heidi like (which I loved). As there was an important birthday to celebrate and in view of the fact my mother seems to have been hoarding various liquors in preparation for this week, this was not the most liver friendly of weeks. Fortunately we seemed to compensate with multiple long walks in the mountains. Our last night in the gite we had exquisite aperitifs with the owners of the gite who lived next door and who had been kind enough to take over the ownership of Michael's bike and the Macpac tent that we had upgraded from.

Despite a friend telling me that holidaying with our respective, in-laws-to-be was “weird”, the week was so good that we were both very sad to leave. This was not, of course, at all associated with the fact that after 1 week of blue skies and prior to this a good 2-3 weeks of rain free camping, we left the gite on the Saturday in a clear patch between drenchings, with rain filled clouds hovering...... We also had to face several cols (passes between valleys – read hard work) to get to our planned destination of Annecy that night.