Aix en Provence

First, please forgive any spelling or punctuation mistakes, the French decided that it was a good idea to change the placement of letters on the keyboard and trying to learn it is slow going...

From our night in Antibes we awoke to the sun shining once more and so enjoyed a beautiful ride along the beaches of Cannes sticking to the coast as we road to St. Raphael. Along the way you pass small bays of emerald green and saphire blue water rolling into red rock cliffs and beaches, and every climb is rewarded with yet another gorgeous view of the next little town, the next little cove, the next little piece of the simple life, it was spectacular! St. Raphael itself was a happening little beach town where we found our first French campsite, after riding in circles around the town, finding the tourist office, and being told that we had to ride back the way we came 5km, but the site itself overlooked to ocean and was grass rather than the hard rocky ground of the Italian campsites! The coast route was as it had been through Italy, mostly even when you average the ups and downs, but with short downs so it takes a toll on the legs, so this day wasn't much mileage.

From St. Raphael we decided to turn to the interior and leave the coast, though it had treated us so well, we were looking for something different, aa different landscape, and we were rewarded by one giant vineyard in the interior. literally it seems as if the entire area we covered over the next few days was vineyard, and indeed we stopped and picked up some of the local fruit of the vine to enjoy along the way...it's cheap, damn tasty, and flows freely! The ride from St. Raphael quickly turned into a set of long rolling climbs and descents on which we realized that the power we tried to demand from our legs just simply wasn't there. Spinning at a decent pace was no problem, but when the call for that something extra came to climb the next hill, the body simply didn't respond, and yet, we made 60 miles to St. Maximine where we were yet again left with staying in the hotel as the only campsite in the area we had passed 12 miles previously! It was Allen's birthday so a hotel and a nice meal eatten in the shadow of the medieval church were in order!

The next day's ride took us to Aix en Provence, again on tired legs we made 20 miles and decided to stop and even take a day off. Aix en Provence seems to be a younger city with lots to entertain and we are enjoying its exploration...