We left Aix-les-Bains early, trying to avoid getting caught in the imminent thunderstorm that was lurking above the mountains to the west of our hotel. Breakfast was at least a thousand calories chocolate muesli croustillant (basically granola) eaten out of a plastic plate. As you can imagine, it took several helpings to get a satisfactory amount of cereal in my stomach. I actually preferred this to the usual French patisserie for breakfast, it kept me fuller for longer and was a far denser form of energy. While I'm still unable to eat porridge (after daily over consumption of it during the TDA), I will definitely note that cereal is the ideal touring breakfast.

We head off in the direction of the storm, i.e. Chambery. The road wasn't overtly uphill but, like the general trend of the day, was a gruelling slog along moderately busy D roads. Our optimistic routing again tried to take us off into several footpaths but we elected not to cut the corner and actually made it through the centre of Chambery very quickly with a slight tailwind and a short descent.

This tailwind helped us for the rest of the day but, as we're passing through the Alps, it was generally uphill all the way, despite the D1009 which we took essentially following a river all the way. It is a surreal road too, running alongside a major motorway (the A14) and never really looking like an uphill road. Phil and I speculate that this is because of how wide and relatively straight it is (compared to normal windy mountain roads) and the fact that it is bordered by tall mountains, both of which mask its true incline.

We reached our original destination of St. Etienne de Cuines pretty quickly, at just after 11am over approximately 46 miles. As we were getting close to the village, we saw a large convoy of yellow vehicles blaring Daft Punk come past on an adjacent road. When we got to the village, the road was shut - for the Tour de France nonetheless! We saw the commercial convoy go past (they threw free samples of some, 'sirop' concentrated drink at us and sprayed us with Vittel water) and struck a conversation with a well informed tour follower from the Netherlands who had been trying to catch the riders at certain points on his motorcycle this week. After an hour of the occasional motorbike and team car coming through, the helicopters flew closer and eventually the riders came past at incredible pace. Besides the obvious physical challenge of the Tour, I can imagine it must be extremely tedious cycling amongst so many vehicles, especially if you become separated from the main peloton. Still, it was enjoyable to see.

After they'd all come through, it was only 1pm, so we went to our hotel to see if we could possible cancel our reservation and head on to the next hotel a say early. A couple of ladies smoking outside of the closed reception said it was possible if we cancelled before 2pm. Unfortunately reception was shut until 2pm. We called the booking office where I spent far too much of my phone credit speaking to a nice Indian call centre worker who eventually redirected me to the hotel (whose phone I could hear ringing). A lady eventually picked up and, having passed the phone to Phil since she didn't speak English, told us abruptly that reception was shut until 2pm and that she would not help. We went to pick up some food from the nearby Intermarche supermarket to fill the remaining time.

Inside the market, I ran into a rather sour looking cyclist who, Phil later informed me, was British. He seemed extremely pissed off at something. I can only imagine he must have had severe saddle sores. Either that or he was a Tour competitor on a budget who was having to buy his own water refills from the supermarket.

Today's lunch followed the usual pattern but I went a little more budget than usual. The baguette and brie were absolutely fine but buying cheap American style chocolate chip cookies in France was an error I will never forget.

At 2:05pm we began to panic because there was no one at reception and our boundary condition had obviously been breached since it was well after 2pm now. Phil had already secured an extra night's stay at our hotel in Modane and all we needed now was to cancel our stay at this hotel and get going.

A couple eventually turned up at 2:15pm and spent sometime trying to unlock the front door to the hotel. We thought they were just guests who were locked out but eventually the man with a moustache set himself up behind the reception desk. After double checking that we were absolutely sure that the reservation would be cancelled, he made it so. It remains unclear whether this cancellation incurred a cost to us in the end. I hope not.

The 24 miles to Modane we had eventually planned a separate day for because of the 6,000 feet of climbing. However, our actual hotel is located in the lower part of Modane, which saves us about 2,000 feet. With at least 5 hours of sunlight left, we were confident we could handle the 24 miles.

This turned out to be true but it was as misleadingly difficult as the first half of the day. Despite the road seeming flat, we were actually climbing throughout. We also passed an abnormal number of cyclists, many of whom had beautiful kit and bikes but were surprisingly slow! We were also overtaken by many cars and caravans with bike racks, most likely following the tour.

When we reached Modane after 72.79 miles on the road over 4.53.05 hours (an average of 14.8mph), we were pretty tired. Luckily we've bought ourselves an additional rest day tomorrow - which should help get us ready ahead of the planned 8,000 feet of climbing on Sunday. Additionally, my parents are coming to spend the weekend here with us to celebrate my mother's birthday - so there will be lots of cake!

Dinner this evening was a duet of crepes (technically one was a galette) accompanied by a glass of kir. It's hard to describe these well so I suggest you check out the photos that may eventually upload.