Breakfast at 8 in the hotel dining room with a few others, then packed, paid and off by 9. Weather was cool to start with but sunny, and warmed up nicely later on. Following the D542 then D942 I made good progress through the beautiful rolling countryside.
Knowing that it can be v difficult to get lunch in France after 1330, when I got to the D1085 I had a look round the village of Monetier-Allemont, and found a nice cafe in the Square. Unfortunately the chap inside was a builder doing refurbishments, and the cafe wasn't open for business. Blessing in disguise though, as another 7km took me to the lovely village of La Saulce where I had a very good 3 course 'plat du jour' with a glass of pression and wifi, all the while soaking up the sun and watching village life go by. Marvellous! But I knew there was a big hill to come, so couldn't linger too long.
The road through Tallard to the Lac de Serre Poncon was easy going, and I enjoyed comparing the real view down the valley at Remollon with the Google Street View photo I had posted on Facebook back on 23 July.
From the lake, the road went up the hillside quite steeply, at one section going through a tunnel so that I had to stop at either end to turn my lights on and off. My new Garmin eTrex30 wasn't being very useful at this point, frequently asking me to 'make a U-turn' when I knew I was on the right road. Eventually I arrived at the fairly isolated Hotel Pension Rolland, to be greeted by two excited dogs. The landlady told me I was the only guest as it was late in the season. Thankfully dinner was available, as it was a long way to anywhere else, but first I went through the standard daily procedure, ie shower, hand wash the dirty clothes from today and yesterday evening, hang them up to dry, and change into fresh evening clothes. Often the washed clothes wouldn't be quite dry by the morning, so I would put them in a separate bag from the dirties and the cleans. This way I only carried 3 sets of cycling clothes and 2-3 sets of evening clothes, but always had a clean set each day.
After these ablutions (which I promise I won't describe again!) I went for a walk and saw lots of parascenders flying around the cliffs just to the East (as on title photo for this blog).
Dinner was another full 3-course affair, making two today, but I have been burning off lots of calories so I need all that food!
After dinner I had a long chat with the landlady about Edinburgh, where she had been a few years ago.
Sleep was disturbed by an unknown small animal scurrying about above the ceiling. Next morning the landlady assured me it was not mice (or worse) but a local wild animal that tends to get in to houses. So that's all right then!