For this first week in Villard-de-Lans, we have been staying at a place called La Tiaga. It is right outside of Villard-de-Lans, and we can take the walking path 15min to the center of town. The owner of La Tiaga is Dominic. He has been an incredible host. He is a cyclist himself, and knows all the routes around. We tell him that we want an 85km route with some climbing, and he gives it to us. 

I have been plotting courses on Bikeroutetoaster.com - with his help, and then we just download them to my Garmin 705 and follow the course. It has been great, because Dominic knows all the back roads, and has been taking us places we would never find on our own - definitely "local" rides. 

The hotel costs about 41-48 Euros a night (depending on how many in a room) and includes breakfast (typical French breakfast - Coffee or Hot Chocolate, OJ, cereal, croissant, bread, butter, jam). It also includes dinners, which have been great. Each night Dominic starts us out with an appetizer - a combination of slices of meat, fruits, salad, cheeses, etc., then brings out the main course, which is some other king of meat and some starch. This week we had things like Chicken, Pig, and Sausage, with rice, au gratin potatoes, and couscous. It was always delicious.

And after that, it was always time for dessert. I had Creme Brulee each night, because it was so damn good, but there were some other things available, like blueberry tart, pecan pie, ice cream, etc. 

I would highly recommend La Tiaga and the Vercors area to anyone who wants a great place to ride (or ski, or nordic ski, or hike, or base jump...)

# posted by WebCyclery Blog @ 10:01 AM