The Day Before Mick's Big Day

We had a bit of a sleep-in on Tuesday morning, which was nice - except that it was so hot you couldn't really sleep-in but at least we didn't have to be up and down to breakfast at 7am. We set off around 10am to check out the Col de la Colombiere where we would be watching the stage from the next day... it certainly got us pumped and we were so excited.

As you would expect there were caravans everywhere, people camping out ready for the big day - most of them relaxing with their paper and cuppa in hand watching the people pass by. There were also heaps of cyclists making their way up over and down the mountain, they had great determination too - cause this was no easy ride.

{Proud cyclists having their photos taken at the top of the Col de la Colombiere}

{Over the top and back down into Le Grand-Bornand}

{The roads were winding left and right, and were steep and dangerous to be driving on - people & cyclists everywhere!}

This mountain pass has featured in Le Tour de France 19 times - the first being in 1960, so the residents know how to decorate! Red Polka Dots everywhere to cheer on the King of the Mountains! At the top of each categorised climb in the Tour, there are points for the riders who are first over the top - they collect points throughout the race and who ever is leading wears the polka dot jersey, and at the end that rider is named King of the Mountains!

Le Grand-Bornand is a traditional French alpine village and a popular ski resort which sits at the foot of Aravis mountain range and is where stage 17 finished. It was nice to drive through the day before because the next day it would be packed with camera crews, officials and team buses. The roads would be closed and this small town will have people in every nook and cranny!!

Imagine this place in winter, log fires burning, ski boots outside the door, coats hanging and kettle boiling! Even though there was no snow, it really did feel like a ski resort. This place is not forgotten in the summer though, it's home to hikers and gliders and cows in the paddocks ringing their bells! This place is a lot like how I would imagine Switzerland to be actually, and felt more like Switzerland than Switzerland did (well Geneva anyway)... it was just beautiful.

{This is how crazy they are - setting up camp in any old place - in fact I think The Tour makes people do lots of crazy things!!}

When Mick asked if I'd like to go into Switzerland when we were planning this trip I was very excited! I hadn't realised that we would be so close to the border - so I was excited about the possibility of going there. We took the chance on Tuesday afternoon and crossed the border into Switzerland. Border crossing is just amazing here and I guess they have so many people going in and out each day they can't hold you up and search your every belonging, but they really don't seem to even care. I was amazed. It was very similar coming into France actually. No questions asked or declarations to fill out... which meant no Swiss stamp in my passport! :-( Very different from arriving in America or Australia, or even England. We didn't see any Swiss Villages, which is a bit of a shame but Geneva was lovely. We weren't far across the border and we were in Geneva - which meant city traffic. It actually felt a little bit like Melbourne, there were trams and horns and lights and crossings everywhere - although this picture is making things look pretty still....

{Dad taking a photo of Emily through the mirror while we waited in traffic}

{More signs that we didn't understand!}

Once again Mick did a great job at driving and found us a nice under-cover car park so we left the comfort of our air-conditioned car and faced the heat! We spent the next few hours around Lake Geneva.

Lake Geneva is huge, it's the largest freshwater lake in Western Europe and is 582 square kilometers. Most of it is in Switzerland but the French border actually goes through some of it. It was just beautiful and the Jet d'Eau (water-jet) looked brilliant. Five hundred litres of water per second are jetted to an altitude of 140 metres by two 500 kw pumps! Sounds like something Tim the Tool man Taylor would rig up doesn't it!! This water fountain is one of the city's most famous landmarks and can be reached by a stone jetty. We walked out and got pretty close, but didn't walk under the main stream because people were coming back drenched!!

{Baby ducks on Lake Geneva}

It was pretty hot here today (a massive heat wave was going through Europe at the time) and the lake didn't provide much of a sea breeze as you might expect it to - cause it's not the sea - but it sure feels like it should be, when you look out and see nothing but water, going as far as the eye can see! We collected some Swiss Francs here, and had lunch by the lake. The guitar playing busker was very entertaining until he sent his mate over to the table with a hat!! Everyone else pretended they had food in their mouth so it was up to me to cough up some cash!! (I felt too bad saying no!)

Geneva was a nice place, and I'm really glad we got to go and take a look. After all, it has been referred to as the world's most compact city and the 'Peace Capital'. And a 2009 survey found Geneva to have the third-highest quality of life in the world, narrowly outranked by Zurich - Switzerland's largest city (Geneva being the second).

Dad's quality of life sure shot up while here! He was showing us how his £5.00 ASDA watch weighed up against the Rolex ones, looks quite proud really doesn't he!? They both told the time anyway.... until on our way home when Dad's watch stopped - I thought it was hilarious - I guess he got 15 days out of it!!!