FRANCE

From March 1st to March 8th, 2002

Uzes - Pont-du-Gard - Tarascon - Salon-de-Provence - Aix-en-Provence - Cassis - Seyne-sur-Mer - Toulon - Le Lavandou

Saturday, March 9th, 2002

It is cool to be all together again. Riding with my brother only was fine, but you know how it is with 2 brothers : we know each other so well that it gets sometimes... not boring but we can get on each others' nerves. Being with Ian again completely changes the dynamic of the team, for the best. We left Euzet-les-Bains in a strange state of mind : happy, worried, and sad all at the same time. As I said, we were happy to be back together. On the other hand, we were worried by Ian's knee. It seemed to be in good condition, but we didn't know if it would still be good after a week of riding. Finally, it was pouring rain... no need to say that we were not happy about that. But nevertheless we left singing and laughing, which I think is a good sign.

Since Euzet, we have changed our way of riding. We now hold together and we never ride alone. At first we thought that each of us would ride at his own pace, but Ian was often behind because of his knee and running after the 2 others was not the greatest feeling. So we slowed down and we don't split.

The first 2 days of riding after Euzet can be summarized with one word : rain. And what a lovely feeling it is to put on wet shoes (actually, not wet, but drenched) in the cold morning. At the end of our first day, we put up the tents along the river Gardon less than 1km away from the famous " Pont du Gard ", a gigantic aqueduct built approximately 2000 years ago by the Romans. It has since been renovated and it is magnificient... and even better when there is nobody around. I believe we were not supposed to camp where we did (on a sand beach along the Gardon) and it would't have been possible during the high season.

On Sunday March 3rd, Erw and I went to the Baux-de-Provence in the morning. This beautiful medieval village is at the top of a hill and the view is amazing. Again, I was happy to be in the low touristic season, 'cause 2 or 3 buses full of tourists would pretty much fill up the place. But one thing was different than usual : the sun was shining and we rode in SHORTS !

After the Baux-de-Provence, we went south towards to Mediterranean Sea that we reached in Cassis. From what we had heard it hadn't rained there for the past five months, but guess what ? Our time in shorts ended there, because it started raining as we entered the village. And as we were leaving the following morning, the weather got slightly better for an hour or two (we must be damned). At the same time, we also experienced our first REAL uphill : a slope of 18% to reach the top of the cliffs above the village. We did 5km in 1 hour !

The same day, we were supposed to take it easy and ride 30km or so, but the weather made us change our plans. We decided to push a bit harder to reach " la Seyne-sur-Mer " 55km away, where we would sleep inside and take a warm shower. All that luxury was possible thanks to Francine (the mum of our good friend Ben). She was fantastic. We talked a lot, and drank and ate like pigs (I mean Erw, Ian, and I ate like pigs, not Francine). We gained 2 kg in one night.

The next morning, after having said goodbye to our host, we rode to " Le Lavandou ", where other friends were waiting for us. We were welcomed in a real palace, with view on the Ocean, palm trees in the garden, swimming pool, etc. by Marius and Muriel. What a perfect spot to take a day off and do some tourism... by walk. We went to the Island of Port-Cros, a National Park some 45 minutes away from " Le Lavandou " by boat. We spent time on the sand beaches (we even jumped in the water), on the cliffs above the ocean, and walked in the forest. We didn't see a soul the entire day ! You should try it if you visit the Côte d'Azur.

That's it for now, the sun is back and we are leaving tomorrow for Nice and Monaco. Let's hope the weather will stay like this. The next update will be from Italy. No more French, the real trip will start then.

Olivier

From February 14th to Febrary 28th, 2002

Bordeaux - Toulouse - Carcassonne - Narbonne - Agde - Montpelier - Nimes - Euzet

Thursday, February 28th 2002.

Feelings after our first 2 weeks of riding ? Not bad. Not bad at all actually... If you consider that we've had the worst possible weather for the first 7 days, that Ian had to take the train because of a knee problem, and that we had 6 flats in 4 days, the spirits are still high and we managed to ride 710 km. For those of you who want to visualize the trip on a map : we left the Atlantic Ocean near Arcachon, rode through the Landes towards the little city of Condom (aren't we famous for the french lovers after all ?), passed south of Toulouse and follow the Canal du Midi, went thought Carcassonne and east to the Mediterranean Sea, then went north of Montpellier and we are now 40 km north of Nimes.

A little bit more in details, here is what happened between the 13th and the 28th. We drove down to the Atlantic coast of France on February 13th in the afternoon to start riding our bikes on the 14th in the morning. After saying goodbye to our families and friends near the " Dune du Pilat ", we rode 3 km and walked down the sand beach and found an amazing (and slightly illegal) camping spot. So we decided to settle in for the night. But it was without considering the wind... Part of the tent blew away after an hour and we had to build up sand barricades to hold everything together. I must admit that our first night was not the best ever! But now that we think about it all, we are pretty happy, 'cause we now constently carry with us a little bit of sand from the Atlantic Ocean (in our tents, clothes, and in every single mechanical part of our bikes... what a sweet sound it makes!).

From the 13th to the the 18th, we rode in the cold (0 to 7 degrees) and the rain. Our sleeping bags and tents could not dry and the temperature was kind of hard on the articulations in the morning. I came to love uphills, 'cause it was the only way to warm up in the morning. Erw and I didn't suffer from the cold as much as Ian, who felt the cold in his knees. In the morning of the 18th, this treatment and the fact that we pushed a bit too hard at the beginning, had a very visible effect on Ian's right knee (which was twice the size of his left knee). We decided to split for a short duration : Ian would take the train to go to his parent's and Erw and I would join him there 5 days later. At this point, Erw and I were thinking that Ian's ligaments were torn... no need to say that the moral was low! Two days later were heard with relief that it was not important and that a week or two of rest would take care of it all.

Bad luck for Ian, the weather became good as soon as he took the train. Erw and I went southeast to reach the " Canal du Midi " and a very convenient wind from the northwest accompanied us. The riding was great : we were doing 35-40 km/hr on the flat without pushing and the landscape was fantastic. If you ever want to do some bicycle in France, I would suggest you try the Canal, it is completely flat, you are along the water all the time and you can see villages and small cities that are complete jewels from the Middle Age, such as Carcassonne. By the way, the Youth Hostel in Carcassonne is in the middle of the old city, they have showers (which can seem completely normal to you, but to us, after 6 days of riding, it was Heaven on earth) and it is fairly cheap. At the end of the Canal, we reached the turquoise Mediterranean Sea at the Cap d'Agde. Beautiful. But it was so windy that we had a very quick lunch on the beach and left the coast without even taking a picture!

From the Sea, we headed northeast to meet Ian near the city of Nimes. As soon as we changed course, our dear back wind also changed direction and became a very nasty front wind. I HATE the front wind, it is far worse than an uphill because you can't tell when it is going to stop... and a 60km/hr frontwind can pretty much stop you even downhill. Two days of that wind in permanence is also not that great for your spirit. Add to that the fact that the wind had broken tons of branches that were lying on the road and caused 6 flat tires in 4 days… actually, it isn't true : the branches caused 2 or 3 flats and we (Erwan and I) caused another 3 because we didn't have the proper tools.

Anyway... we are with Ian again. His knee is almost back to normal, we waited a few extra days to make sure that everything was fine. We start again tomorrow towards Marseille and then along the coast to enter Italy. But as we were waiting here in France, we decided to start looking for some storytellers and we found a GREAT one. Her name is Sylviane Lacroze. We spent several hours with her yesterday and today and we did some great videorecording. Our first tests on the camera were not that good : bad framing, not enough light, etc. But we sorted our problems out yesterday night and started again today a lot more organized than before and a lot more efficient too. The result ? The recording is, I believe, not bad at all for non-professionals. She told us 3 stories from the Cévennes (name of the hill range in the Languedoc where we are currently staying) about goats, donkeys and the ingratitude of people from the big cities (as opposed to the people of the countryside). Unfortunately, we are a bit short on time to translate and write down these 3 stories for the website now. We will post them as soon as we can. Until then, au revoir et à bientôt!

Olivier