S H F bike tours 🚴🏼 🇫🇷 day 21 - time to go home

Yesterday, we rode our last bike ride with our new friends from Australia. Wouldn't you know, just mastered the person to the correct name, and now time to say goodbye. This was a great tour group. They all were so much fun!

The last 45k bike ride took us along the canal, by lagoons, fields of quite a variety of crops, in and through small villages. Le Cailar, Marsaillargues, St Laurent, and a massive gate built in the 11th century controlling all entry and exit to the walled city of Aigues Mortes.  

Apple orchard

Nearly all of the bikers rode out to the beach while Brenda and I went into Ages Mortes and walked around the ramparts. Very cool. 

Aigues Mortes was teeming with activity and excitement. It is bull fight time! This is a huge woo haa. Like really big. Similar to nascar or NFL games.  We got out of town just in time ... Like about 15 minutes before the running of the bulls in and around the ramparts. Would have been interesting to see, but at this point in life, am rather an SMP ( slow moving person) not even good sport for the bull. Those horns are pretty sharp from what they say. Not really interested in getting up close and personal with a set...   On the opposite of the walled city from where we were moored, was the bull fighting ring. French bull fighting is significantly different from the Spanish. Here, for 3 hours, the men, dressed in white to reveal any blood ( of theirs ) is let, not the bull. There is a ribbon tied to the bull's head between the horns. The sport is to get that ribbon. One bull at a time is released and the Cowboys have only 15 minutes to get the ribbon. Sometimes a man wins, sometimes the bull.  This is a huge spectator sport. People come in with their own 3 tiered bleachers! Kinda like build your own stadium, or have stadium, will travel.... All personalized and very interesting.  

Adieu mes amis. Merci to you for traveling with us through these little writings. 

A bien tot...till we meet again 

S H F bike tours 🚴🏼 🇫🇷 day 20

Still with this adventure? Wonderful!   Day 5 of 6 for biking and a short day at that.  23k to ride today. The most brisk one so far ... 12 degrees ... Celsius. The Aussies were bundled up like it was the middle of a minnesota winter.  Most of the day was spent exploring Arles on foot. Another fascinating town in Provence. 

One of their claims to fame is Vincent Van Gogh spent 18 months here that was toward the end of his life. The location where he cut off his ear. That is the legend. He actually only lopped off the ear lobe. Still a bit not rational ....  Below is a sculpture of him. No ear...

The Romans established and built much of the structures in the 100 bc century. Below is the ruins of the smaller colliseum.  The huge one is a block away.  Those mamouth stadiums....somethings do not change...

Back on the boat for a 3 hour cruise, and our last, on a canal to our last destination.  Here are some pics of our boat and crew. 

Our boat is the Soleo... A bit of the runt amount the litter of barge cruisers ...

C'est Bon! Bon Jour Ages Mortes!  Explored this ancient walled city after dark... Got as far as one of the local pubs, the TacTac.  Thought I died and went to heaven. Never before and most likely never again will see so many bottles of whisky, scotch, beer, and just about every spirit amaginable.... Yes, we did sample a few. Salute!

Tomorrow, we bike and explore this ancient city. Do check back for tomorrow's last installment. 

S H F bike tours 🚴🏼 🇫🇷 day 19

19 days and counting!  Love love love the biking here. Quiet roads and lots of scenery. Well, let's rethink that just a tad. The vast majority of our biking tour group successfully conquered a 4K hill ranging from 5-9% grade. It was a mountain if you ask me.  Sucking air like a little steam engine, managed to make it to the top.  The reward was fantastic.  Oh by the way, the scaling to the summit is one to mark your calendars .... Brenda most decidedly beat me to the top. Yup, she scooted right up that 4K climb leaving me and many others in the dust.  Oh, did I mention she kind of cheated... Outfitted with an electric bike, she had that thing turned up to the highest assist as possible.... 

The day started with a cruise through the 12th century narrow streets of Vallabreques then on to Saint Remy de Provence. The birth place of Nostradamus. Also notable, is Van Gogh resided here for a period of time during the days of his mental illness. Market was happening in the center square, so lots of shopping opportunity. Just ask Deb and Clay....

The challenge of the day was when we left Saint Remy to scale the bit of a mountainous incline (hidden falls would pale in comparison) to the overlook to Les-Baux-de-Provence. A village built in the 12-13th centruries. Did we find a castle and a number of churches .... Why absolutely!  After catching our breath and taking at least a 100 photos, off we went to this really cool village and, you betcha, more shopping opportunities. 

Then a liesurely, 23 miles into Arles and our boat. Yea! clean up and a cold beverage.  Whew...  Seems I have been remiss in not mentioning the food on this cruise. Quite outstanding.  The dinners are fabulous. We have our own chef. He has really outdone himself. Yum.  All dinners are plated so only one option. They are quite flexible if you give them some advence notice to change what to be served to you. ( just ask Brenda and her penchant for curry and fish...) The breakfasts are ok, nothing out of the ordinary.  We make our own lunches and eat them sometime during the day at some stop or another.  The bar! Self serve and write down what you take. What is not to like!!  Kinda liking that Leffe beer! Yum!

Tomorrow, day 5 of 6 for biking. We explore Arles. ( pronounced R Ls- silly French) .  Do check back ! You might find something interesting ....

S H F bike tour 🚴🏼 🇫🇷 day 18

Provence!! Teeming with medeval walled villages and they are all made of limestone and similarly hued structures. Must have been a requirement to have a castle AND at least one church .... Usually more.  Apparently, the more the holier... Interesting 12th century city structure ...  

Today's biking wound through all of the above and more. Moored at the pretty Provençal village of Vallabregues. we hopped on our lovely orange step through bikes and off we rode up lovely and quiet roads along the Rhone River. Climbed up the little incline, of sorts, to the Abbey of St Michel de Frigulet for lunch. What a cool place to eat! Then coast down to the village of Boulbon. So fun! About 2/3rd of the group opted to ride over to the walled city of Tarascon. What did we find? Of course! A castle AND the church of St Martha. By the way, Martha is still there...in her tomb, but still there. History of this church dates back to 500 a.d. .... Too much to go into with this blog... Your homework assignment.  :D

50k day and back to our boat. Whew. 

A few of the visual pics for the day.  Do enjoy

Tomorrow, based on the website info, a bit longer day... 60k.   Piece of cake.  Check back to see if we make it!   The winds are blowing.......

Oh, PS.  I was unanimously selected to be the sweep today. It was sweet! Affectionately dubbed the "Hoover".  The best spot to be in for a 20+ group!  Gave me the opportunity to hone skills to climb a 1+ K hill at 4.2 K per hour. Easy peasy.  We have all speeded riders....

S H F bike tours 🚴 🇫🇷 day 17

Now today was more like a bike ride!! We wheeled our way through numerous vinyards, villages and so much more. The highlight of the day was the UNESCO world heritage site of Pont du Garde -- Roman aqueduct built 40-60 AD and still stands today. Absolutely jaw dropping site to see. The Romans built it to carry water to Nimes over the Gardon River.  It's original length was 1180'. Today is 902'. The height is 160'. Original number of spans of the upper level was 47, today is 35, middle are 11, lower 6.  Made if Shelly limestone. There is only 56' of change in elevation of the entire aqueduct from the source of the water to its destination in Nimes. A gradient of only 1 in 3000, an example of the great precision of those Roman engineers. Quite amazing!

Have a look see at some of today's adventure. 

The Minnesota 5 plus 1

Assessing the demographics of this tour --- 1 Canadian, 1 Kansan, 5 Minnesotans, and ... 15 Australians.....  Getting lots of good Intel on possible future trips to Australia.  Yeah!

4 more days of biking, so stay tuned to this blog!

S H F bike tours 🚴 🇫🇷 day 16

What a day, what a day!  As the saying goes, sometime the rain must fall,.. Well even though there is over 300 days of sunshine here in Provence, today was the exception. It did not dampen our spirits or shorten our ride. Off we go with 22 bikers, not I unlike a Minnetonka bike club ride -- a leader, a sweep,  most of us taking turns to corner. The only difference, we are not in the twin cities. We are in France. The scenery was fabulous. No way like Hennepin county. Not by a long shot. Not able to take many pics, we were in and out of rain showers all day. The pace was quite liesurely,... Like easy rider leisurely. ... Silly me brought my clips and shoes.  The bikes are step throughs very much like the Easy Ride bike in the twin cities only a "lovely shade of orange".  Quite the fishion statement.... 

All structure of some shade of limestone. All houses and buildings are made of stone and some shade of limestone. Every where an old castle AND at least one or more churches. Provence is quite quaint and really fascinating.  Very little here built much after the 12th-19th centuries. 

Have a look see---

Deb and Clay. 

The Minnesota 5 plus 1 Missourian .. Each photo is minus one...

Back to the boat and on the Rhone River. 

More biking to come!  5 more days of this, so hang on and check back !!