World France Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Di and Ali's Sojourn in Italy and France

Sambuc to St Remy 60kms Aug 4, 2009

Too windy, too hot, too far! We followed the directions, "pick up the road you were on yesterday.." I dont know why they couldnt say go back the way you came! So once again we travelled a couple of extra kms before Ali remembered the farm they referred to from the day before. Not impressed when we had such a long day ahead of us! Perhaps we need to consult the maps more frequently?! We rode into a very strong wind for most of the day, which was like riding up hill and we walked a few kms rather than rode, making more progress! By the time we reached the foothills of Les Alpilles, Di was totally stuffed and couldnt ride up any of the hills. So it was a long uphill walk in the afternoon sun. We then rode down the wrong direction of the road we were meant to be on and had to rewalk about 2kms uphill! Nearly at the top we could have visited Les Baux, which hundreds were, cars lined both sides of the road for kms. In Les Beaux there is an ancient village set amid Roman ruins, but we were too pooped to climb the stairway up to it! So we continued to climb upwards, now out of water but a lovely lady at a wine cellar in some underground caves filled Di's bottle with beautiful cold water. We now overlooked the whole village and had beautiful views of the country side. Not long afterwards, we reached the summit and began the wonderful 3km descent, free wheeling all the way. Suddenly we could view the day as a challenge we had met. St Remy and our hotel "La Reine Jeane" was reached by a very pretty ride through lush pastures and avenues of plane trees-saw our first sheep. Today we rode through vineyards and lush meadows and the incredible channels of rushing, gurgling water which lined both sides of the road over most of Provence. Had a beautiful last meal of our tour, the meals and accommodation have been excellent throughout the tour.

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