Friday 6th July (day two) – 234.6 Miles Val d'Isere

I was really looking forward to getting the last of the Autoroute out of the way today. Getting into the twisties is what the XTX is all about. We had a decent enough start to the day, everyone seemed to fit into the old routine. I got a brew on and woke everyone with a hot coffee, we packed and was away by about 11 after a quick fuel stop.

But even the dull Peáge couldn't be without it's dramas today. At about 100 miles we stopped for fuel at your regular, run of the mill service station. All had gone to plan until Rob couldn't disengage his alarm. Presuming the battery had died in his fob we dug out his spares (from the very depths of my pannier). Meanwhile it transpires that Paul was having the exact same trouble with his Tiger... it wasn't the fob evidently. Paul had heard stories of phone masts interfering with remotes and while recounting the tale to Rob he noticed two large masts behind him! Rob wheels his Vara round the back of the Station and Paul and Simon shielded the Tiger with their bodies (the the amusement of any witness to the scene – it looked like one very strange sex act involving two men and British engineering). They all eventually got the alarms switched off and the engines started again.

If only that could have been our one an only misadventure of the day. 50 miles later, whilst exiting a contra flow system just after a very long tunnel, literally a couple of junctions from the end of our Autoroute hell and I lost all drive. Like it could only find neutral. My mind raced through endless scenarios as I rolled to the hard shoulder to find my chain dragging behind me. Bugger!

The four of us parked up on the hard shoulder as trucks hurtled past us at an alarming velocity. I called the RAC and they very politely explained that they couldn't arrange recovery from a Motorway (apparently the Motorways are privately run in France or something). They did explain that I needed to use the emergency phone and say 'Je suis enpan' and that in all likelihood the operator would not speak any English (Damn my ignorance!) and they would arrange recovery.

Before too long a highways truck turned up and radioed a local recovery guy. I was on the flatbed while the guys followed on to a garage in Bellgarde. The mechanic phoned around and found a chain at a Yamaha garage about 20 minutes away and Rob (armed with his GPS and an address) was dispatched to buy it.

We used the time constructively; Paul adjusted his chain and Simon taped his bike back together which had been blown over on the hard shoulder by a passing truck, cracking the faring and knocking an indicator off. Meanwhile I'd had several conversations with the RAC who eventually agreed to reimburse the cost of the recovery.

Paul popped into the local town for some food and managed to get back mere seconds before Rob and the new chain. Rob was less than happy as the Yammy garage had not been the most helpful. We had a little picnic while the mechanic put the new chain on (courtesy of RAC apparently – I was kinda glad that I didn't have to do it).

We were now off the Autoroute. AT LAST! Now the fun starts. Once again we've been incredibly lucky with the weather and had lovely dry twisty roads through stunning vistas for the rest of the day. Obviously the breakdown had set us back time wise (about three hours in fact) so we only made the briefest of cursory stops at Lake Annecy which was absolutely picture perfect. From there on it was Alpine bliss. Windy roads sweeping left, right, left through the most beautiful scenery you could imagine.

Rob had scheduled a little off road track diversion into the route but because of the detour we no longer had the time. As it was we got to camp quite late and only just had enough sun to get camp set and say hello to a bunch of guys from the XRV.org forum.

We strolled into town and was pleasantly surprised to find the Morris Pub open (Rob assured us it was THE best bar in Val d'Isere – I don't think we would have cared). We have actually had one too many but nevertheless a good, if rather late, night was had by all. We even ended the evening off with coffee and chocolate back at mine... at about one in the morning!