Morzine

After waking up and moving the car into a better locations for a quicker departure we head into the main village for some sight seeing. Morzine is a very picturesque mountain town. Nestled in a small saddle before the climb to Avoriaz, itself visible from the town is perched on the edge of a cliff. Chalets galore here. Travis is soaking up the timber frame work documenting all he can. This is kind of like Stowe, Vermont x10. Everything is built to impress and it does. The scene here is a buzz. There is a sprint point in town before the final climb so there is a lot of activity here. Right now we are hanging for some coffee.
Juiced up and ready to go we check out the shops and more architecture. The riders are not expected until 4:30PM so we have a good part of the day to relax. Come three o'clock and time to head for the climb for some tight corner action.

On the road to Morzine

Leaving Lamoura behind we get our first taste of tour traffic. Only one way off the mountain and thousands wanting to get to the next stage. We are sitting still for about half an hour before the traffic starts to move. Luckily, once it's moving it is steady. So far the days have been blistering hot but, today we get our fist rain and boy does it come down. Not just a little storm but lightning too. We are one small part of a large snake of cars, campers, cyclists, motorbikes, and tour buses weaving our way down this very narrow twisty road to the valley below. At one point a dozen or so tour vehicles are escorted by moto-police down the other side of the road. Now we have two full lanes of traffic heading down this road. Then mayhem as a camper is coming up. Oops, everybody squeezes just a little bit closer for a moment. Whew. We make it off the mountain, through Geneva and back into France. I forget where we have dinner but, it's somewhere in Switzerland before going through Geneva, if I remember later I'll add it in.
Morzine is a bigger stage in terms of the size of the mountains so we need to get there ASAP. More people will be gathering on the climb. This finish is a HC climb, highest classification. The actual finish is at Avoriaz but, we are not interested in being trapped on the mountain all day, tomorrow night we are due in Interlaken, Switzerland.
We drive around Morzine for a while trying to find a spot to camp. Tonight we have to settle for a slope amongst a crowd of others doing the same.