May 19, 2019 Beziers to Carcassonne

After a very nice breakfast at the B&B where we were staying Bob, Ken and I rolled.  Being a Sunday morning there was no traffic on the road what so ever.  The first couple of kilometers were down a busy road but at 8:30 Am there wasn’t a single car.  

We didn’t really notice how heavy the wind was either as we were headed due south and down a very heavily wooded area.  However this was soon to change. We turned due was and were confronted by a 40 km/hr head wind which almost brought us to a halt.  This wind was to plague us the entire day.  It should have been a pretty easy day as it was only 85 kms and 355 meters of climb.  However this was to prove to be one of the hardest ride days I have ever had.  The wind was so strong that even riding in close to each other proved to be of very little value.   The only real relief was where there was some sort of wind shadow such as in some of the villages but then it was only a few blocks long or where there were some trees. However we are in open farming country so there were vast sections where there was nothing but vine yards where the grape vines were only a couple of feet tall or open fields. Right now the grapes are no bigger than a grain of wheat.

The route was very picturesque as we were down little tiny roads which had no center line for about 85% of the route. There were only two sections down roads which had center lines and one being about 3 kms and one being about 8 kms.  The 8 kms section was right at the end where there was most of the climb and was all in open country and we were all exhausted.  The Weather Network was reporting a steady 40 kms wind with gusts to 50 kms.

Carcassonne was a Roman fortress which was built and expanded through the ages.  It was a strategic post on the trade routes to Rome and through the ages.  By the 1200’s it was held by one family and the king decided to mount a siege against the castle.  The siege was successful and the castle was surrendered.  The king then rebuilt and greatly expanded the castle adding a second wall around the castle and numerous defense towers. This work was more or less done by 1650.  However trade routes changed and the castle lost its strategic importance and fell into disrepair.  In the 1800’s there was a revival of interest in the castle and it was rebuild to its condition in 1650.   The castle is still being studied using modern computer models and work in on going.  It is the most complete medieval castle I have ever seen.  Ken, Bob and I walked through the castle and walked the rampart walls surrounding the old town.  There were way too many stairs for my legs which had just done one of the hardest rides I can remember.  Big steps and really tight spiral stairs as well.

I loved the Carcassonne tile game as a kid and still play it today on the computer.  So this was a big bucket list item for me to see.  It was a great experience. I know that when I return home and am playing Carcassonne on the computer I will treasure this experience and think back to today.

terry hot biker  

May 18 2019 Montpellier to Bezier

Today was a 98.3 kms day but I guess I picked up an extra couple as I wound up at 100.3. Too much weaving from side to side I guess.  The climb was almost nothing though at only 141 meters.

The three of us rolled out of the hotel and down the walking area where we came in yesterday.  It looked a lot different without all the people crowding the street.  It was easy to find the path this morning whereas yesterday crossing through all of the construction was terrible.
    

At about the 1.5 km mark I got a flat tire. One of those micro shards of glass, about 1.5 mm long but sharper than the sharpest knife and devilishly hard to get out of the tire.  However persistence and lots of wiggling got it out.  Second ride and a flat but at least it wasn’t raining.  Bob was out in front and although we called to him he kept going.  I am sure he just didn’t want to get involved in that messy tire repair business.
  

The route took us alongside the canal which runs inland from the ocean. It was a very nice path with a big broad top but lots of people were out jogging walking and riding so a person had to keep an eye out.  Ken and I didn’t get very far, maybe another 1-2 kms when Ken gets a flat.  However he does not have a spare tube as he had given his spare tube to Bob when he got the double snake bite from the pot hole.  So we are patching Ken’s tube.  Ken has those stick on patches which while easy to apply I question how good or reliable they are.  Ken says he knows how to make them work every time and the trick is to have just the right amount of air in the tube. Luck and or Ken’s skill is with us and it works.

We got down to the ocean where the route turned North West along a barrier bar.  It was really pretty with the Mediterranean on one side and the lagoon on the other.  The path we were on had a large sand dune on one side and the lagoon on the other. This bar went from the 10 km mark to the 70 kms mark with only a couple of little breaks from the bike path where we went through a couple of little villages.  The unfortunate thing was there was a stiff 20-30 kms/hr wind blowing out to the NWN. Not quite a head wind but real close.  This wind kept our arm and leg warmers on and had us working hard.

After we got to the end of the barrier bar Ken and I headed inland towards Beziers. At times we were on little roads with no center line and at times along a canal path.   At the 75 kms mark we caught Bob falling out of an ice cream shop.  Oh sorry the shop just closed.  The three of us headed up the route which was now a canal path.  It was very pretty with huge trees lining the canal. The sun was out and shining through the vast green canopy.  

As we headed north along the canal we came to the Cameron valve factory.  I wheeled off the path to take a photo of the huge 36” ball valve which is mounted outside of the factory.  This was the butt of numerous jokes that only an oil man would take a photo of a huge ball valve.

At the 91 kms mark we came to a little village and I suggested that as we had only 7-8 kms to go and the place we are in was in the country we should stop for a beer. This suggestion was immediately adopted so we rolled in and sat down for a beer.  I phoned Agnes and she had arranged for the B&B operator to prepare supper for us.  

The B&B is just outside of the city of Beziers and is in a lovely old French farm house.  The view out the window is of a field of poppies and the Beziers cathedral and castle. What a beautiful place.  I am really keen on tonight’s supper as a couple of reviews had said that the B&B operator prepares a real spread.
  

The one thing which I feel I must comment on is how Bob and Ken have taken to the use of the Garmin. They both arrived in France with the Garmin’s still in the original boxes.   Bob who was in the Australian Navy and during his career became famous in the Australian Navy for his complete reliance on the sextant and astrolabe as his sole navigation aids.  He now swears by the use of the Garmin and is on record as saying he cannot believe there is any other way to navigate. Ken has zero navigational skills and once got lost in the hallway to the bathroom in his own house, is now out front leading the way though the tightest French villages.

I guess it was the wind as my legs feel like they got a good work out.  Of the 100 kms at least 90 kms  was down a bike path.  What a great day on the bike.

terry hot biker    

May 17, 2019 Arles to Montpeiller

Today was only 73 kms with only 145 meters of climb however it was not an easy day.   Bob, Ken and I left the hotel after breakfast at about 9:30Am thinking it would be an easy day.  It was heavily clouded with rain forecast to start at about 2-3:00 Pm.  However we got about 10 kms into the ride and the rain started.  It was just a little sprinkle at first however within a few minutes it had turned into a full-fledged rain.  The rain never did stop.  At times it was heavy and at times not quite as heavy.   By 11:00 all the depressions in the pavement were filled with water.  By 12:30 it was running down the road and where there were drainage dips in the road there was large rivers of water. 

Bob wanted to stop for coffee at about 10:30 and as I did not want revolution on day 2, we stopped for coffee. Yes it was already raining but we did not know how much heavy it was going to get and it could have even stopped. 

At about the 45 km mark Bob hit a pot hole filled with water really hard and took two flats.  Luckily Ken was there with a second tube as my Surly does not have 700 mm wheels.  There is nothing like changing tubes in the pouring rain.  The tires came off very easily which was surprising as Bob claims that he has not had a flat on this bike which is brand new.  Never the less it was 40 minutes in the rain.  This experience slowed us down a lot more than just the time lost because we are now trying to avoid every puddle in the road.

At about the 50 kms mark we got to a huge round about and it was not clear which exit to take so we rode around it a couple times just to make sure.  This added at least a couple of kilometers to the ride.

At the 57 kms mark I got a phone call from Agnes saying that she could not get to the hotel.  All of the roads to the hotel were walk up and the closest she could get to the hotel was 1.2 kms.  After some discussion she was going phone the hotel and get directions.  I knew this was going to be a problem as the address for the hotel put it on a tram line.  The address I had which I thought she could drive to was in a construction site.  As it turned out you had to ask at the construction site to lift the barrier.  This caused a huge amount of anguish for Agnes and Judy.   Sorry I did the best I could and did not know about the construction. 

Meanwhile we are riding in from the other side of the construction and on the other side of the tracks so we could not follow the Garmin track in.  Down through a parking garage and carry the bike up some stairs to the large walking plaza.  I knew we were in the right spot as I recognized the buildings from looking at it on Street View, but which way?  There was a tourist info building right there so I ducked in and a quick consult showed we were less than a kilometer from the hotel. 
  

The huge walking plaza is at least 200 meters wide and paved with marble blocks which in the rain were so slippery that Bob and Ken both went down.  I was not a popular person for taking them down this plaza. I guess I should have known this.  Oops sorry.

On the bright side the hotel is very nice although signing into the internet seems to be a problem. 

Also on the positive side of the ledger we went out on the walking plaza and found a pizza place which was absolutely fabulous.   Ken jumps in and orders two 500 ml and one 250 ml carafes of house wine which turned out to be excellent.

Ok my shoes are soaked on my first day of riding but it was a good adventure and if asked if I would do it again the answer would be absolutely.

Terry hot biker

May 16 Marseille to Arles

Today was the first ride day of the Pathfinders tour.  It was a 91.5 kms (57 miles) ride with 480 meters (1561 Ft) of climb. Bright sunny day without a whisper of wind and the temperature was 15 C.  In short the perfect ride day.  All of the elevation gain was within the first 15 kms as the route came out of Marseille. Unfortunately I was not on the ride but stuck in the back seat of the car.  My bike is to be delivered to the hotel this afternoon.  

The parking spot at the Airbnb was an incredibly tight spot in an inner court yard of a two hundred year old apartment complex where we staying.  It had taken a lot of maneuvering to get the car into the spot and there was considerable worry about getting it out but Agnes backed it out in very short order.  Judy and I were both amazed how easily Agnes wheeled it out.

 Out on the road and as it was only 95 km down the freeway we were down to Arles by 10:30.  We stopped by the hotel to make sure that the hotel owner knew about my luggage being delivered and then we were off to see old town Arles.  And Arles is very old.

There are a couple of major structures which dominate the sky line the first being the Roman Hippodrome built in 56 ad.    While much smaller than the one in Rome it is still a huge structure and sat 20,000 people.  The second major structure is the Roman Amphitheatre. The Hippodrome has had a lot of work put into it with a lot of the original stones replaced with concrete block.  This work has enabled it to still be in use today as a bull fighting arena. The Amphitheatre is still used as well to produce local music shows.  Around these two structures a city has sprung up which is also several hundred years old. So most of the streets are very narrow and the ones where cars are allowed are one way.  Naturally there is no parking anywhere so it is a complete mess, but a very quaint mess with lots of walking streets filled with sidewalk cafes, art galleries and local flavour. 

Agnes, Judy and I decided on  a Cambodia meal for lunch in a picture perfect little square just down from the Hippodrome.  It was great.  After lunch we walked around it and then headed down to the Vincent Van Gogh Museum.  Everything in the town is a reference to Van Gogh and even though he was Dutch but did spend a portion of his life painting in the little town of Arles.  So there are statues, street names, restaurants, galleries, book stores and just about anything you can name.  I was looking forward to a a large collection of his works and a fair amount of history of the life of Vincent Van Gogh.  Instead there were only four of his actual works and certainly none of the more famous paintings a couple of pages from his diaries. The rest of the gallery was devoted to some Russian painter who was influenced by Van Gogh but whom I have never heard of before.  Personally I thought the Russians work was not all that good.  They were all wild life pictures “deer drinking from a stream” ,  “coyote howling at the moon”,  etc. Bottom line I was quite disappointed in the Van Gogh Museum. 

By now it is just after 3:00 so we headed back to the hotel.  Bob and Ken had arrived two minutes ahead of us and were still standing by their bikes when we pulled up. So we checked in and unloaded the car. 

As my luggage had still not arrived I went down to the front desk to get them to phone the airline about my luggage. Just as the lady who owns the hotel was phoning the airline a deliver van pulled up with my luggage. I was so happy to see my bike and the rest of my stuff show up. 

I put my bike together and went for a quick spin around the block to make sure all was in order.  Looks good so I am back on the tour. 

Tomorrow is a short day but it looks like a rainy one. 

terry hot biker

May 15, 2019 Logistics Day Marseille

No bike to unpack, no clothes to launder, just shower and relax.   No sleep either as I suffer from jet lag.

The warm sunny days have been replaced with heavy clouds and a cold wind.  Looks like rain for the next week.
   

We headed out to see the Notre Dame de la Garde which is a huge cathedral which is on a very tall hill overlooking Marseille.  This is a very famous place as it was heavily fortified during ww2 but had to be taken so that the landing in Marseille could proceed.  However it had to be taken without being destroyed.   Muslim troops from North Africa were sent in and 20,000 died taking the cathedral, but they saved the cathedral. No air support and no artillery.  It is a magnificent structure and is the site of one of the earliest places which have evidence of Christianity west of Rome. 

The climb up the hill was worth it, as it is one of the most magnificent cathedrals eclipsed by only Remys or the Norte Dame in Paris.  Not the largest by any means but the work inside is unbelievable.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The walk down the hill and back to main inner harbour was easy and there we enjoyed a burger and fries on the water front. 

Back to the Orange store and no line up to day (less than 30 minutes).  Fixed up with a sim card and on the way back to the apartment. It must be time for a beer.

Bob and I walked around the corner to the Intermarche and picked up some supper for the crew.  Bob said How about ice cream and strawberries for desert?”  They were great.

Tomorrow we are off to Arles. At least I get to ride in the car.

Terry

May 12-14, 2019 Vancouver to Marseille

May 12-14, 2019 Vancouver to Marseille


Traveling to Marseille has been quite an experience. Maybe not an experience I am in any hurry to repeat though.   We left Kelowna on May 13 at about 10:30 am headed for Vancouver.  It is nominally a four hour drive into the Vancouver airport so we were in no real hurray as there was no point in getting there much before an early check in time of 2:00 Pm.   We like to drive down to Vancouver the night before as the way flights work out is you have a seven hour layover in Vancouver if you fly out of Kelowna. If you fly out in the morning you spend the day in the airport. If you fly out in the evening to catch a morning flight the you spend the night in the airport. 
  

We got to within about 70 kms of the hotel which was next to the airport and the freeway turned into a parking lot.  Agnes got her phone out and found a side road off of a side road which wound us down to the Canadian/US boarder which we followed for a long way.  The detour and the traffic delay caused us to arrive at 4:00 Pm or an hour and a half later than plan. 


The hotel check in proved to be the second experience not worth repeating. I was informed that my reservation was cancelled.  I had booked the hotel through Trivago which had laid the reservation off to a secondary agency which was bankrupt and they cancelled the reservation. The hotel manager was right there and he stepped in and found me a room. However the question was how many of the 20 some nights for the tour had been cancelled?  This could prove to be a total disaster. The tour could be in total ruins. Bike routes useless, maps useless, etc. I felt just sick.   It took me the best part of two hours to phone the travel agencies to confirm the reservations.  Luckily only the Vancouver reservation was effected and everything was in place. 
  

The next morning we were off to the airport and onto our flight. The first leg was from Vancouver to Montreal.  I checked my bike and one bag, and Agnes checked her bag.  At the gate I decided gate check my carry on. The constant announcements that the plane was full and they needed volunteers to gate check their bags. Ok I understand and I didn’t need my carry on. We were on Airtransat which in the past has proven to be an excellent carrier.  However we were put onto an ancient old bird.  Burn marks on the wings from engine fires, hastily painted over mission markers on the nose, scabbed on patches from flak.  In Montreal we had a 2.5 hour layover so lots of time.  A second old plane awaited us with no entertainment system and terrible seats. 


The next surprise awaited us at the luggage carousel when not one of our bags showed up.  Four bags including my bike and the gate checked bag.  So ok call me paranoid but how do four bags from us go missing. The two travel bags went down the main luggage chute, the bike down the oversize chute, and the gate check bag was put on the plane at the gate.  Ok I can understand how one bag gets miss scanned, falls off the conveyer or any of a thousand things.  But all four bags?  Ken put it down to no good deed goes unpunished and my gate checking my carry on so someone else could bring theirs on the plane was my good deed.  The airline staff was very helpful and assured me my bag would arrive on May 16 and transported to the hotel.  Great four days with one set of underwear.  Here’s your free disposable razor and thanks for flying with Air Transat.


The 1.5 hour line up at Sixt car rental was a wonderful treat and just what we needed after a  9 hour flight from Vancouver.  It’s a nice car though.


We needed sim cards so we headed off to the nearest Orange store (which I had scoped out earlier). A big sign on the door indicated that the store was closed on May 14.  ???  Ok off to the second pre scoped Orange store. There we were told that the store was out of sim cards and I would have to go downtown to the main store. What a cell phone store with no sim cards???  Downtown the store is lined up out the door and it is 2 hours just to get an appointment to see a sales rep.  Ok no phone.


We were met at the Airbnb apartment by the owner’s friend’s daughter (7 hours after touch down).  She helped us get checked in.  This was my second choose of places as the first place canceled me three weeks out so instead of being right on the inner harbour in a penthouse we are in a place in predominantly Muslim neighborhood.  It is still a very nice place and we were glad to be here.
  

Tomorrow find sim card and see some of Marseille.  I don’t have to put my bike together.


No I didn’t take any pictures.


Terry   

May 10 2019 Preparing to depart

May 10, 2019


Preparing to Depart for France   


It is hard to believe but I am about to depart on my 2019 bike tour.  It seems like just a short time ago when Robert Dunn a.k.a Aussie Bob, Ken Teague and I were sitting in a pub in Lake Placid when the idea of doing a ride in southern France was hatched.  Last summer we were riding on Coast to Coast ride and had a day off in Lake Placid and what better thing to do than have a beer and talk about rides.

I agreed to set it up and so over the last several months I have booked the rooms, rented a car and built all of the routes.  It has been a lot of work but then it has been fun exploring the area through the marvel of the internet.  The little Google man has been put down in 10,000 spots to look at where to turn, what are the road conditions, does this look like a good hotel, is there too much traffic, and on and on.  So the work is all behind me now and now it is almost time to embark on the adventure. We even have team jerseys for the tour.

The adventures start on Sunday when Agnes and I drive to Vancouver where we overnight before flying to Marseille.  It is a twenty four day tour from when depart to when we return.  There are actually only 21 days in France.  The tour is 1605 kms long and has a total climb of 16,138 meters. This is over a course of 15 ride days, so that the average day in 107 kms and 1075 meters climb.  I had thought this was going to be an easier tour when I started work on it but it looks like it has turned into a tough tour.  The longest day is 141 kms and 2300 meters of climb. 

There are going to be lots of highlights, such as staying right in the castle at Carcassonne, riding a couple of the French Balcony roads and so on but I don’t want to give away too much right now. 

The participants on the tour are Agnes as the driver and Ken Teague’s wife, Judy as the navigator.  This leaves Ken, Aussie Bob and I riding.  We are calling this the Pathfinder tour as Judy’s father served in this area of France in WW2 in Pathfinder regiment.

I am taking my Surly Long Haul Trucker on this tour. Surly is an all steel touring bike which is very well equipped for this tour as it has 32 mm tires, a triple crank on the front and an 11-32 rear cassette.  Surly has been with me on a lot of my tours dating back to my first Coast to Coast. 

But enough blather here is a map:
 

Thanks for following along

Terry

October 7 2018 Soissons to Compiegne to Ormory-Vilers

Today’s ride was only 70 kms with only 275 meters of climb, and we had a 3:30 pm checking so there was no need to be on the road early in the morning.  It was a good thing to as it poured rain most of the night and this morning there was a little drizzle coming down. 

We sat in the breakfast area drinking coffee and watching the drizzle and mist.  About 10:00 am we decided that it was time to leave so bags were loaded into the van and Earnie, Ken, Juerg and I jumped on our bikes and headed off.  I was a concerned that the rain would have made the unpaved bike path which I planned on taking out of Soissons wet and muddy.  Fortunately there was enough packed gravel on the path that it was fine.   

It was 40 kms down to Compienge which was where the armistice was signed which ended WW1 and where the French surrender was signed after Germany invaded France in WW2.  The Armistice Glade is a large area surrounding the Armistice Memorial and the Armistice Museum.  The area was chosen in 1918 as it was quite remote and was away from the prying eyes of the press.  The French government did not want any photos taken of the armistice proceedings.  The original rail car used to sign the armistice in 1918 was also used to sign the French surrender.  The railcar was then transported back to German where it was destroyed in an accidental fire.  The original railcar was one of several which were built as dining cars for the French rail service.  The museum houses one of the other dining cars which have been reconfigured to identical specification.  The museum also contains lots other displays relating to the armistice and the cost of the war in terms of human lives. 

Agnes, Betsy and Sally had found a boulangerie and showed up with baguettes and ham so we had a picnic in the parking lot.  We had been riding so we were sweaty and while in the museum we were fine but out in the parking lot I was freezing.  The temperature was only about 9 C and the mist of the morning had returned.   Of course what do you expect for a picnic in October. 

The ride from the Armistice Glade down to Ormoy-Villers was a further 30 kms so after picnic so we left about 2:00 Pm to make the ride down to our Airbnb.  The ride through the Armistice Gland was interesting as there were lots of sign posts to various walks through the park. A couple of hills, a few lefts and a few rights and we were there.   

The big War Memorials tour wraps up in the Airbnb.  The only thing is to pack bikes, and fly home. 

The final statistics on the tour as compiled by Ken are:  Miles ridden 2267.2 kms, total climb of 13,710 meters, wheel turning time of 104.4 hours, giving us an average speed of 21.7 kms/hr. 

Looking back I am really impressed with how much attention is put into the maintenance of all of these hundreds of memorials, and cemeteries for the past 100 years. Rolling into a tiny village and looking at a beautifully maintained memorial with 30-40 names of which there are several sets of identical sur names which were probably brothers or father-sons gives you a tiny insight into the sacrifice these people made.

Terry hot biker

October 5 2018 Romilly-sur-Seine to Soissons

Today’s ride was one of the longest rides on the tour and had the most climb of any ride on the tour.  We had 134 kms and 1341 meters of climb.  We also had one of the major WW1 sites on the tour, that being the American Aisne Marne Cemetery and Belleau Woods Marine Memorial.

As Earnie wanted to spend extra time at Belleau Woods and so he elected to jump in the van and take a bump. The van was actually going to Chateau Thierry which is where the Marine Corp monument to the American soldiers who died in the third battle of the Marne.  The monument is kind of hard to reach by bicycle so it was not on the ride.  These sites were all at the 90 kms mark on the ride so they were quite a way into the ride.

Ken, Juerg and I set off at 7:50.  As we rode through Romilly-sur-Seine the downtown area was all closed off for a Saturday morning market but we zipped right through the barricades and past the vendors who were setting up their table. Some of whom shot us dirty looks but we had lots of miles to cover and never slowed down.

Once out on the highway we picked up a very decent tail wind and just flew down the road.  It was a pretty busy road which had a lot of very large dump trucks.   While they were very respectful and gave us lots of room the bow wave of air combined with the huge tail wind,and nearly knocked you off your bike.   The busy roads lasted from km 8 to 22 and then again from 31 to 60.  The only great thing about the road was most of it was out in the open and with the blasting tail wind we were really moving.  At one point I was in top gear of the bike and I looked down at the Garmin and saw I was doing 52kms/hr and hardly pedalling. 

The road from 22 to 31 was this tiny road through a dense forest which was barely 8 feet wide and all downhill.  The surface was absolutely perfect and we just flew down it.  We covered that section in just a few minutes. 

When we arrived at the Aisne Marne Cemetery at 1:00 pm we ran into Earnie who was just completing his visit.  He was pretty pumped as the local host at the visitor center was a Navy Seal and they had spent over an hour talking.  Earnie was on his way to the Belleau Woods Monument.  Ken, Juerg and I ate our lunch before we visited the cemetery and Earnie finished up and was on his way.  Ken Juerg and I spent about 1.75 hours visiting the American monuments and then we road down the road to visit the German cemetery.  The American cemetery had 2950 and covered 42.5 acres while the German cemetery had 8700 and covered less than an acre. However the Germans had been fighting at the Marne for four years and the Americans less than five months.

We still had 45 kms to go and a lot of hills to climb.  However our tail wind was still working for us and if anything was coming on even stronger.  The three of us were really flying along and even on the steepest of pitches I don’t thing I ever hit my granny gear and 90% of the time I was in the big ring of my triple.  You would hit the top of a large hill and the view would be absolutely stunning but I never took my hands off the handle bars to grab a picture.  Then it would be down a roller coaster though a tiny village at break neck speed.  Stop signs flashing past with someone yelling clear as though they actually looked.  What a ride.  We covered the 45 kms in under 2 hours including the ride through Soissons which as considerably slower.

There is really nothing like a howling tail wind to make you feel like your bike riding talents are wasted and you should be riding in the tour.  

Terry