Sunday 25th May - Sainte Maxime to Canebieres - What do we do now?!
Following a luxurious lie-in, we headed into Sainte Maxime for a typical on the road breakfast but as a treat, added a café stop for hot drinks. Bought some simple fresh provisions and set off out of town for the climb on very familiar roads.
Saving our steepest hills till the end, it all seemed a little bit of a blur; it was a little hard to believe that the plan made on the 1st Gevrey-Chambertain Day, just over a year ago, had finally been fulfilled.
The final tally was 2,152km - we allowed our sweat and tears (of joy) to flow over the patio, tanks just a little empty for now . . .
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Closed Path
I thought that my voyage had come to its end
at the last limit of my power,---that the path before me was closed,
that provisions were exhausted
and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity.
But I find that thy will knows no end in me.
And when old words die out on the tongue,
new melodies break forth from the heart;
and where the old tracks are lost,
new country is revealed with its wonders.
Rabindranath Tagore
Saturday 24th May - Riviera Retreat to Sainte Maxime - Almost Home!
Shared the start of the day's trail with Janet and Ron for 10km on the Chemin des Pignes in glorious still sunshine. Then, hugs and goodbyes as we headed off alone again to Sainte Maxime. Territory began to get more and more familiar as we passed villages and vineyards that have been our backyard away from home for years.
Just a few tears were hidden under the helmet as we entered Sainte Maxime and headed to the beach for our picnic lunch. We treated ourselves to a beer on the sand before checking in to our final hotel stop. Jane had always wanted to stay over on the coast with the opportunity to indulge with food and wine. We had a great evening out and now, just need to steel ourselves for the 12 mile climb to Canebieres in the morning.
So, this adventure is shortly to close but it seems some more ideas may be brewing . . .
Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd May - Retreating in the Retreat
We had two great days of rest and recouperation with Janet and Ron; Provencal mooching on beaches and in towns, marred only by Janet's insistence that we help her hold the sky in place for what seemed like a ridiculously long time!
Wednesday 21st May - Le Pradet to Secret Riviera Retreat
Turns out that Parker's sister Francoise is standing in the European Elections for the Thunderbirds Party (complete with excellent puppet name)
A shortish day with a return of the sun but, 40km+ into a headwind on our route to catch up with Janet and Ron. Found the Cheshire Hillbillies well and truly ensconced on their site and ready with the warmest of welcomes!
Ron had been out foraging and had found a very rare lemon nik-nak tree which he proceeded to strip bare.
Janet braved out the faux-pas over her incessant calendar mix-ups and produced a wonderful meal. Ron's beer and wine stocks took a bit of a hit this evening but luckily he was too far gone himself to notice the damage ;-)
Tuesday 20th May - Cassis to Le Pradet - Var Matin
Cassis turned out to be as hilly to leave as it was to enter but luckily, was the hardest part of the day’s ride. Before the morning was out, we entered the Var; a special milestone for us as this is the Departement of L’Autre Chez Nous.
Another milestone for the day was the passing of 2,000km travelled since home, before we had lunch near Bandol on the coast.
Our only seeming hurdle remaining for the day was the crossing of Toulon. This turned out to be a bit of a dream with dedicated cycle routes and lanes for most of the way. Exited the city on a voie verte where ‘Goats do Roam’.
News just in on the culinary front, the Snack Monitor has been awarded ‘3 Stockpots’ by Monsieur Pamplemouse.
Monday 19th May - Martigues to Cassis - French Connection 2014
• Unconscious Uncoupling!
• Popeye Doyle where were you when we needed you?
Things suddenly began to get steeper!
Pretty tough ride to Marseille, with some wind and rain. We had a ‘bit of a moment’ on a downhill stretch through the Marseille outskirts when, much like one of those Pink Panther cartoon sequences, Myrtle’s trailer uncoupled and careered across the opposite carriageway in a seeming overtaking motion! To our great good fortune, despite the otherwise busy road, no cars were present in either direction as it happened! A split-pin had failed but Bicycle Repairman managed to sort a fix which still holds.
If you ever wake up one morning thinking “today, I really must cycle through Marseille”, take our advice and go back to bed!!! Think of the worst city ride you can imagine and then, make it a whole lot worse.
The really big hills came after the delights of Marseille and gave us our latest day finish so far. Made it to our planned destination of Cassis where, it was all we could do to pitch the tent and fall into bed!
Sunday 18th May - St Mitre to Martigues - Ping!
Today was to be our passage through Marseille however, Georges threw another spoke relatively early in the morning and, as it was Sunday, no bike shops would be available for 24hrs. As we’d caught it early, we decided to stay the night in Martigues which meant a cheap hotel stop in these parts.
Not too down heartened, we took advantage of the sunshine, the attractive port, the French Rowing Championships and an excellent lunch on a quai.
Caught up with the Archers Omnibus online as we dozed off with wifi.
Note to Teresa
Back to work now, you're not being paid to read this rubbish! ;-)
Saturday 17th May - Saint Marie de la Mer to St Mitre les Remparts
A great morning's ride across and through the heart of the Camargue; generally very good riding but just with a few wind-blown sandy sections that needed a little ploughing through!
Real pink flamingos in evidence today. Some fast busy roads followed the crossing of the Petit Rhone by Bac but, tails were up today and we finished ahead of our notional programme at Camping Sarl Felix de la Bastide.
Dutch owned and inspired, it has possibly the best atmosphere of all the sites we've stayed at and, probably worth a revisit for the hospitality alone! Our traveling exploits seemed to quickly circulate the site and local celebrity ensued.
Friday 16th May - Aigues Mortes to Saint Marie de la Mer
As we were just ahead of our original programme (and after the previous day's trials), we decided to have a leisurely morning in Aigues Mortes (walled city blah blah blah - but beautiful ;-)).
It turns out, Lot's wife was a much bigger girl than any of us could've imagined!
There was a moment when Andy was desperately trying to helpfully remove himself from a German lady's photo shot, only to finally realise that as she continued to pan around, he (or more likely his ludicrous luggage) was her chosen muse ;-)
Turned out to be one of our best cycling days yet. Saint Marie de la Mer appeared to be having its own version of the Appleby Horse Fair so, campsite options without a chrome encrusted caravan were somewhat limited but, it transpired that for others, there was a fantastic site down the road where a pink flamingo would spit into your swimming pool at no extra cost!
Thursday 15th May - Marseillan Plage to Aigues Mortes
(Confessions of an early rising camper)
Getting up early can be a bit of a chore sometimes; this morning I rose to see a member of the campsite staff (oblivious in their chalet) preparing for the working day ahead. Ordinarily bathrooms have opaque windows but such luxuries may need to be spared in straitened economic times.
In her naked mode she applied her make-up in a small retracting mirror, while the peripheral vision remained mine to behold :-) (She was a little less blousey than as she appeared later on reception)
Great start to the ride on a voie verte to Sete (a boardwalk for Otis Redding to be proud of).
A head wind gusting 40-50mph thereafter provided a little more focus for our potential 'f'ing and blinding!!! Hence the lack of photography for the day!
Later, dodged a snake!
Ultimately, arrived at an excellent campsite where reception thought we looked a little knackered!
Wednesday 14th May - Mirepeisset to Marseillan Plage - Club Med 50-51
This was to be our final day on the Canal du Midi proper (in parts). En route to Beziers we linked with the canal a few times but also took advantage of some swifter and smoother road options to keep progress moving along.
Approaching Beziers we linked more fully just before its fabled Nine Locks. Now we all know that guide book writers need to inject some hyperbole along the way (how else would their toil be recompensed) but a 'great wonder' of the canal might be stretching it a little. Very fine, relatively impressing but, certainly nothing that Foxton Locks couldn't knock into a cocked hat (and have a couple of pubs up its sleeve to boot!)
Branch out UNESCO!
Heard our second "he's loaded" comment of the trip from a British tourist; how some people can read blood/alcohol levels at a distance I'll never know - I was certain the bottle of Pastis had gone down un-noticed at breakfast!
Largely great riding through to the Med from Beziers save for those moments when obstacles conspired to put back muscles out!
Reaching the Med has felt like one of the biggest milestones of the journey - close to home but with a few of the toughest days yet to come. There was a certain mathematical symmetry with our campsite location; 50m from the sea and 50 miles from anywhere that you could get a tent peg in the ground!
We took the little liberty of toasting ourselves on the beach ;-)
Tuesday 13th May - Carcassonne to Mirepeisset - The Rough with the Flat!
The canal route out of Carcassonne was much as the guide books had suggested; pretty good surfacing (in the relative context) for the first 15km then 'chemin as you find it'. It was a great day's riding on reflection but, some of the hardest going we've yet experienced through seemingly level terrain. When we stopped for lunch at a lock, we found that in the 'snack-bag' on the trailer, vibrations on the trail had been such that the lid had come off the salt pot and every grain had been thrown out of the holes.
That the Canal du Midi is beautiful there is no doubt, that it is a promotable cycle route there is a little more doubt, that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site is in no dispute - that UNESCO is headquartered in France is no coincidence?!
We left the canal about two-thirds through the day, in part because our obvious camping option was off route but also due to the atrocious surfacing and the need to concentrate entirely on the approaching metres of terrain.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the canal can fix you in a very narrow visual corridor; the 'escape' into the countryside was a real additional treat.
The Road to Royan
We have a few video clips of the trail in the can but have struggled to get them uploaded while en route.
Our Cinematographer back home (thanks Budge) has passed this fit to share. We'll try to add more when we can but that might end up being at journey's end.
You can paste the YouTube link - http://youtu.be/XINwb6xDulE
The link has also been added as a page on the blog so you can hopefully link directly from here.
Map Update
Just a little visual update on trip progress to Carcassonne; hopefully just two days from here to our first sighting of the Med!
We have loaded quite a few more photos to Flickr but we've heard that the page link hasn't been working properly recently and so, tried a Google Photos link page too (this may require you to have/setup a Google Account to view them.
The original Flickr Photostream is still out there somewhere and pasting this link into your browser may renew access - www.flickr.com/photos/117011107@N08/
Sunday 11th and Monday 12th May - Carcassonne
This started with our shortest measured ride as it was less than 3km from the city campsite to our Hotel du Chateau. Once checked in in the early afternoon, we were straight into our laundry duties again!
Knicker Case Update - the missing knickers were found at the bottom of a sleeping bag - for legal reasons and those of continued trail harmony, the sleeping bag owner cannot be identified at this time!
Had a great evening in the city; bumped into the French trail riders in a bar just as we were heading for our chosen pizzeria (it'd come 4th in the World Pizza Championship 2012 - we didn't ask the number of entries, nor there position relative to Dominos). As it turns out, one of the best meals out in years and, some promise of a repeat visit was made (and may well be stuck to this evening - Monday).
Monday has been a glorious day and for a change we'll just leave some more photos to cover our strolls around Carcassonne.
The afternoon closed with the whole expedition team by the pool :-)
Saturday 10th May - St Martin Lalande to Carcassonne
Great start to the ride through beautiful countryside for the first 10km as we made our way back to the canal. The surface hadn't changed much since the point we left the canal previously in Castelnaudary (and was going to get considerably worse before the day was done. We persevered for most of the way to Carcassonne with the trailer ploughing its own furrow through the undergrowth (it really has performed superbly throughout the trip). The final few kilometres were completed on the road as we awaited our first glimpse of the city walls.
They came into view with just a kilometre to go to city campsite; a pretty good big site which seemed to have its own live in nightwatchman (a kind of mini Fagin but with a more friendly disposition), how were we to know we'd pitched near his tent and had no option other than to have him as a constant companion on site ;-) To be fair he was extremely friendly, greeted us instantly with sweets and steered us to yet another bike shop, as we planned to replace some worn tyres.
We had a little time in the evening to make our first foray into the medieval city but wanted to save some of its treasures for the following days as this was our originally planned holiday break within the trip and a 4 star hotel awaited us for the following two nights.
Running through our trip calculations, we've now gone over 1,000 miles and also, pretty sure the distance has eclipsed a certain ride to Northern Spain 33 years ago!
