Day 16 Aix en Provence

We rolled around Arles yesterday afternoon. A nice Roman coliseum and other antiquities made for some nice photo ops. The most excitement however was while John was riding down a path and I hear a bang and John shouts out DON'T FOLLOW ME. He inadvertently rolled down 3 steps to the street. Luckily he stayed upright and the frame was not damaged. He says he didn't notice the steps since he was watching traffic. I think it might have been the adjacent 1st century Roman theater or even more likely the lightly clad young lovelies strolling nearby. Though it was early in the day the temps were too hot to ride so we hit the close by campground. So far there has been a camping area with a short distance of every town. Typical cost is 15 Euro. Not counting train travel we are under our 50 Euro a day travel expenses. On the days we find an Aldi Market ( a cross between trader Joe's and a cash and carry) we are way under that. Typical brasserie meals seem to run 10-15. Last night we hit an Aldi for salads, strawberries, bananas, yogurt, salami, cheese, an avocado, bread, wine, and 2 beers (once empty they serve as our wine glasses). The bill was 18 and we had a nice dinner, this morning breakfast and we still have enough for lunch. This morning I separated early from my bed side companions big Agnes and the sweet smell of Daphne since the day was again expected to be very hot. Big Agnes is the brand of my air mattress and Daphne odura seems to be planted frequently in the area. This time without much difficulty we found our road through the rolling hills of Provence. Because of our 6:30 start we rolled our 50 miles to Aix en Provence by 1. It would have been earlier but John had to stop at two pastry shops along the way. That's actually very restrained of John since we passed through many small towns and each has at least 2 to 4 shops with amazing breads and pastries. Ok, we also stopped for for my grande cafe noir fix. Anyway we're in town at 1 and it's now too hot to ride so we take a couple hour train trip to the coast. Saint Raphael is between St Tropaz and Nice and it is an upscale area to say the least. Our campsite is virtually on the beach and the sun is up so I take quick swim before dinner.


Keep Rolling,
Pete