Southern France & the Meditteranean

May 25 - June 2

Knowing we were riding along a canal meant that it was going to be an easy one! Wrong. 136km of consistent headwinds and 70km of "cycleway" that was more like a goat track, with holes, puddles, tree stumps, rocks, etc. A few times we thought we were going to end up in the canal, as the wind was so strong and gusty.

Carcasonne itself was an amazing place, with the medieval city still as it has been for 100s of years. The hostel was inside the walls of the olde city, so that was a great place to stay. We were exhausted when we arrived at 8.00pm, so the guy at the hostel gave us extra bread, cheese and wine to have with our pasta.

The winds weren´t letting up, so we took a train to Nimes, but this took all day as there were train strikes in France. We met a couple from Germany (Monika and Rupert), who have invited us to come and visit them, which we hope to be able to do.

Cycling to Arles was ok til we had to turn north, then the headwind was giving us grief again - it was difficult to manage 10km per hour at some stages and the bike was being blown all over the place. It was the longest 20km of our lives. In Arles we met another German family (Ursula, Gert & Julia), who were travelling in the opposite direction to us on their bikes. They have also asked us to come and visit, and I will have a chance to go to a German school for a couple of days.

We had another day sitting around the train station in Marseille due to the train strikes, but eventually got one to St Raphael. This town is right on the coast and is just beautiful. The hostel is high on a hill, and has the best views of the coast and mountains!!

Cycling towards Nice was beautiful along the coastline and I had a swim at lunchtime. The water was crystal clear and quite warm, but the beaches are mostly rocks and gravel, not sand. We had plans to stay at an apartment in Nice (via secret connections!!), and that all worked out well. We had 4 nights there, so we were able to get a real feel of the city and the lifestyle. Thanks to Sarah and George (& Tony, of course) for this opportunity!!

Our final night in France was in a town called Menton, which is close to the Italian border. We got there early in the afternoon, so spent the rest of the day on the beach, then tackled to 2km mountain up to the hostel (by foot in the end!). We shared a room with an Australian lady (Sue) who is living in England at the moment. We went out for pizza, then had the worst night´s sleep ever, as a basketball club who was staying at the hostel came home about midnight and continued to be very noisy until about 2 am.

Now, we are off to Italy!