Travel Wardrobe Part 1. South Island, New Zealand. Burda Style 10-2011-129 skirt

The other task that interrupted the blogging was a review of my travel clothes for a family holiday. For this type of holiday, the clothing needs to be quick drying, hardy, provide for outdoor activity in all weathers, and take up very little space. I find packing requires considerable thought. Unfortunately, the skirt and 2 pairs of trousers I made for a 3 week trip in 2010 have mysteriously shrunk in certain regions since I stopped the unsustainable 10 hours per week cycling I was doing at the time ( this unusual activity was in preparation for a cycling trip), so I had a very good excuse for some new travel clothes.
Here is the result of hours of vacillating considered selection for a 10 day trip to the South Island of New Zealand, where we spent most of our time walking in National Parks.

Two t-shirts, one pair of shorts/trousers,one skirt and the leggings are new additions. The shirt dress, lace two layer t shirt and raincoat have been displayed previously on the blog. The polar fleece jacket and the sun hat are old purchases (hmm, I think the polar fleece jacket is older than DD the second), and the wardrobe also inluded purchased tights, 3 pairs socks and smalls, and a hand knitted woollen hat. It fit in my day pack carry-on if I wore the jacket and raincoat, which is not really possible when leaving from 38 degrees C and 90% humidity, but is a nice idea in theory.
I forgot my woollen gloves, but fortunately it is very easy to buy warm gloves in New Zealand.
Skirt Burda Style 10-2011-129

Skirts being more forgiving than trousers, I was just considering the wearability of my slightly too snug dark brown A-line woven quick dry nylon skirt when Mary Nanna posted a fabulous A-line skirt in corduroy, saving me from searching through my Burdas for a suitable skirt pattern (procrastination blog reading is an important part of any sewing rush job). Aside from the other charms of this skirt, the pockets struck me as particularly useful for a travel/walking garment. I used woven nylon wicking fabric from the Rainshed, purchased 2010,which is a fabric used by outdoorsy shops for their travel clothes, found after much real life and on-line hunting, and not in the colours I particularly wanted. After seeing Mary Nanna's silk duponi version I am thinking a silk version would possibly have been more glamorous and equally practical, as the fabric cannot be tumble dried, although it hardly needs it, as the skirt washed by hand, wrung in a towel, dries fully between 10pm and 6am when hung up over the sink.

Unfortunately for me, the particularly charming buttons I placed on the pockets, per Burda, provided unecessary visual width at the hips. Having unfilled scraggy buttonholes looks better, I assure you.

Instead of lining the skirt, I made a voile petticoat, with elastic waist and button loop waist closure, using the skirt pattern pieces. It is easy to dry two layers if you can separate them. I used a blind stitch to make a scallop hem on the petticoat.

My concession to the walking aspect of this skirt was to add an invisible zip to the bottom of the sideseam.
I took this idea from a RTW outdoorsy skirt, and it worked very nicely, allowing me to leave the skirt as a fully covering garment when worn in tourist places,

Garden, Otago Peninsula
and to scramble up rocks (worn with leggings underneath) in less groomed locations.

Greenstone track, Fjordland National Park, and there is a skirt under the several outer layers.
My other concessions to the drying requirements for travel were to use hemp for the waistband lining (resists mould and bacteria) and to finish the hems with the overlocker and a single rather than double turn.

Elephant rocks near Duntroon

London Day 1

Uta has sent me an interesting link about immigration boundaries in Europe. Whilst this enlightens my ignorance, it does not explain why, on entering France, the official glanced at my passport and waved me through, and in contrast, on entering the UK (which happened crossing a line from the French to the UK part of Gare Nord) there were 15 minutes of questions - (What had I been doing in Europe? What countries had I visited? Where was I staying in the UK? Had I been to Africa? Had I visited a doctor in Europe? Did I have any diseases?) Possibly the French official could see at a glance that I don't speak French and took pity on me. Maybe I looked more like an undesirable visitor after a long morning walking around Paris than I had after 33 odd hours on aeroplanes and in transit lounges? Or maybe the UK official knew that the train was about to leave and was tormenting the passengers a bit. There were a lot of people behind us in the line. I wonder if they caught the train? I guess this is the luck of travel, but next time I will make sure to allow an extra hour for immigration into the UK!

However, I was safely in London by this time, and after our touristy day,

went back to Elizabeth's place to meet RuthieK, whom I also "knew" from Stitcher's Guild. Ruthie had been travelling for most of the day, but after I begged and pleaded (well, actually, after I asked nicely), she kindly agreed to come to Knit Nation with me, although she is not a knitter. After discovering that Elizabeth seemed very familiar, it was not as surprising to me that so did Ruthie, which is why I asked her for this favour within 5 minutes of meeting her for the first time! (That is my excuse, and I am sticking to it)
I was very pleased to find that our dates in London co-incided with this 3 day knitting expo). Originally, I had bought tickets for my husband to attend (amazingly, this was his idea) but as he had been directed to a fabulous bookshop by Elizabeth's husband, he was very keen for someone else to keep me company so that he could start the first of his new books (and nurse his cold a little).
I was really looking forward to seeing some of the independent dyers and yarn producers, and was not disappointed. There were a few hiccups. I had looked up the trip on the London transport site, and we took the underground, but I had seriously underestimated the time it takes to get around the underground circle. Elizabeth told me later that I should have caught another line across the circle. She is more time efficient than the London transport site. Ruthie did not seem to mind the trip though, we were talking so much that we nearly missed our stop.
There was a bit of a walk to the exhibition, but we spotted the V & A Museum, which we planned to visit later, so that helped us get our bearings, as did the many women wearing gorgeous hand knits and carrying very full shopping bags who kept passing us in the opposite direction. One of these ladies came up to us and told us a short cut. She had spotted my hand knits too!
Unfortunately my camera battery died after I took the first (bad) photo at the exhibition, so you will have to make do with photos of my loot.



This is all hand dyed British yarn, except for the cashmere. (I was feeling self indulgent)
Ruthie was great company at the exhibition. She has a terrific dry sense of humour, and kept telling the stall holders that she was not a knitter. This, of course, elicited plenty of demonstrations of enthusiasm for knitting. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ruthie was gently teasing the stall holders (and maybe me).She stuck to her guns, and managed to get away without a learn- to- knit pack, which required some fast talking and ducking! (She did buy some yarn for a friend).
I learnt a new beading technique, and was impressed by Ruthie's ability to pretend she was not bored out of her brain whilst listening to the demonstrator. I bet she is very sharp and clever in dull work meetings where everyone else is going to sleep.
Eventually we arrived back near our accomodation, and met my husband and Elizabeth at a Turkish restaurant - delicious, and the company was excellent. Ruthie and Elizabeth were very kind to my husband and did not talk about clothes or sewing (very much). This restraint did not seem to slow down the conversation at all. It is lucky that people eat late in London. We needed a good dinner, as the next day was very busy. I will reveal Elizabeth's master plan for us later......

Paris, but no sewing yet

I had forgotten, when I rashly predicted fibre content in this post, that there was still considerable cycling to get out of the way. My window for sewing/knitting excursions whilst we were in Paris was very small.
First there was the 6 hour drive (the other half of the sock and the start of the next one). Next there was the very exciting finish of the tour on the Champs Elysee. I would like to say that this was really worth watching in person - the atmosphere was terrific, there were thousands of spectators, but you could only see the riders if you a) stood there from 6am in the mornning to get a barrier spot or b) had a step ladder. Our group had a step ladder,used in turns, but I did not use it. I felt that this would be unfair to the spectators whom were not mentally planning their trip to the fabric district in Montmarte instead of attending to the sprinter postitions in the last lap.
We had a terrific celebratory dinner at a nearby restaurant, all except my husband, who was charged 30 euros for his pre- ordered vegetarian dinner consisting of a plate of overcooked green beans and cabbage ( the entree was okay - fresh mozarella (it had a French name, but it was mozarella to me) and tomato salad). I saw my hopes of post tour nice dinners out rather than bread and cheese in the room go up in smoke whilst watching the poor guy eat his meal. I thoroughly enjoyed my pate fois gras followed by salmon and potatoes gratin - 25 euros. Trena is right, some of the French seem to hate vegetarians.

The next morning was the last gasp of cycling. First there was a track standing exercise - staying still on the bike and remaining upright. I was not skilled at this. Then there was a dawn ride around Paris.



This was nearly as terrifying for me as the pack riding - I am not used to cycling in city traffic, nor over cobblestones, but fortunately the French drivers seem very aware of cyclists, and certainly give them a lot more room than do the drivers in Australia.
No one seemed to pay much attention to red lights or traffic signs at this hour of the morning. I found this disturbing.
After seeing plenty of tourist hot spots,



I was tortured by a ride through Montmarte. We rode past lots of shops with signs saying tissue, all closed of course (that was the torture - and the hills and the cobblestones). Unfortunately for me the object of this excursion was not reconnaissance for fabric hunting, but the view from the Basilique du Sacre Cour.



I carefully noted the relative position of the train station and Tissue Riens for later use.
-------------------------------------------
Self Stitched September


Vogue 2925 (oop) Wool Flannel jacket

Vogue 7903 blouse - cotton shirting


BWOF 4-2009 trousers - cotton gabardine.

Things I have learned already from Self Stitched September
1. I should wait until my daughter emerges from the shower rather than asking my husband to take photographs - that is, if I want a flattering photo. I do. I told you, I am vain.
2. Although leaving the house with wet hair works for me from a time management perspective, as it is dry by the time I get to work, it is not a good look for photographs.
3. These trousers are currently ill fitting. I am not really keen to make a lot of trousers at present, as the 6 hours per day average exercise during my trip is not sustainable in my real life, and my former proportions are likely to re-establish themselves with depressing speed.
4. I need some new work shoes.

Vineyards and flat stages

A backlog of sewing posts is building. To avoid a UFO, I will persist with the cycling.
Next in the tour was the Bordeaux region. I cannot remember the next official stage, but we drove for several hours (half a sock worth), and after another talk on nutrition and long stages, stopped at a feed zone.



(We were not so lucky as this rider, the only shop open for us was a bakery, which had only one thing left -a local specialty, sort of like a fried doughnut filled with stewed apple. At least it was vegetarian!)

We were very fortunate at this finish. We were able to enter the rider's bus area, where all the post ride interviews take place. We saw all our favourite riders roll in, and watched some interviews and cool downs.



Our riding on the first day in this region was all about the riding in a pack. I find this very difficult. You have to watch the back wheel of the rider in front, constantly, to avoid a collision whilst staying as close as possible to draft from them. I am generally riding with cyclists whom are more fit than myself, so I also have to ride as hard as I can the whole time to keep up, not just when it is my turn at the front.
I was strongly tempted to speak rudely to the guys who were excited by the speeds we got up to and carrying on about it after the ride. 55k per hour on the flat just scares me, and I have no photos, or memory! of the scenery. I may have mentioned "never again" to my husband after this ride.

We stayed at this hotel.

The hotel was quite bad, the worst room of our trip and inedible dinners, but the location was fabulous - overlooking the last 500m of the time trial in Paulliac. We hung out our team jerseys at the request of our cycling group so that they could feel jealous if they saw our hotel on TV. (They didn't)
Here is my husband next to Alberto Contador.



I found Paulliac to be a sewing and knitting desert. However, the next stop is Paris, and I promise some fibre content.

.........................................................................

Other things that I don't want to leave until I am up to date with my posts.

Mary Nanna wants to know what I think of Patrones. I think it was a lifesaver at the time. I plan to sew something from my magazines once the weather warms up. There do not seem to be as many patterns as in Burda, and maybe they are more basic, but I only have 2 issues. I don't love all my Burda issues.
Mary Nanna also asked me just before I went away about the skirt I am wearing in this post. I am sorry to be so tardy with my reply. It is Burda 4-2009-101, I have reviewed it here. There are another 25 reviews. I made two skirts from this pattern, and they are both nearly worn out.
Vicki asked if the cycling is connected with work, and how. Yes. I think explaining this in detail could get pretty dull for my sewing blog, so I will avoid it. I seem to be getting a long way away from my travel wardrobe! We work with/on cyclists, and my husband has run some cycling tours and training camps, he will probably do more in this area. Cycling is his favourite part of work, and he spends most of every weekend cycling.

Self Stitched September. Read about it here on Zoe's blog.
I am trying this challenge. Mainly because I need to make some new work trousers, and the boredom of taking a photo of the same pair 3 times a week may inspire me to sew some. I do not plan to post every photo. I am too vain to post really bad ones.
Today I am working in the yarn shop so do not feel compelled to wear trousers. I have posted about most of these clothes already (sort of a cheat post really, to put them up again)





T shirt Vogue 8593, rayon jersey knit
Cardigan, hand knit, my own pattern
Skirt, Burda 4-2009-101, cotton twill

Ravenna boots from Duo in Bath.

Another country

Those regular readers who have not banished this blog for excessive cycling content will understand that at this point in my trip I was suffering considerably from sewing withdrawal symptoms.
I had tried to hold these at bay by knitting.

(Silkroad DK Tweed, heavily modified pattern from Jo Sharp Contemporary 2)

Unfortunately, although I like knitting, it is not nearly so satisfying to me as sewing.
I had been very well behaved, and did not even stop at the base of the Tourmalet when I rode past a shop advertising hand woven fabrics from local mohair. This took some fortitude.
I had, however, been searching for pattern magazines in every newsagent within reach.

Arreau is only 30km from Spain. I was expecting to see Spanish magazines, including Patrones, which I had only read about. To my dismay, I had not even come across a French Burda, although my husband reported that the cycling magazine selection was truly impressive.
The day after we climbed the Tourmalet, the original plan was to climb it again, in reverse. Just quietly, I thought this was a little bit of overkill, but was keeping my head down during the discussion of any cycling plan - cycling fanatics are not entirely reasonable about cycling. To my secret glee, we woke to terrible weather.




I was very happy walking around the weekly markets at Arreau in the rain (the raincoat worked perfectly), and even more happy when after the post breakfast discussion, the planned ride was cancelled.
I was just planning out my next knitting project when someone suggested we drive to Spain.
Most of the group were Australian, so visiting another country by merely driving 30km has a novel appeal, and as one of the group was born in Chile, we thought ordering coffee in Spain would be pretty simple.
After a remarkably short and picturesque drive, we were in another country - no customs, no immigration, no stamp in the passport. Weird.
It also seemed weird that Spain was completely different- architecture, road signs, even the mountains were different, more harsh and steep ( I had expected a more gradual transition). Fortunately, the coffee was also different (we much preferred it to French coffee).
Even better, in the tiny supermarket (town population 900) I found Patrones, 2 issues. Naturally I bought both of them, without even glimpsing at the content.


Normally I would be skeptical about a magazine with a monokini on the front cover, but this was a desperate situation.

I was equally excited to see another copy of the same issues in the tacky tourist shop next to the ancient church. I bought these too, thinking of the friend I would be visiting in England.

The cyclists (men) were highly amused. "Do you speak Spanish?" (No) "My wife would never do that, she likes shopping" (Good for her)"Why would you bother?" (too hard to explain). I tuned out the thrilling discussion regarding gear ratios and looked at my magazines all the way back to France.

I felt much better.

A bit of knitting whilst watching the tour on television and discussing the effects of alcohol on sports performance over a glass of orangina (I hope the blokes with the beer were listening), and I was even feeling a little under-exercised.



In the afternoon, the weather cleared a little and we rode up another, non famous, Col. This was my favourite ride of the whole tour, being the most scenic, and having no traffic.(Also the beer, or going too fast the day before, was working on the men :) ) On the other hand, maybe an hour or so perusing sewing magazines had made the cycling more enjoyable.

Arreau, Mountains, and warm clothes in the travel wardrobe

The next stop was the Pyrennees. The weather was beautiful in the middle of the day, but cold up high, and morning and evening. I used all the warm clothes I had been thinking I could have left behind.
Mostly, however, I was wearing warm cycling clothes.
On the first day, we rode into Arreau

The hotel was fine, and they made a great, and much appreciated, effort to feed the vegetarian (Scrambled eggs with pasta might be unusual, but at least it contains protein!)

The talk was all about climbing, training for climbing, recovering from climbing, how we, personally, had trained for climbing. I was feeling quite nervous, and would have reserved a spot in the support car, but the roads on which we would be riding were already closed to motor vehicles.

The next day, we rode up the Col D'Aspin (not as difficult as I had expected), then waited on the side of the mountain to watch the caravan and the tour. I waited about 3K from the top, and had fantastic views of the riders.



Cadel Evans

I could see the riders on the road below about 20 minutes before they came past me. It was very cool to be above the helicopters!

The next day was huge. We rode 150k or so, past Lourdes, through the valleys,

then the incredibly long climb up the Col Tourmalet

and down the other side, through mist and sleet.
This was an amazing experience. It was the Tour rest day, but there were hundreds of cyclists climing the mountain), and thousands of spectators camping out in anticipation of watching the Tour climb up the next day.
Whilst waiting at the bottom of the Tourmalet for the van to drive us back to Arreau, we visited an exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Tourmalet climb in the Tour de France.


This amazed me. Between 1910 and 1914, there was a woman cyclist, Marthe Henne, who beat all the men up the Tourmalet in every organized race in which she competed (she was not allowed in the tour)- wearing the garments pictured. I pointed this out to the men who had beaten me up the Tourmalet.

More Travel Wardrobe, St Girons

Just to put a bit of sewing/clothing talk back in my blog, here is the travel wardrobe, minus underpinnings, swimming costume, cycling clothes, the raincoat and a few scarves.

I have posted about most of the items previously.
Details:
Top layers
Casual cardigan
Cardigan jacket/bolero
Lace wrap (purchased)
Crochet short sleeved cardigan (rayon/cotton, purchased)
Blouses/shirts
2 wicking poly t shirts (purchased specifically for trip)
1 fine wool jersey tank
1 woven cotton short sleeved blouse
1 merino jersey long sleeved t shirt
1 rayon knit t shirt
Bottoms
1 quick dry nylon skirt (purchased, radically altered)
2 quick dry nylon trousers (purchased, radically altered)
Dresses
Silk jersey long sleeved
cut on cap sleeved wicking polyester
Cotton batiste,sleeveless (purchased, radically altered)

I have a lot more clothes than we packed for my husband, but they took up about the same amount of space - all of the tops and the two short sleeved cardigans fit into one A4 sized zip lock bag, and the dresses and bottoms into another.

With the last travel post, we were about to leave Camon. At this point I had been travelling for a week, and had worn (and washed) every item above, except the raincoat, long sleeved top and one of the pair of trousers.
I did think at this point that I could have managed with fewer clothes.

The most worn and practical clothes were the skirt, cotton blouse, and batiste sundress.
These were the only items (other than my silk scarves) that were completely dry overnight after being handwashed, then wrung out in a towel. (12 hours or less to dry) (Later I found that the merino long sleeved top was equally quick to dry). I had tested all the clothes at home, but this test proved unreliable in Europe, with the clothes slower to dry, although the weather was reasonably warm.

I had included the batiste dress at the last minute after a completely unrelated search turned up a post by the Slapdash Sewist describing how useful she had found a batiste dress for travel (sorry, I have lost the post). I read Trena's blog all the time, but had somehow not picked up ealier that she is an expert at travel packing. I guess she does not boast enough!

The poly t shirts, poly dress,silk jersey dress, wool jersey tank and nylon trousers took 24 hours to dry
The rayon knit t shirt took about 30 hours to dry.

I think the relative speediness of my clothes drying compared to my husband's (similar fabrics) was due to my clothes being smaller, having less robust facings (deliberate construction choice) and also my more attentive wringing and hanging techniques :).

I was least satisfied with the wicking poly clothing. Although I felt quite comfortable wearing the polyester clothes whilst on the plane and in Paris, all of the poly clothing felt too hot to me during the middle of the day in the south of France. I found the natural fibres more comfortable, and not really any slower to dry or requiring more care.
I was pleased to have included the cardigans, as these completely changed the outfits, giving me more variety, and I needed the warmth in the evening and early morning.
I had not come across an iron yet. This was not really an issue. The woven clothing did not look particularly wrinkly when it came off the drying coat hanger, and packing wrinkles steamed out nicely by hanging the clothes in the bathroom whilst taking a shower. However, my printed cotton wovens looked far less wrinkled than my husband's plain and fine striped business shirts. These would have looked much better ironed, but fortunately, the shirts had been packed well ironed for the meetings early in the trip, and after this, he disguised the wrinkles by wearing his pullover for more official occasions.

Back to the tour
We left Camon in the early morning, driving to Palmiers to see the stage start. The technical discussion in the car and whilst waiting was all about nutrition and hydration - pros, training, racing, and the differences for recreational athletes. Whilst this was all very interesting I also found it quite amusing, as most of the riders in the group had skipped lunch for the last few days - we were supposed to find our own lunches, but as we were riding on back roads (no shops) and arriving at towns very close in time to the tour, all the food shops had been closed. I guess the shopkeepers all wanted to watch the tour as it passed through their towns.
Palmiers was our first chance to buy food since Tolouse. We had arrived very early to avoid the road closures, so were able to stock up with cherries, cheese and bread for lunch, Yum.
We munched away whilst enjoying the pre stage activity.






Eventually, the stage starts. We are very close to the riders, and can identify individuals, but even only a a few hundred metres from the start, they are very fast.



It is now our turn to ride. We get changed in the van again (long dress a great advantage IMO) and set off for our 90km trip to the next hotel. It is quite hot, around 36 degrees C. I would never choose to start a ride in the early afternoon in summer at home, but I am not in charge, and as Uta commented on my last post, if you really don't want to go out in the sun, travelling to the south of France in summer is not a good idea. I am pleased to have found 50+UV sunscreen in Palmiers (yes, it is baby sunscreen!)

The countryside is beautiful, the road is quiet, and a nice mix of hills and flats. I am keeping up nicely with the fit blokes, but after whizzing past dozens of picture perfect scenes decide that I have no desire to thrash myself, and start stopping for photos.






After this wonderfully cool tunnel, through the natural cave and full of stalagmites, there is a picnic area with an ice cream stand.
Cassis sorbet is delicious (blackcurrant).
I am joined by all the following riders, and only just restrain myself from trying another flavour.

Eventually, (at 90k) the decadent riding group arrive at St Girons.
The fit blokes have added on a loop up the Col d'Aspet.
The decadent riding group have a swim instead. The pool is the best bit about the hotel.
We are staying here

It is a bit of a comedown after Camon. I know the room is clean, as there is an overpowering reek of industrial disinfectant. This is better after 3 hours with the window open.

The fit blokes (including my husband) arrive back in an exhausted state. The dinner is very plain, but large, and although there is no deviation from the set menu for the vegetarian, (vegetarian = leave the meat off the plate), one of the courses is pasta with tomato sauce, so he does not starve. (He eats my pasta too). Later in the evening great inroads are made into the almond biscuits we brought from home.
There will be plenty of room in this bag for fabric......

Camon and linking up with the Tour de France

Warning: another photo heavy post with little sewing talk.

From Toulouse, we started the main cycling part of the journey, which was organized by a third party. We were picked up at Toulouse railway station by the organisers. They were several hours late, which gave us time to meet the co-cyclists, and offload much of the delicious fruit we had been unable to resist buying at the markets (far too much for two people - I think I was buying for the whole family). Loading up the bikes gave us a good look at the latest cycling doo-dads.



I was pleased that I had packed all the cycling clothes and bike bits in their own ziplock bags, as the first thing we were asked to do was to put all the non-cycling items in a car that was remaining in Toulouse to pick up a late arrival.

I was a bit disappointed to discover that there was only one other woman participant who would be cycling during the trip.

We were driven to the tiny village of Camon.


We stayed here,


which is the most beautiful and luxurious place I have ever slept.



I want to come back here without the bikes and the work.

The first thing we did when we arrived was to do a full bike set up on our hire bikes. It was interesting to see someone else's method and to try out the compact gears. There was a 30K shake out ride, although it was rather late in the day - another benefit of 10pm sunset, and a stretching class in the pool. I learned that backwards summersaults are a great exercise for the gluteals if you are a cyclist!
I was pleased to have brought some frocks and a lace wrap top, as I felt a Michelin star restraunt in a restored 900 odd year old abbey deserved my best efforts at dressing for dinner.


I deeply regretted not being able to buy pretty sandals in Paris, which had been my original plan for my travel wardrobe (husband and work limited shopping, which I should have expected). The dinners and breakfasts were fabulous - and there was a special vegetarian dinner of equal deliciousness (and different each night) for my husband - not normally on the menu and deeply appreciated.
We had another 2 rides from Camon.

The first was about 110k - over back roads to Revel, where a stage of the Tour de France was finishing. We rode out in the mid morning, and I found discussing training schedules and bicycle bits much more interesting once actually on the bike - and able to stop to take photos of cows wearing cute bells

(much to the disgust of my companions, who felt that as we were ahead of the pack we should ride really hard - maybe for testosterone points? There were also some beautiful villages and hill-top views.

We were really lucky in Revel, and were able to ride the last 15 km of the route, even though all the banners and road blocks were up. There were a lot of spectators, all having big parties, and there was a lot of cheering and teasing comments as we rode past. This was much more fun than I had expected. I felt quite excited riding under a category 3 climb mountain points banner and the 1km to go banner. We had to turn off the route before the finish line, but that was fine with me, it was packed.
We waited in Revel as spectators.

What do you think is the load limit for the roof?

Wearing a skirt was a definite benefit as we had to change out of our cycling clothes on the street or in the van. I do not want to know how the men managed this with trousers! We spent the afternoon seeing the caravan, catching lots of junk, and then seeing the riders flash past.


More stretching classes were definitely a benefit after this long day.
Next day the tour started in Revel. We rode about 70k across to Miriproix, a touristy town with a mediaeval centre,

to watch at a sprint point. Here was a different wardrobe challenge - putting up with cycling clothes whilst being a spectator. I took a big floppy hat, being prone to sunburn, but the Europeans watching did not seem to bother with sun protection. There was hardly a non-caravan issued hat to be seen. We had taken just a small bottle of sunblock cream, trying to pack light and thinking we could purchase more whilst overseas, but this was a mistake. Whilst in France we spent over 30 euros for 2 small bottles of 50UV+ sunscreen, and had to really hunt for it each time. To put this in perspective, I only spent 35 euros on fabric in France, so you can see the problem. We rode back to Camon on main roads, a much shorter route, but not nearly as pretty.
In the evening we had the opportunity to talk to one of the support staff for HTC-Columbia, who joined us for dinner. This was really interesting. I learnt more than I had expected, always a good thing! She talked about the boredom of riding in the buses between stages. I think she should take up knitting. I was up to 2/3 of a sock from car trips at this point. (The pullover had become too big to work on in the car).