Swapping 2 wheels for 2 legs

This seemed like a good idea at the time, but after 3,000ft of ascent straight up an apparently perpendicular cliff we were 't so sure. It was really hot but fortunately most of the climb was in the shade of the trees and by the time we finally popped out at the Col de Solude there was some cloud to cool things off - plus of course we were significantly higher up! I carried on up to the Col de St Jean (another 500 feet) while Chris staged a sit-in at the picnic table until I got back. After lunch we thought we had a nice downhill walk to Villard Notre Dame, but the path immediately headed back up for a further 300ft and then undulated along before finally descending to the village. From here we had planned to take a footpath back to Bourg d'Oisans but after taking one look at the nearly sheer track that was waymarked we opted out and walked down the twisting Tarmac road. It took an hour and a half and we saw three cars in total. I wouldn't have wanted to cycle down as the road is extremely narrow, has 4 unlit tunnels and the drop off the side is about 2,000 ft of vertical rock face. Even walking we were glad to get back. Our hosts were having the night off cooking so we ventured into Bourg to eat. The first thing you notice is the extremely high proportion of blokes around with testosterone fuelled bragging going on all around. There are a few couples, mainly older, sitting in the corners trying not to be noticed.  We fell in a sort of half way house, cyclists but neither young nor particularly loud (Chris might not agree with that).  The photos today aren't great I'm afraid - one tree looks much like another and vertical drops are hard to capture on film........

Not sure what we'll be up to tomorrow - the mechanic is muttering darkly about a rest day. Already????