This was by far my favourite day of Tour viewing; it was the stage I was most looking forward to watching because it was the exact same route Brendan & Christian had cycled less than two weeks before in l’Etape du Tour (read about it here), and we also had the advantage of staying about 10 minutes away from a section of the route which made for a pleasant viewing experience.
Contador & Schleck battling it out on the mountains!
We only had to wait for an hour or so before the riders came past us and as soon as they had disappeared over the mountain we power-walked back to the car, returned to our hotel room and watched the remainder of the stage on TV, on a comfortable sofa, sipping a glass of red wine. Yep, definitely my favourite stage! It was certainly impressive to watch the professionals completing the mountain climbs looking fresh and energized, which was not the case for the 10,000 riders I saw ascending Alpe d’Huez during l’Etape.
As it was our last evening in the Alps, we decided to celebrate accordingly and so we went to a small restaurant called Les Chalets Gourmands which specializes in fondue and raclette. We had never tried a raclette before, so we decided to order the dish that comprised a large chunk of cheese under a heating device which, once melted was scraped onto a plate of potatoes, salad and sliced meats. Mmmmmmmmm!
now that is a large chunk of cheese!
delicious meats
cheeeeeese!
We didn’t even come close to finishing that massive chunk of cheese, but we both ate a LOT! It was absolutely delicious and worth every cent (the bill total was close to EUR50 which is more than our usual travelling dinner budget); even just thinking about it now is making my mouth water! If you ever find yourself in the Swiss or French Alps, be sure to check out this traditional and memorable dish…but you’ll definitely need to arrive hungry!
Awesome!
We were just talking about this dish last night, as I had never heard of it. Sounds too good!