nbjtours

Day 14 Saintes Maries de la Mer 87 miles

1850 ft climbed

It’s been three years in concept and almost two years in planning , but here we are at the Med. We have cycled the length of France, and enjoyed fantastic hospitality en route, whilst celebrating 50 years of twinning and watching our equally mad athletic compatriots take part in Le Granl Trail de St Jacques

The first seeds were sown in Tonbridge when I first met Marc Jousserand, the chair of Twinning in Le Puy on a visit to Tonbridge in 2016. He suggested that the Trail would be a Great event to get Tonbridge involved in to celebrate 50 years. Chris had earlier said after our last cycle to Le Puy in 2008 why had we not gone all the way to the Med. The cycling challenge was therefore sorted and adding Ventoux made it more interesting.

My friends at Tonbridge parkrun were all keen runners so it was a question of putting that all together and I am pleased to say that it has.

It is I suspect like all these things, it is fantastically satisfying to have completed the achievement, but also slightly an anti climax, as we have completed the challenge and need another to remotivate ourselves. More of that later.

This morning started tough almost immediately from our campsite in Fontaine de Vaucluse. Shunning the usual way out we scaled the side of the hill at gradients of up to 19% towards the ancient village of Cabrieres d’Avignon.

It gave us some early views across the valley but also tested the muscles after yesterday’s efforts.

Dropping down into the valley the roads were busy with early morning traffic as we made our way through Cavaillon

In keeping with most of the cycle tours we had to use closed roads. Once again this one was being remade and reminded me of Swedish conditions. Though closed to traffic we were able to negotiate our way round diggers, cement etc

Trying to get us off the busy routes as usual means finding farm tracks, industrial estates the odd cycle path, but inevitably I cannot avoid all big roads. Roundabouts are a particular trouble and Nick & I had a large artic worry us on one roundabout. Something were are glad to have escaped.

At Our last tour breakfast of coffee and croissants Chris declared how much he would miss this part of the day and reckoned that since 1 June he had consumed no less than 25 croissants!! Good going, just as well we are all burning around 4000 calories a day

The second leg of the day saw us tackle the second and last significant hill over the Alpilles de Provence to the village of Baux de Provence after passing though St Remy de Provence. There is a theme here.

It was a good climb of 2 miles up the Val d’Enfer ( valley of hell) but did not ever exceed 7% gradient so was really enjoyable

The views from it to the village of Baux were worth the effort too.

Dropping down off the top we passed the hoardes of coach loving tourists queuing to get into the Van Gogh exhibition and were thankful that we were not amongst them and could cycle our way on. A fast downhill stretch into Fontvielle followed and just having learnt of Chris Froome’s awful accident we made sure we kept our hands on the bars and stopped to blow our noses. After the town a gentle climb led to a quick visit around Alphonse Daudet’s windmill (author of Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources)

Dropping down we quickly visited the ruins of the Roman aqueduct that fed water to Arles and saw much more of it later closer to the city, in fact at one point we went round a roundabout that had the aqueduct through the middle. .

Navigating through the centre of Arles up many inaccessible one way streets we got to the famous Arenes, the Roman built amphitheatre incredibly still in use today

Running out of Arles we crossed over the motorway and found Nigel and Monica nicely parked in the shade as the temperature had started to climb. Lunch today was baked beans and Emmental on baguette which filled a good hole.

Although hot in the sun the air was not especially warm but it did reach 85F today. Now there were no more hills as the route took us out over the flat expanses of the camargue.

Surprisingly we saw many rice paddies. Other crops being Apples , pears , apricots peaches, & vines.

We did see many of the famous white horses of the camargue as well as their black bulls.

This stork was one of a few birds we saw today as well as black ibis and some distant flamingos.

Keeping us off the big routes as much as possible we did see this great site with only ten miles to go

It looks just like a scene from the westerns We also has a bit of off roading, a common feature on any nbjtours route.

Finally Saintes Maries de la Mer came into view, although our campsite was before the town we had to get the whole way and rode in around 4.30

After a compulsory quick dip in the sea we rode back to the campsite and showered after an ice cream and cup of tea.

Celebrating our achievements at a fabulous fish restaurant, La Casita, in town. Owned and run by a husband and wife team, they looked after us very well, earning us a complimentary glass of the local digestif. We found out it was the start of the annual festivities in Town so managed to enjoy some local music and a visit to the centre of the bullring which had been used earlier in the day.

This led to the dodgy photo above whilst climbed the straw bales in the centre of the ring.

Walking back to the campsite swatting the aggressive mosquitoes the sun was setting over the marshes.

Challenge successfully completed all intact , the only casualty really being Dom’s bike. Aside from that we only had one puncture on the first morning in around 4000 miles of cycling, pretty impressive. Planning is underway for the challenge for 2020 which should be a circuit of Ireland – politics permitting.

Thank you to all, especially Nigel & Monica without whom this just could not be so good. Chris & Nick fly back tomorrow whilst we drive the camper back to the U.K. and should get home sometime on Saturday.

With luck I will have time to produce produce a round up and flora and fauna update.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading.