Col de la Croix de Fer

The Col de la Croix de Fer is at 6780 feet but there are more bicyclists here than motorcyclists. The road up had an eight perfect grade in places! Some of the older bicyclists are walking as if their legs are cramping, but they made it.

Pistachio ice cream and my favorite sparkling water, Badoit. The French still reuse their glass bottles instead of crushing them and melting them down. Why did Americans stop doing that?

Just as I stopped at the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer, a cattle truck passed. It had only two axles and was about 25 ft long. It was a double-decker with the cows on two levels. While I was enjoying my ice cream, a tractor passed by towing a trailer with maybe ten cows. Finally, a pickup passed with a trailer that was a milking machine. It could service maybe six cows at a time.

I took video while stuck behind and passing these vehicles. The road was so narrow in places that bicyclists pedaling up the mountain had to stop and step off the pavement to allow the tractor with its load of cows to pass. The road was so narrow in places that the trailer only had a foot of clearance on each side.

There are a lot of cows up at these high elevations. I don't know if they have barns up here; perhaps they're only here for the summer. I noticed a lot of farms up at altitude selling cheeses direct to consumers. I guess it's easier to make the cheese where the cows make the milk then to transport the milk down to a factory in the valley. Where I have been, the two most produced cheeses are Tomme and Beaufort.Read more