A bex and a good lie down...

the man
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Mont St Michel is beautiful but lucky we walked out there at 9am because by 10 am they were pouring in – buses, cars, bikes, motorhomes.  We didn’t spend too long in there as I can’t do the whole pushy stuff anymore.  Think I am over it, doesn’t help not feeling well.

Evans was in a good mood, chatty and joking...

and his machine
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We drove on towards Switzerland, stopping at a roadside stop near Beaune, which has 4 restaurants, 2 bottle shops, motel, tourist info – the works.  The French do it very well.  Bruce is keeping himself amused by trying to get the other motorhomers to wave at him, trying all sorts of antics.  Most wave back, though some fresh-air him, much to his disappointment.  Back in Switzerland, we had forgotten how beautiful it is here.  We are heading for Bex, past Lausanne hoping to find a good spot to park but to no avail, so on we go to near Martigny, camped for the next 24 hours on the side of the road waiting for the tour to pass. Bruce then plans on going back to Martigny for the start of the next stage.  We will see, it’s chaos in there.  We tried the campgrounds here but they are all full.  Vive le Tour!  We will spend the next couple of days around here, exploring Lake Leman with it’s Chateau Chillon near Montreux, then head for Annecy for the time trial.  We will leave the tour for good here and head for champagne region. Yum.

the Alinghi going in
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We are meeting some very nice people on the tour. The French couple next to us last night are doing it for the 6^th time (I should say Belgian but they speak French) and kindly let us watch their tv all day. Fellow Silence Lotto supporters. One of the Silence Lotto cars stopped and took photos of us and our motorhome so check out their website to see if we make it on there. 

sam in his usual corner
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We have absolutely no idea what is actually going on in the tour, save for snippets we see here and there and what I can make out in the French newspaper, no idea who is going to win or who has dropped out but it doesn’t. seem to matter too much.  We will pore over it when we get home, thanks to Jim & Sue.  We scored in the scab grab today just by being nice enough to let a couple of girls from cars in the caravan use our toilet.  They piled us with hats and sacks etc. We kept a couple but gave all away to a kid walking past who thought it was Christmas.  We were having fun watching some elderly Swiss citizens who had drunk too much with their lunch trying their utmost to get free stuff.  Even walking up to cars and asking!  Don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be inclined to give stuff to someone who was asking for it.  We were sitting in our chairs just watching and we kept getting the most thrown at us!

the postcard shot
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We have landed in a campground on the shores of the lake in a very small village called le Bouveret.  Just so happened to stumble upon the Swiss America’s cup team launching their boat, Alinghi.  I say Swiss but there were an awful lot of Aussie and Kiwi accents dressed in Alinghi uniforms!  Obviously this is the home of the boat and being Sunday and school summer holidays there are a lot of onlookers around.  It is much bigger than you think it would be.

NOT enjoying his holiday!
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Went back to Martigny the next day so that we could see the start of the stage.  It was great.  We lucked out with the Silence Lotto bus having to park outside the barriers, so we had free access to all.  We spoke to Cadel and got him to sign Bruce’s hat, along with Matthew Lloyd, Johan Van Summeren  and the team boss Hendrik Rendant.  Evans was in a good mood, chatty and joking around, perhaps because the pressure is off now that he can’t win. They were all up for a chat, which is good of them, there are a lot of Aussie yobs among the crowd.  He even yelled abuse at Bruce further down the road. The rest day must have done them all good.  Bruce got his head on Eurosport TV when he was talking to the boss and getting him to sign his hat.  So it was a good day.

Drove off to Annecy, the time trial stage.  Holy cow!  It’s a busy, summer playground for the rich and famous.  It is chaos and still a day and a half to go.  We drove some of the course and finally found a spot amongst other motorhomes.  I’d hate to get here tomorrow night.  Should be a big day, they come through here all day, 2 minutes apart.  We are parked about the 24km mark, in a long line of motorhomes.  Just before the feed station in Tallores, for those of you that will be watching.  Will try and get our sign on TV for you.