The area is mostly forest and there were sawmills by the roadside. As we approached the first col the view opened out and there were mountains on all sides. We had to stop plenty of times to take in the views when freewheeling downhill as they were majestic. The road passed through a tunnel so we donned our hi-vis vests and put the lights back on our bikes. Some of the cars travel exceedingly fast and it would be dangerous otherwise. The mid section of the route was undulating, but not very steep, and made for a pleasant ride. We stopped by the river in St Laurent du Pont to eat our sandwiches under the shade of some trees as it was 29C by that time.
We also wanted to rest our legs for the second col of the day. This section felt much harder as we were now very hot and the descent was described as dangerous by the tourist office. (They were not wrong as there was a car crash just in front of us on the way down and we had to stop while the car was cleared away. Some of the cyclists go down at breakneck speeds but we tended to brake a lot and stop from time to time to look at the views.)
We took another rest at the top of the col and drank plenty of water. There was quite a pretty park on the top with a sculpture, surrounded by lots of wildflowers.
The view on the way down was remarkable.
The latter part of the day could not have been more different as we joined a voie verte around 15km short of Grenoble and had an easy ride by the river right into the centre of town.
I have never been anywhere with as many cyclists as there are here and cycle paths are on most streets in the city, often at the expense of cars.
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