Met Lynn running down from the statue as I walked up. The world is a very small place sometimes. Sadly the statue access has to be paid for and is not available until 9am. Next time then. A coffee on the way down will suffice for breakfast and off (for me) to Mt Mezenc. To say the riding is good understates the situation. The roads are empty and not too challenging. Great. A few more stops required than yesterday as the map was even more challenging and the amount of water I had taken on board had to be gotten rid of
Today was cooler, partly due to an overcast but mostly because I was climbing in height. Eventually I was very glad for the heavier jacket (yesterday I could have chucked it into the bin). The bad news was it became foggy. Very foggy. 20 meters max visibility foggy. Wet visor/specs foggy. Bloody dangerous foggy.
I stopped for lunch in the middle of nowhere and had a meal of I think lentils with a brown sausage and something else in it. It was very brown but quite tasty. There were others there stumped by the fog. The only thing to do was go downhill which unbeknownst to me put me on the wrong side of the range of mountains to easily get to tonights rendezvous at Theirs.
Finally getting out of the fog I had to turn around and climb back up to get across them. Arrival in Thiers was delayed until 6:40pm after a long haul on the Peage. Mary and Lynn had not checked in at the inn so I made this up at the `Chez le Mare Depalle' which turned out to be a splendid choice for dinner on the terrace by the river. We just love the way it stays warm in the evenings.