My French Adventure

[Crankin]

The scenery looks like just what you see on TV, watching the Tour. It's hot and sort of a desert climate, but with trees. Grapevines, lavender, and lots of produce. Little farm roads, and narrow switchbacks. France has typical European breakfasts (not English breakfasts), a buffet of fruit, baguettes, croissants, pastries, cereal, yogurt, hard or soft
boiled eggs, and ham, cheese.
Today we rode 52 miles. About 5 of them were from getting lost after lunch. This morning we rode from Mazan to Sault, with a 20K moderate climb through a gorge. The climb to Sault right before the stop was hard and we did it twice, as I said. We had lunch pre-arranged by Trek at a cafe and then after the guide saved us, we were on a moderate climb for like 10 miles, followed by a scary, tight switch back descent on chip seal, for 4 miles. I never went over 22. When we got closer to our stop, it became a milder straight descent, until we started climbing up to the town of Gorges. It's 90 degrees and I was shot. But I am now lying in air conditioned luxury. I've had to be rigorous with my eating and hydrating, as well as chamois butter and other things to keep the saddle sores at bay. Heat is destructive in so many ways.

[Crankin]

So, our last day of riding went quite well, but I had to do a lot of mental self talk to get me through. My body is starting to rebel from the riding, the heat, and all of the eating and drinking. We rode about 30 miles, with a stop at a market in Roussillon, then rode to another small town and had lunch at Les Terrasses Luberon. I seriously wanted to take the van back, but I didn't. We rode through LaCoste back to Gordes, with the big climb, but, this time, we hadn't been riding 50 miles when we started the climb.
Had the most outstanding dinner in an outdoor garden restaurant last night, after a few relaxing hours at the pool. Yesterday, we saw tons of sunflowers, just like at the tour.
Getting ready to leave for the train to the airport. We have a very long travel day, 3 hours on the train and 6 in the air. We were able to upgrade again, so I hope to sleep.
DH just calculated we rode 175 miles, with 14k feet of climbing.

[azfiddle]

All in all- sounds like you had a great trip in spite of the heat. Hope the travel home went smoothly

[Crankin]

We made it home, on time... so nice to feel the 60 degree temperature! I slept an hour on the train and several on the plane, so despite trying, I did nothing more than doze all night. Got out of bed at 5, unpacked, and started the laundry, which is mostly the bike clothes. At 9:30 I am going to meet my best friend, ever, from middle school/high school for breakfast. I have not seen her since January 1972. She is in town for the weekend and this is a great way to finish my trip. Tomorrow, my friend and I (and another friend, who lives here) are going to a celebration of life luncheon, for my HS boyfriend, who recently died.
All, in all, this trip was a winner. The plusses were the riding and the food, and the scenery. The minuses were, compared to other bike tours, I felt rushed, and there were little cultural/historical side activities. We had chosen the explorer (cheaper) level trip than the last time we did a Trek Travel trip, so some of this may be the difference in price, between the Explorer trip and the Luxury version. We chose the Explorer trip, because we thought there would be less of an azzhole factor in the other participants, and I think that was true. We also let Trek plan our hotel, etc. we used in Paris for the beginning of the trip, and while the hotel was fine, we did not need the Paris Pass, and other things we bought, as those things were really touristy. We won't do that again.
Sometimes I wonder about my riding ability, compared to the others... quite a few of the women who did Ventoux don't ride half as much as I do. They do run and hike, and other stuff that is hard. And, they don't even look like they are in great shape. I seriously don't know if I could have done Ventoux, even with my 11-34 gearing; I know I could not have done it with the bike I was riding there. DH says I could, and with me, it's mostly in my head. I like climbing, but I think my suffering quotient has decreased as I age.
I will post some pictures, when DH is done uploading them.

[shootingstar]

The plusses were the riding and the food, and the scenery. The minuses were, compared to other bike tours, I felt rushed, and there were little cultural/historical side activities. We had chosen the explorer (cheaper) level trip than the last time we did a Trek Travel trip, so some of this may be the difference in price, between the Explorer trip and the Luxury version. We chose the Explorer trip, because we thought there would be less of an azzhole factor in the other participants, and I think that was true. We also let Trek plan our hotel, etc. we used in Paris for the beginning of the trip, and while the hotel was fine, we did not need the Paris Pass, and other things we bought, as those things were really touristy. We won't do that again.
Sometimes I wonder about my riding ability, compared to the others... quite a few of the women who did Ventoux don't ride half as much as I do. .

You're probably a good cyclist, Crankin. I'm very different from you when cycling in foreign countries outside of North America: For myself personally, I do want to enjoy the cultural sights, some views, etc. It would bother me immensely to be cycling a lot and bypass a lot of key historic sights, interesting restaurants..I'm in a foreign country.

I don't mind some of the touristy stuff but like to visit it on our own time. That's part of the country's history / heritage also but just well over-marketed.