Excellent sunny weather. We walked the bike through the hotel washing, then a lovely climb up a nearly made up road (till we got to the roadmenders, some 'route barre' signage but could get though the surfacing machines, then it was rougher).
Had a coffee and cake at an desolate auberge near the top of Col de la Vaccia (1193m), where Gaby cycled passed but didn't stop as the top was just round the corner. Down to 2nd coffee of the day at Aullene. Not time for lunch yet.
Nice up and downs through quaint villages to Quenza where we stopped for lunch by the church and watched the world go by for a hour. It was only going to be a few miles to go to Zonza and there was no hurry. We savoured the weather, atmosphere and lack of rain.
If Zicavo was a one horse town, Zonza had two, but no more. We found the peleton relaxing in the sun by the hotel, waiting for our tour leader to arrive and get the keys. We looked around the town, a very small museum/exhibition about Resistance during the war, and quite a few of us bought headscarfs with the corsican moor motif. Great hotel with a view across the valleys.
After I had too many beers and pastis on the terrace chatting to the others, and Alan explaining the menu in fluent corsican, we all ate in the hotel restaurant. We were all getting to know each other enough to feel comfortable with some good banter.What a difference a day makes. I forgive Kevin 'the assassin' (The Tour de France introduced high mountains of the Pyrenees in 1910. The Tour's founder Henri Desgrange was a hard man, yet even he was sceptical when the idea of crossing these giant lumps of rock was suggested. A colleague at L'Auto was sent to reconnaissance a typical Pyrenean climb. Despite himself having to be rescued after foul weather descended, he reported back that it would be passable come the summer. Many riders were not convinced and the first stage resulted in one accusing Desgrange of being an "assassin")
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