Day 6: Wed 2nd July 2009
Ride: Col du Ballon d'Alsace - 48 miles
We had nothing planned for today, just the vague idea to go for a short ride and find somewhere to have lunch. After a lazy breakfast we spent a cultural morning exploring the castle and Belfort's most famous icon, the enormous sandstone sculpture "Le Lion du Belfort".
The sculpture is by Frédéric Bartholdi who was also the architect of the Statue of Liberty. It's made of sandstone blocks that were individually sculpted and then moved to the bottom of the castle and assembled. The sculpture is 22 metres long and 11 metres wide and it's quite impressive and really dominates the local landscape. It symbolises the heroic resistance of Belfort during a 103 days long Prussian assault in 1870-71.
The view of Belfort from the top of the castle (L) and "Le Lion du Belfort" at the bottom of the castle (R)
We then headed for the centre of town to find a cafe. Over a coffee we formed a plan of action and decided to ride out to the Col du Ballon d'Alsace and get some lunch at the top. The last time we were there was on the way to Chamonix on our 2006 tour - and as it happened that was exactly two years ago to the day. The views were as spectacular as we'd remembered.
The view from the top of the Col du Ballon d'Alsace looking south towards Belfort (L) and our lunch stop (R)
After lunch we headed back to Belfort via Ronchamp however when we got to Champagney we spotted a lake that looked like a popular for sunbathing and swimming.
It was hot and we wanted to cool down so we parked up and went for a swim. The weather forecast for today had predicted storms this afternoon and by the time we'd dried off we could see the clouds beginning to gather so headed back to Belfort.
It might have looked like an old gravel pit but the water was perfect
Meanwhile Cat was in his hire car making his way up to Belfort from Grenoble. He was making good time and expected to make it in time for dinner so the rest of us headed to a bar and waited for him to make an appearance.
(L-R) Chris B, Pete, Gaz, Phil, Chris P and Kyle
Cat finally appeared shortly after 6.00pm. Over a few beers he gave us the lowdown on his bike - basically it was knackered and he was fed up talking about it so the conversation moved on to food. We fancied something to eat that wasn't pasta or pizza and Pete knew of a Moroccan restaurant in the old city called La Gazelle D'Or. We could have done with booking because it was quite busy but they were helpful and found us a table - the food there was good and reasonably priced.
Reunited! A group photo at La Gazelle D'Or: (L-R) Chris P, Chris B, Kyle, Phil, Cat, Gaz and Pete
From there we headed over to the opposite side of the city and a dodgy karaoke bar that Pete knew of. We just about made it before the gathering storm set in. Sensing that the weather was getting worse we then headed closer to home and finished the night off at the Irish bar opposite our hotel.
Cat, Chris P, Pete, Phil and Kyle outside the Irish bar
Shortly after midnight we called it a night, by which time it was blowing a gale and raining heavily. Tomorrow was going to be a wet ride.
