Hilary and Stan in Europe 2011 - Day 6 - Grane to Les Tuillières

... or, Day Two of Hilary and Stan's "Tour de France!!"

We woke this morning to find, to our relief, that it was overcast today and therefore cooler.  Although this ride was only 40 kilometers, we had a bit of climbing to do so it was nice we could avoid the heat for this.

Crane

Today's ride took us through some very picturesque towns and up into the foothills of the Drome region.   We stopped in Crane, the largest town, for coffee and found a bakery open with freshly made tomato and cheese baguettes and delicious pastries, which we packed away in Hilary's panniers for lunch.

Fresco in Aouste

 From there, we cycled into nearby Aouste, a quaint village with a large Roman fresco that met you on entering the main street, acknowledging Roman ruins that are found in this region.

 On leaving Aouste, we began climbing, a short, but at times sharp six kilometers to the summit of Pas de Lauzun, on the way to Saou.

Climbing up Pas de Lauzun

We made it!!

Saou

Plaza in Saou

We stopped in Saou, another lovely little village, to break out or baguettes and pastries for lunch at the village main plaza.

Our final approach to Les Tuillières was marked by what we're sure were some missing instructions which led us off to a baffling intersection.  We finally figured it out by... you guessed it, retracing our steps and religiously studying our map.

View from our bedroom window

 matter, we made it to Les Tuillières, where Susan and her husband Hermann welcomed us with a glass of wine and a gourmet dinner in their garden.  Their hotel guests - a couple from Belgium and four from Switzerland were delightful company,  Two were professional artists, which made for very interesting converstation.  Sabine Stinglhamber, who shared her web site at http://www.simplesetsauvages.be/, is a remarkable sculptor in Belgium.  Pieter, who is Swiss, is a landscape painter.  It turns out that Hermann, who is an accomplished chef, also teaches gourmet cooking classes.  So, since we're staying two nights here, Hilary and I will be joining in tomorrow night to help cook dinner!