My bicycle arrived in the morning. It’s a good bike, but it is obviously a rental. It looks like it can withstand a lot of punishment. I think it is made of steel. So it is heavy. I found out how heavy when I tried to go up some hills. There was one dirt/gravel road that I actually had to get off and walk.
Neither Catherine nor myself are morning people, so we didn’t get up early. We started breakfast at around nine (although I don’t think we got the famed Charentais melons, and if we did, they aren’t that special), and we didn’t hit the road until a bit before eleven o’clock. I started down one road, and she immediately thought we were going the wrong way. I wasn’t sure enough, so we turned around and went the other way. However half a kilometer later, I was getting major doubts. We consulted the map and looked over the directions and turned around again and went back the original way, which turned out to have been correct. She trusts me a lot more now, and is worried that if I wasn’t here, she would never have found her way.
The directions could be improved. Mind you, we do sabotage ourselves. We read ahead a bit, and that can cause confusion. Especially if you pass the same landmark twice in different directions. For the most part we needed to follow the plentiful orange signs, until we don’t. It would have been nice if the instructions had let us know to stop.
Provence is nice, although it is very dry. I don’t see how anything grows here. But there are many orchards with apples, pears, grapes, figs, and even pumpkins. I suppose the many irrigation channels on the side of the road explains why things are growing. It would be dangerous for me to live here, because I would be very happy to spend time trying to dam up these channels.
The first half was mainly flat and easy to do. The second half after lunch in Merindol was rather hilly. We climbed a big hill into Lauris and searched around to see an impressive view. A German tourist even gave us a history lesson on three churches in the area.
My traveling companion has been good. She is also interested in taking lots of pictures, so it works out well. We stop frequently.
I also discovered that a goat or an Ibis (I’m not sure which) with huge horns, really likes having the space on its head behind the horns scratched. I probably shouldn’t have, because I didn’t know if it was friendly, but it was a nice experience.
We got to our destination of Cadenet right around rush hour. We got to our hotel and enjoyed its pool. It wasn’t a great one, but it was nice and cool. I think it is the only pool for our entire trip.
We went out to dinner at a place called La Source. It was nice, although the terrace was full. And we had to eat inside. I really debated between having the fish or the beef. The fish is something I can’t really get in Alberta, but the beef sounded like it had a great sauce, even if it wasn’t a great cut.
Hopefully tomorrow it will be cooler and we can get off earlier.
2012-9-7 23:51