A simply gorgeous morning, cool air, warm sun and a stiff breeze,perfect to sit by the pool or garden and listen to the water lap at the shoreline, read a book, take a nap with a cozy blanket to keep you warm against the wind; can’t you just picture us doing that?   Yeah, we couldn’t either, so away we go.

The wind the last few days has been a double edged sword; while the strong north wind keeps the temps down and the air almost brisk, it makes the ride much more difficult.  Today’s challenge  was to hold the white line as the wind hit us from the side.

But it’s a shore ride today, as we want to see Montpellier, which is only 35K down the road.  With extra time, we went through Gigean (from whence Jerry hails),instead of ‘by’ it as our road dictated.  Darling town (of course)

with narrow passagesand pretty churches.We arrived into the middle of the square of the town we were staying around lunch with hundreds of people walking the streetsand the promise of many things to see.So once clean and refreshed, we set out in no particular direction to see whatever it is we came across.  A fountainin front of The Place de la Comédieas well as other magnificent buildingsof incredible architecturewith a beautiful sky for a backdrop.There was the Saint-Roch church with a most incredible rose window,but this (The Porte du Peyrou) and what was to follow we did not expect (didn’t do our homework).  The Place Royale du Peyrou is a beautiful tree-lined promedade with a magnificent statue of LouisXIV in the middle and this incredible monument at the end.From this height in the city we were also able to see the Saint Clément Aqueduct.There was also Saint Anne church, which was now a modern art museum (very disappointing)and the Cathedral Saint-Pierre,built in the 1300’s, did not become a cathedral until the 1500’s.On the way back, strolled by the Botanical Gardens,a mobile flower cart,and markets filled with fresh nuts, dried fruits and anything else you could think of.Enough to make you hungry!  On our way back from dinner, street dancers were entertaining the crowds and though I took about a half dozen photos, didn’t have the shutter speed set fast enough; but I’ve saved the pictures, just in case they ever show up on “So You Think You Can Dance,” yes, they were that good!  That’s it for today!

Another beautiful cool morning ride through vineyards, small towns with flower lined streets and whole town yard sales in the center square.It is in one such town we ran into Wolfgang from Denmark.He had only started three days ago, but had much experience  and good advice for the direction we were heading.  It was a beautiful ride today, with the cool north winds it was much like fall, except the cools were more like spring.We crossed the Canal du Rhône,Le Petit Rhôneand finally the Rhône River into Arles. But not without first enjoying country roads lined with treesvineyards, rice fieldsapple orchards and fields of sunflowers.

Our goal was Arles and 50 miles is plenty for one day, especially when facing the wind.  But for some reason all the ‘in the city’ hotels were booked, turns out Earth, Wind and Fire is playing tonight.  We would have paid, if it was the hometown group, Gypsy Kings.  So we checked in “outside” the city and once again, jumped on our bikes and rode into the city to see the sites.  We certainly didn’t expect to hear the band warming up as we took pictures of the Amphitheater.

Roman history is everywhere here, though more currently it is Vincent Van Gogh and his influence

that has brought in the tourists.  Personally, we preferred the narrow streets with simple buildingsand the center square with the Hotel d’Villeand St. Trophinme d’Arles

and of course, the Saturday afternoon wedding.  Missed the bride, but got a couple of the wedding party.

Wandered the streets feeling very much like a tourist.  Found a streetside restaurant and enjoyed one of our favorites Bolognese and Mussels in a garlic broth and a couple of baskets of bread.

Barcelona, Spain to Arles, France

308 miles

Our plan had been all along to head to Marseilles from Arles, but when we looked at the distance combined with the climbs, we decided to go around our elbow and get there in two days.  We left this morning to overcast skies and a serious threat of rain. Though the temps were not far from the last several days, the humidity made it feel much warmer, thankfully, with the clouds shielding the sun, we did not roast.Huge birch trees formed beautiful canopies along our road, the best we’ve had in France so far; sometimes we even had a paved shoulder to ride.We rode through small towns bursting with flowers and past old farmsand churches.The sun started burning through the clouds
about ten and in less than an hour, we felt the heat that we had not missed the last several days.  Started climbing at exactly noon;

it would have been sooner, but we had to stop to fix a flat tire.  The ride up was beautiful but very steep and tough in the heat of the sun.The ride down featured hairpin turns and white rocks jutting out from the green.We arrived in Paul Cézanne’s charming hometown of Aix en Provence (founded in 123 B.C.) sometime before 3:00.  The city was bustling with people, yet it had a small town, unhurried fee.  Aix en Provence is sometimes referred to as the city with 1000 fountains, though you could say that about the churches, as they seemed to be everywhere.  Walking the narrow streets lined with exquisite doors, we heard the call of church bells and could see the tower in the distance. Arrived at the Cathedrael Saint-Sauveur, with two huge organs that mirrored each other, just before the service started.  We waited through the processional and listened to the organ play in this massive stone church, truly magnificent.  As was the nave and tremendous frescos that lined the surrounding walls.  Though this cathedral is not as “fancy, bright and shiny” as others we’ve seen, it will take your breathe away.  A little more window shopping (the smells coming from this dessert shop were incredible),people watchingstopping in galleries and then to dinner.  Found a great local Italian restaurant with a wood fire oven, but didn’t do pizza, just two incredible bowls of pasta.  Robyn, this Carbonara tops the one in South Beach…time to take a trip to France!

A cool crystal clear morning, as we left and immediately started climbing.  For an hour we climbed through fieldsand one small town.As we turned a corner in the middle of the countryside, we could see buildings everywhere.We dropped into the city on very rough roads with drivers pulling out, stopping or parking in some most creative ways.  There was road construction everywhere, making navigation slow and obscuring good photo opportunities,which did not stop us from trying.Reaching the Port of Marseille by 11:00, we decided to have an early lunch, see if we could find a hotel and correct a computer problem we were having.  Somewhere in this maze of construction and people, we opted not to stay in France’s second largest city (just too big for us).  So, we bypassed the 17th Century Fort Saint-Jean,the Opera House,this incredible buildingand the Notre Dame de la Gardeand answered the call of the sea.  The wind coming off the Mediterranean was cool and clean and we instantly felt better.  There were even a few sights in the neighborhood.Sunbathers, kids having fun and the War Memorial on the Corniche.We strolled for dinner; a little tapas at one place and then an incredible salad with goat cheese medallions (yum, yum) at another. We missed the sunset, but got the afterglow.  Time to say goodnight.

It was in the low 70’s when we left this morning, shortly after eight.  Started off along the coast, but within a half an hour we began climbing, as did the temperature.  It hit 85 before 9 am;

and with the sun directly in our face we were dripping. This was to be our longest and highest climb for the day; thank goodness as it took us an hour and a half to bike up the ten milesleaving the coast behind and stopping to rest/breath and take pictures along the way.The view at the top was far reaching and and the air cooler, but all the tall trees were gone and low shrub remained.  The fly down was fabulous, as there was a generous shoulder and we could see grape vines on the next mountain. We spent little time at the bottom, as our second climb began almost immediately.  No shoulder, but shade….the trade off was worth it.  And the scenery spectacular as we weaved our way up and around the mountaincatching glimpses of pretty coves along the way. At the top of the second climb, we lost our traffic to the interstate, so we had the downhill to ourselves along with other bikers out for a strenuous ride.  We had a long stretch of towns to go through before our last and lowest climb of the day and the scenery was just as fabulous.Our last stretch was through small townsand beautiful harbors,our favorite was Sanary sur Mer, both harbor

and beach were inviting.But we had already made a reservation a few miles down the road, so we continued.  The city of Toulon is a cruise ship stop and home to the French navy, this is the marine museum. An interesting town with the required town square,beautiful fountainsand statues and a very active harbor with a line of restaurants that makes you want to stay a week; somehow, we missed a picture, but got the dinner of salad with smoked salmon and steak with Roquefort sauce.  Think we are actually taking the day off tomorrow, so we will fill you in on more pictures then.

We had discussed taking today off and enjoying doing nothing as our legs rested.  But with not the best hotel room to do nothing in, we packed up and paddled out of town. In our research for this stretch, we learned there was a bike path created along the old railway, all we had to do is find it; something none of the web sites were very specific about.  Amazingly, we did find it.Not hard to imagine a train track on our course as we wound through small towns, the backyard of homes and vineyards. Occasionally our course rode beside the road,with vistas of the mountains

we hoped to avoid today.   That idea lasted until about 11:00, when our climbing began.  The shoreline of Cote d’Azur was obscured most of the day by large homeshigh fences or trees making the occassionl glimpse of the sea, that much sweeter.Every cove showed hillsides filled with homes also looking for that glimpse of the Sea.  Just before noon, feeling pretty confident with less than ten miles to go, we decided to slow down, take a break and enjoy lunch.  Little did we know (though history would prove otherwise) that we would have a good climb on a dirt and rock path; it slowed our last stretch down tremendously. Luckily, the last couple miles were paved, so we were able to enjoy our last downhill at more than 6 mph.  Checked into our hotel on the outskirts of this small beach village.  Strolled the white sand beach, but didn’t last long in the heat of the late afternoon.  Rested for the rest of the afternoon; we have some tough mountains to climb tomorrow.