Mind the Gap!

The skies opened up again on our last full day in Europe. This was the day that we had booked our very first hire car in the whole trip (excluding Mulder, who wasn't really ours), to take us from Nice to Gap to see the Tour de France again. She was a Renault Clio, who I immediately named Cleopatra.

Just in case anyone's interested in cars, she wasn't particularly exciting. She really struggled up hills!

Here is Tom doing his best granny-at-the-wheel impersonation learning to drive on the left side of the car, with the gear lever on the right, driving on the right side of the road. There's a lot of things on the wrong side!!! Add in having to cope with busy, narrow streets and crazy French drivers, and we were both on tenterhooks!

To make matters more complicated, the weather kept getting worse.

And the road kept getting narrower and narrower and curvier and curvier!

We could definitely tell when we went through a particularly stressful patch of road, because the windscreen would fog up from both of us breathing anxiously.

We passed a gorgeous lake along the way.

And stopped for a much needed stress break. I wasn't brave enough to get out of the car and get rained on, though.

We drove on...

And on...

And on...

And eventually found our way into Gap. Then came the interesting task of trying to find a park close enough to some form of action. Because the rain-filled journey had taken a lot longer than we expected, we didn't have much time to get ourselves a great vantage point, but we were lucky enough to find a park on the footpath.

And in case you needed proof that my photos aren't always in order, here I am blowing up that Australia-themed beach ball once we found our cyclist-watching spot by the side of the road.

Just a beach ball wasn't enough, though. Every Australian cycling supporter hero must have a flag cape!

It felt like hardly any time at all had passed, and the first group of cyclists were whizzing around the corner.

Despite the slightly pained expressions on their faces, they don't look like they're trying very hard, do they?

This guy just spotted Tom (while the guy behind him was reaching behind him to get an energy bar - which he then accidentally threw at me, incidentally)...

You'd be smiling too if you saw this by the side of the road.

The next group of cyclists came past... with Australia's hero Cadel Evans in the black jacket peeking out behind the guy in green.

There he goes, taking the corner wide.

The cyclists kept coming...

And then it was time to get our bearings and admire the town of Gap.

Which happens to be very pretty.

But a little difficult to navigate for people who'd only just barely managed to make it there driving on the wrong side of a car on the wrong side of the road.

We eventually found our way to the centre of the action in town...

Tom scratched his back with some locals...

And we marvelled at the spectacular changes in the sky - from thunderously cloudy to bright and shiny.

And back again.

We met up with Dave and Cassie again for our very last dinner in France (and Europe).

Tom had a spectacular camembert salad...

And it doesn't look like much, but I had what was quite possibly the best duck main of the trip. It was fantastic.

We parted ways with Dave and Cassie (and donated our flag cape to them to continue its second lap of Europe as they moved on with their travels), and we made our way back to our hotel in fairly nearby Digne les Bains. Unfortunately following street signs to a place doesn't always work out to the best route. I fell asleep, and woke up to this sight of a castle lit up on a hill. I haven't managed to figure out what its name was yet, but it looked pretty spectacular!

It served as a signal that we needed to turn around and find another route, so we did eventually find our way back to the hotel for some very much needed rest!