Day 63: Avignon to Arles

November 8, 2022

The Unicorns!

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We had been warned that a group would be grabbing the breakfast room from 7 to perhaps 8, so we cleverly showed up at 6:30. But even then, we found a whole flock of old ladies already descended on all the food and all the tables. The breakfast staffer proposed, however, that we collect some food and take it to our room. That suit us just fine. We dispatched Dodie to elbow aside all the tour group old ladies, and collect some piles of food. (We are calling these old ladies, but perhaps they were younger than us. By "old" we mean "weak", not powerful cyclists, like us!)

Our bikes were in a courtyard accessed from the breakfast room, and I started to carry panniers through to them. Each time I opened the door to pass outside, one of the flock squawked that she was cold. These folks better stick with their bus tour, being out on a bike for an hour would kill them.

I forgot to go investigate further the mystery of the Hotel Palais des Papes, the place with the same name as our hotel, that had at first earned the pin we put in the GPS for where we are headed for. But we did go and just snap a couple of shots of the Palace, the Cathedral, and the Theatre. We then considered our photographic duty to the major monuments done.

Here is a look down a typical street inside the city walls.

We popped outside the walls, and instantly into traffic.

Here is the famous Pont d'Avignon, plus traffic!

The main Avignon bridge (not the partial one) offers a great bike lane.

The famous St Benezet Avignon bridge only partly spans the Rhone. "According to the legend, the bridge was built in the 12th century by a young shepherd from Ardèche - Bénezet - who heard voices telling him to build a bridge in Avignon. The bridge was completed in 1185, creating the only place to cross the Rhône between Lyon and the Mediterranean sea. The bridge originally spanned approximately 900 meters and had 22 arches. It was dismantled in 1226, then rebuilt. It was later washed away several times by flood waters and rebuilt until it was abandoned in the 17th century. "

Once on the other side of the Rhone, ViaRhona signage remained good, and the route, while on road at first and for a fair portion of the whole run to Arles, was good and basically safe. However early on we managed to find an unsafe bit, and I took advantage of it by going flying.

The unsafe bit was an underpass under a roadway, that was approached on both sides by blind corners. The first photo below shows how it looks to drivers coming the opposite way to how we tried to come through. Note the ViaRhona sign and several caution signs about cyclists coming through.

From our side, Dodie approached the entry, and was confronted by a car speeding through, much like the one in the photo below. She slammed on her brakes, and so did the driver.

Then it was a question of us backing up and out of the way. I took one step back and up toward the grass, tripped, and went flying. The bike crashed to the road in total disarray, and the handlebar stuff flew out. The car driver came out to see if she could help, and Dodie checked if I was ok, before the bike got lifted and the stuff started to be collected from the road. It was more embarrassing than anything. But there two noteworthy things about it. The car driver felt compelled to comment "You have to watch, eh", and as we finished repacking, numerous cars came swarming through the underpass, none watching and all going too fast. So as Dodie kept working on the bike, I stood out in plain view, stopped the cars, and directed them safely past her.

Since I was the victim this time, and have the camera, we are lacking the traditional photo of the Grampie crashed on the roadway!

We continued to take an interest in watching traffic after this, and rather enjoyed seeing it jammed up by construction, adjacent to our track.

Though there may have been a bit of gravel, the track was generally ideal, as you see below.

We rode through acres and acres of vines, in some cases with them extending actually to the horizon.

A lot of the time it seemed not so much like a bike ride, but rather a float through a park. The path and the surrounding plantings were so nice, it could be surreal.

One part of the route was a rail trail, and it was complete with many picnic tables and a rest stop in a former station.

This psychedelic view of the inside of one tunnel came with the help of lighting that turned on automatically as we went through.

Our progress was marked by views of towns on the hills, and also villas closer by. They are all, of course, very Provencal!

Some cyclists passed us along the way, and I greeted them with "Bonjour". They didn't reply, and I formed the opinion that they must not be French. This was supported just by noting that they were taller than most French, so we concluded they were Dutch.

Later we ran into them again, and confirmed that they were Dutch. We didn't collect their full story, but one point of discussion was about camping. We agreed that at this time of year especially it is not a good idea, because there are too many hours of darkness to cope with.

The town of Beaucaire is distinguished by a nice castle above, but of most note to us was the olive pressing coop.

Peeking into the coop yard, we could see a bin of olives being emptied into the press. We noted that the olives were both green and black. We have no idea if this is normal, or if there is oil from only green and only black.

Another big thing happening in Beaucaire was the monster truck derby, coming on the weekend. The town was plastered with posters, and a loudspeaker truck was circulating, touting the coming event. I was impressed to note that the spiel coming from the truck was being performed live by the driver, and was not a tape.

Beaucaire also has a harbour. We circled the whole thing and took a photo from the other end as well.

Also in Bocaire we spotted an orange tree, a rarity for here, but still something that helps us believe we are now in the "south". We are also watching other bits of flora, that tell us for sure we are not in Kansas.

The grapes really are finished for the season.

Groves of olive trees - so exotic for people from Canada!

Not sure what these are, but they are very characteristic of this region.

Different types of reedy plants, as expected in the Camargue.

Of course we also enjoy seeing the animals as we cycle. Here we encountered two guardian dogs with a flock of sheep. This one did not seem really too upset with us lurking about.

But our greatest excitement is reserved for the horses that are the closest thing to Unicorns on earth. It is of course their white colour and shape, but also the type of gentle nobility they exude. You can easily believe (or at least I can) that these have responsibility for the health and happiness of the ecosystem here.

Fortunately these are not The Last unicorns. We will find more deeper into the Camargue.

One last type of animal story for today happened at Forques, which is almost at Arles. We had stopped for a moment to chat with a man intrigued by our DaBrim visors. He called over a friend to have a look at us, and that friend turned out to be a bullfighting coach. Bullfighting is big around Arles, and there is also a ring at Forques. Bulls are no longer killed in bullfights here, but rather they attempt to remove the bull's "attributes". "The aim for the bullfighters is to recover the attributes that the bull wears on its head : a cockade, a piece of red cloth placed in the centre of the forehead, two tassels attached to the base of each horn, and finally two strings placed near the tassels. All of this must be removed with a hook, a metal object."

The friend made us a gift of a photo of a fighter he is coaching. This will be a treasured souvenir.

On the wall at the ring in Forques we found several plaques commemorating figures important to the sport from the past. It is edifying to come in contact with a proud tradition.

Our spot on Arles is the Hotel Mireille, just north of the city, on the far side of the Rhone. We chose the place sort of at random, but we walked into a situation where the owners, Gerard and Jean Pierre were extremely gracious and welcoming. They showed us around the property, and stashed our bikes secure and dry in a store room. It makes a big difference to the total experience when you run into pleasant people at a place.

Circumstances conspired to place the famous Grampies together with the famous Andersons together in Arles this evening. Scott and Rachael found a nice restaurant, and we arranged to gather there for yet another epic Cycleblaze meetup for this season.

We crossed the bridge and headed for the restaurant, walking through the amazing townscape of huddled buildings, squares, and shops. The vibe of Arles is very different than that of Avignon. No traffic is there to bug you, and the place has a quiet and friendly air.

We reached the restaurant and soon found Scott and Rachel, for two hours of animated cycling related chatter, and some excellent food as well. We have met Scott and Rachel only once before, in Victoria, so the rest of our knowledge of them comes from careful reading of Cycleblaze. This definitely makes them media stars to us.

Scott, Steve, Dodie, Rachel. Thanks, Scott, for sending us this excellent shot.

This was also a bit of a special night for us, because we were celebrating our 55th anniversary. Scott took this shot in the street in Arles. It can now be one of our favourites.

Our youngest son, Josh, was born on our anniversary, so this automatically makes this his birthday as well. Happy Birthday, Josh!

Josh with some of his favorites, in one of our favourite photos of him.

My camera's impression of the Rhone by night.

Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 2,873 km (1,784 miles)

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Ellen LeeHi Steve & Dodie! Just wondering how you got around the 90/180 day rule of being in Europe's Schengen zone? Did you get a visa for this 2nd trip?
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1 year ago

Keith KleinHi,
Belated happy anniversary. Arles is a great city to visit, if you’re into Roman buildings, but the Camargue is so close and tempting.
Cheers,
Keith
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Ellen LeeIt's why we went first to England (which is not in Shengen). As far as Shengen is concerned we left early July and came back early October.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith KleinThank you Keith. The Camargue is next on the list and after that a wee excursion into Provence.
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1 year ago