Day 12

Today we covered a grand total of...0 miles. We were all psyched-up for our first day of the Alps but when we weren't able to sort out the problem dad's been having with his gears we decided to just cut our losses and enjoy a proper rest for a change.

So we took the bike into a local shop and the guy had a look at it. He sorted out the problem and also fixed the spoke that we hadn't got round to doing ourselves. Since Calais the bike had been stuck in the large chain ring, but for the Alps we really need the gears to work.

It has been a very useful day though - probably better spent getting organised than on the bike; and we were already roughly 3 days ahead of schedule so at least that gives more time for the family to get to Picinisco!

This morning we washed through all the dirty clothes so that the flies would stop following us and we sorted out the panniers and sent off a parcel of things that we no longer needed - maps and some unnecessary clothes and gadgets that we should never have brought to begin with. This should certainly lighten our load and we're looking forward to setting off tomorrow with less cumbersome bikes.

It rained again today but there were some spells of sunshine and Pontarlier had a real buzz about it as they were making the final preparations for the Tour de France which arrives here on the 18th.

We also got a really good lunch in an old fashioned french restaurant (photo below).We all got nice, big lasagnes with salad followed by cheese, wine and café creme. It's been our toughest day yet.

Now that we've had this rest today we feel a lot more confident about tomorow. We're just off to have dinner, then we'll have a look at the maps and get to bed.

Until tomorrow then. Hopefully the mobile will get a signal up in the Alps so that we can post our blog!