{"id":5581,"date":"2012-07-04T20:08:56","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T00:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=5581"},"modified":"2015-07-02T15:12:35","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T19:12:35","slug":"day-39-wednesday-happy-july-4-perpignan-to-norbonne-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=5581","title":{"rendered":"Day 39, Wednesday, HAPPY July 4 – Perpignan to Narbonne, France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another beautiful, cool, albeit windy morning.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As soon as we were out of town our road became one with the highway. Though it was only for 5 to 6 miles, we had to get off after only three; just did not seem safe. Unfortunately, there was no other road that took us ‘directly’ in the direction we needed to go. \u00a0We wound our way through small towns,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

with neat and clean streets lined with flowers\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and small country roads<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

stopping often to decide on a turn. \u00a0Several times we were offered assistance, by anyone nearby. \u00a0Once such case, an older gentleman on a bike stopped to see if we needed help. \u00a0He explained to us in perfect French<\/em> which way to go. \u00a0He found us several\u00a0blocks later at a crossroads, knowing we had not understood his original instructions, and led us to the rode that we needed to be on.<\/p>\n

Though it was a beautiful ride, \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

it took us an hour and a half to reach the coast\"\"<\/a> and turn north, into a stiff headwind, and begin to make forward progress. \u00a0With the wind in our face, it was slow progress, but this new course offered us scenery we had not expected\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and climbs we had not anticipated.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>But as always seems to be the case, the climbs gave us nice vistas.\"\"<\/a>At one point, ran into a couple of nice guys from Amsterdam,\"\"<\/a>Emmanuel and Huig, that pointed us in the right direction. \u00a0Shortly before noon, the wind (still in our face) brought on a summer storm with thunder and lightening.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Out in the middle of grape vines with no place to hide, we prayed it would pass us without causing problems. Though we saw puddles from the storm, it passed and left us unscathed; it was the climbing that was killing us. \u00a0For three hours we battled ups and downs into the wind until we reached our destination. \u00a0We biked into the center of town and began to search for a hotel, only to find we’d passed (several miles back) the only ones available. Did some running of errands, shower, steak and baked potato and bed….after 53 miles, we were toast! \u00a0As a side note: though the prices in France are MUCH higher, the people have been overwhelming friendly \ud83d\ude42\n\t\t