88 Days

monday july 2, 2007

The sunflowers are starting to bloom.

So, we went on a little day trip today. From Uzes we rode our bikes about 8 miles to Collais, a town we visited in 1995 and 2000. I know we are so predictable. But, it wasn't on the route for this trip, but after all our changes - surprise, surprise - we found ourselves in Uzes and couldn't resist. We rented a canoe in Collais and started paddling to our destination. Along the way, we stopped so Susan could be one with nature. Be the river, Susan, be the river.

After maybe 3 miles of paddling (which is harder than you'd think) we turned a corner -and there it was: Pont du Gard, a 2,000-year old Roman aquaduct. What do you think of Susan's hat?   

Here it is again... In 1995 you were able to climb up to the top and go into the upper compartment and actually climb up, through one of the holes, and be on top of the Pont du Gard. It was spectacular. Let's just say it took a lot to get Susan up through that hole. Anyway, you can no longer go up to the top and through the hole. I guess they're worried about people falling and dying and then suing.

In 2000 in Collais, Susan took a picture of this tree swallowing this sign and by an amazing coincidence (or fate/karma/yoga/luck/magic) a photo of it was on her other blog TODAY. And  she pre-posted the entire 88 days before we left and we weren't planning on coming to Collais. Eerie, isn't it. Here's a link to see the 2000 photo: TREE EATS SIGN

tuesday july 10, 2007

For all of you angry at me for having such a great summer: this one's is for you. It is the result of a nasty incident with a guepe - but more on that later. We haven't posted in a while and have a lot to report...

One of the keys of an 88-day trip is clean laundry and we are experts at the art of sink washing, a multi-step process that involves a pre-rinse, washing cycle and two more rinsing cycles. At our hotel in Roquemaure we had a balcony, which made the all-important drying process much easier. I'm thinking of doing a book on the subject.

From Uzes, when we last posted, we had a scenic ride, complete with the ruins of a castle in the background, to Roquemaure and then...

Avignon, once the home of the Popes, but now home to lovers! No, that isn't Susan and me in front of the Pope's Palace, but it could have been. We got to town just before the start of the annual theater festival and it was mobbed.

Actors were everywhere, promoting their shows and practically begging people to attend. We think this show had something to do with monkeys.

Provence is dominated by Mount Ventoux, which, if you look closely, is way off in the distance. Ah, my old friend. I climbed you in 2000 (about 6,000 feet) and plan to climb you again.

We stayed at a great hotel in Maussane, a little town below Les Baux, and spent a lot of time at the pool. Our room is to the left, about 10 meters from the pool. A piscine is quite a luxury.

More scenic stuff on the ride to Salon, where we are now. Tomorrow we ride to Aix-en-Provence and stay there for 4 nights (if we can find a hotel). Today I went on a 72-mile ride and booked us hotel rooms in Lourmarin, LaCoste and Gordes, three towns we have been to before and really wanted to stay in this time. A hotel reservation is like money in the bank and makes the day's ride less stressful. Especially for you know who.

More ruins on top of a hill. This country is lousy with ruins on top of hills.

So,  on Saturday, I was on a ride and minding my own business when all of a sudden a wasp, without  warning or provocaton, flew into my face and got trapped under my sunglasses and started stinging me. It hurt like hell for half an hour, but didn't seem too bad and didn't really swell up that day. But ... the next morning when I woke up: I was deformed! So, we spent a quiet day at the pool and I applied glacon (ice) to my eye. By Monday it was much better and today (Tuesday) I'm back to normal, or, as normal as someone like me can look. Thank goodness I brought a nurse with me. (yes...susan here... he took benadryl and ibuprofen all day and slept in the shade...I worked on correcting my lousy biker tan.  oh by the way the camera on the computer takes a mirror image that's why it looks like the other eye in this shot)

thursday july 12, 2007

I'm sad to report that now Susan has had a bad facial reaction, which we think is due to...

A bad batch of cous cous she ate last night. I'm pretty sure it was the mystery-meat sausages on the right. As you can see, her face isn't exactly swollen, but seems to have changed at the molecular level and we don't have enough Benadryl to correct the problem. The good news is despite eye balls the shape of mussel shells, Susan can still take photos (see below), but the bad news is French children run in horror when they see her and the parents throw rocks.

For those of you sick of sunflowers...here's a field of lavender (Angie)

For those of you who can never get enough sunflowers (especially Lauren Finkle)...

And this is for all you cloud fanatics out there (James). By the way, we are in Aix, Cezanne's city (he's an artist, Howard) and this is the sky above his studio. We'll probably have to remain here for a while, in hiding, until Susan's face returns to normal. Tonight we are having chicken soup for dinner.

This last shot is for Wayne, who asked for more cat photos. This one lives at Cezanne's studio.

sunday july 15, 2007

 

I don't know if you've noticed, but this blog has been almost entirely about Susan and me, which has made us feel a bit self absorbed. But then we quickly got over it, realizing 88 Days is all about OUR trip, so what else can we write about and people probably won't get sick of hearing about us for at least another week or two. Oh, this shot above ... Mt. Ste. Victoire, the one Cezanne painted over and over and over as if he was obsessed with it. On Friday I rode completely around the mountain (40 miles) and halfway a spoke on my back tire broke. This is a bit of a problem because when one spoke breaks, others seem to do so as well and before you know it.... So, fingers crossed and avoiding pot holes and riding slowly, I made it back to town and the bike shop. On Saturday, Susan and I rode a portion of the route and she got this photo. It really is a beautiful mountain, craggy white rocks full of textures, shapes and shadows set against the blue sky of Provence.

There are fountains everywhere in Aix (why didn't Cezanne paint them?) and this is one of the most famous.

Either in our honor (perhaps they've been reading our blog) or maybe because of Bastille Day, there were fireworks last night.

More fireworks ... and a fitting end to our visit to Aix, today we leave for Lourmarin. We're not sure when we will be able to post again, so this is a good time to start at the beginning and re-read all our adventures. Wait, one more thing: Yesterday we were walking down the street and this American family was coming the other way. "Dad, look, oh ... my...God ... A Subway!" Yep. there was a Subway restaurant here. I didn't hear what the dad said to his son, but I hope it was: "I paid a lot of money for this trip and you'll eat a stinkin' crepe and like it you rotten bastard."

wednesday july 25, 2007

What would a room be without a view (according to EM Forster) and this is the view from our room in Lacoste, across the valley to Bonnieux.

When we last posted we were in Aix and it was Bastille Day. That seems like so long ago. Since then we have been heading north, over a series of mountains and through valleys dotted with little old towns on top of hills within the valleys below. I know, this is a lot of geography for one sentence, but what is a bike trip if not geography? And mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes. But we are now protected by Creme Anti-Moustiques.

In Lacoste there was a sculpture exhibit on top outside the ruins of the castle built by the Marquis de Sade. This one has something to do with arms and how if you have really nice arms you don't need a head or legs or any of that other stuff.

Nighttime is always the best time when you're in a tiny Provence village. It's not as hot and the throngs of buses and the tourists they contain are long gone. Again, the view from Lacoste to Bonnieux.

Every old town, of course, has an old church and this is one in Gordes, which is one of the best and most visited towns atop a hill in the region.

In Gordes, as we were walking near this spot, we heard a woman remark: "This is what it must have been like for Jesus." Aside from the fact that she was more than a thousand years (Gordes is only about 400 or 500 years old) and a couple thousand miles off, yes, this is exactly what it was like for Jesus, who arrived here on a tourist bus and bought an Orangina at the cafe.

This is the view down from Gordes. It is so spectacular that Susan had to admit it was worth the climb from that street down below.

The view from Gordes at night.

Susan has become a bit obsessed with these old Citroen cars. This one is so old there are rumors Jesus may have driven it.

The granddady of the mountains around here, and the first real Alp, is Mont Ventoux. It is 1,909 meters high, which in feet is: REALLY HIGH. And today I climb it! And no, I'm not crazy, hundreds of people come from all over Europe and beyond every day to climb Mont Ventoux and most start in Bedoin, the town we are staying in. OK, maybe we all are crazy. This climb is in the Tour de Drugs, I mean France, from time to time and is considered one of the tour's toughest.
Susan? No, she will not be climbing Mont Ventoux. We did the math and the 21-mile uphill ride would take her 12 days, so she reluctantly decided against it. Instead she will wander around town looking for old cars and cats.

thurday july 26, 2007

This is 4 kilometers into the "epic" climb up Mount Ventoux and at this point the real climbing hasn't even begun. Things turn nasty at the 6 kilometer mark and the grade stays at a whopping 9 to 10 percent the rest of the way. Each percent of grade is like putting another cinder block on your back. OK, I'm being overly dramatic, hundreds of people climb this mountain every day, so it can't be that hard, can it?

Yes! It's strange how many people climb this mountain, from thin guys in fancy bike attire riding $5,000 bikes to overweight men - and women - on crappy mountain bikes. This is at the 7 or 8 kilometer mark and I was struggling (That's not me, by the way) ... only 1,150 more meters up to go...just take it nice and slow, one kilometer at a time... Soon after, as the sweat poured down from my helmet and into my eyes, that I began to understand why the Tour de France guys take steroids. But no, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it clean...

I eventually made it, in about 2 hours and 40 minutes, about an hour and 10 minutes off the world record. Damn, I just missed the record. The top was filled with sweaty, exhausted and smiling bikers, as well as an equal number of people who came up by car (which doesn't seem fair). Vendors at the top were selling candy, biscuits and sausage. That's right, sausage. I have no idea why you'd want sausage at the top of Mount Ventoux. The photo above was taken a couple hours later by Susan; I have a couple pictures from the top but they are crappy.
***We are headed to Seguret today for 5 nights - and probably won't have internet access. But keep posting messages and e-mailing us. In fact, the thought of reading your witty, pithy messages is what kept me going when things got tough on Mount Ventoux. Susan will have lots of incredible photos of Seguret and the surrounding area to post eventually.

tuesday july 31, 2007

When you're away this long you tend to need a vacation from your vacation and we took ours in Seguret, which had all the right ingredients: a really nice hotel room complete with 3 windows (here's the view from one up to the town) and a piscine (French for cement pond).

This is a view of our second window and ...

This is the view down from the third window to the courtyard, where we ate petite dejeuner and dinner every day. While the breakfast was OK (coffee and bread products with jelly/butter), the dinners were very nice...

On top is a cheese dish topped with tomatoes and below is cavier d'aubergine (eggplant mash with a fancy sauce - it tastes better than it sounds).

The main course one night: meat with side dishes. As you may remember from previous posts, we weren't so big on French food for a while, preferring pizza and cous cous, but the restaurant at our Seguret hotel restored our faith in French cuisine.

Mystery bird! What do you think this is? The answer will appear at the end of his post.

Warm chocolate cake.

After 5 days it was finally time to leave Seguret and get back to work on our vacation. We went to the right, to Vaison and beyond to a little town called Mollans-sur-Ouveze. Tomorrow we head into lavender country and Sault and before you know it we will reach the beach.
**Medical update: I got my second guepe (wasp) bite three days ago while riding and my entire left leg, above the knee, is swelled up like an over-ripe sausage; Susan has a strange rash on her right elbow that is shaped sort of like the map of Italy; my right ear is clogged up,perhaps from all the swimming in Seguret. However, since I can't hear out of this ear, it makes it easier to ignore Susan when she tells me how much she doesn't like the bike riding.
****Answer to mystery bird question: It was a quail. At least that's what they told us. It could have been pigeon, how would we know?