Wednesday was our last day with Tom and Dianne, we are going to miss them. I tuned up the bikes while Yoly washed clothes in the morning. We walked around the blue walking tour route in Avignon because we hadn't seen that part of town and found that part of town to be more influenced by Mediterranean cultures from the other side of the sea than strictly french. We ate samosas and weird deserts. We took a boat ride back from the island across from the Pont d'Avignon where we were taking pictures of the Pont and went out for dinner. We said goodby to Tom and Dianne on Wednesday night and tried to sleep in as they rattled and crashed their way out of the apartment the next morning.
It was weird this morning going for a ride I had butterflies in my stomach and was nervous about what seems like the start of a new trip. It seems to me like the last trip ended in Dijon and a new one was starting today. All the stuff between here and Dijon was bureaucratic BS and touring around but not really cycle touring. Today we are back over 50 km and made it to Nîmes. My planed route was too rough because the rocks used to build the road were too big and the road was poorly maintained. It is hard to tell on a satellite photo what shape the road will be in.
It was striking how different cycle touring is from other types of touring. We got to hear the church bells ringing out the hours in the different towns we past and the birds singing. We smelled the farmers burning debris in the fields and flowers on the road side. We felt the wind on our backs and in our face for a while. We tasted the grapes that were left from the harvest. The horses came over to say hi and we said hi back. Cycle touring shows a different side of the country that you don't see in a car, bus or train and when you get to the touristy parts you can do that too.
We stopped in a field to talk to the farmers and watch their grape harvesting machine in action and the old farmer explained how the machine turned each grape bunch to loosen it from the grapevine. I tried to find out what percentage of the grapes remained on the vines after the machine harvest but my french wasn't up to it. When we inspected the vines we found they were picked clean on the sides but some grapes remained on the top. The vines could probably be pruned to prevent leaving grapes on the vines. We rode past several cooperative wine making operations and the roads near wineries were sticky with the grape juice leaking out of the farmers wagons. Harvest of grapes is in full swing down here. Most of the other fruit trees are done and the olives are still ripening. We rode past a half dozen wine tasting places linked to different wineries on either side of the road. We would have been drunk again had we stopped at all of them for a taste.
We made it to Nîmes, bought train tickets to Toulouse and toured the sights on foot. It was an ugly ride into town but the centre is very nice. We took a couple wrong turns on the way in and ended up zig zagging through the industrial side.
The highlight of the Blue Tour in Avignon.
Another picture o the Pont d'Avignon.
Us and the Pont.
The Pont.
The free boat from the island back to Avignon.
Part of a ceramic picture that names the towns and mountains visible from the viewpoint.
Coat of arms.
That's me on top of the fountain. I should have had the camera the view was great.
A wagon load of grapes.
Maybe the machine picks a bit more than just the grapes.
Grapes ready to pick.
Grapes coming out of the elevator and into the destemer/press
A fountain in Nîmes.
The arena in Nîmes.
Camera magic cuts the arena down to a manageable size.
A roman temple.
Fish in the fountain.
The fountain.
Yoly teasing the fish. They are just waiting for someone to fall in.
Bridge over fountain.
Fountain
Us at the fountain.
Tower on top of the hill. Looks like its going to rain.
What the tower used look like.
Started raining but we found a dry spot in the old fountain.
See, nice and dry.
Then we remembered that we were missing someone.
It was Dianne of course so we visited a temple built in her honor.
We were reminded how broken hearted we are.
But then we saw the double rainbow and thought that perhaps they were still with us in spirit even if they are only following along on the blog. Can you tell which rainbow is Tom and which is Dianne?
Yoly found a brave torero.
A bronze torero
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