It felt like a leisurely start this morning, looking out from the balcony of the Hotel Panorama to see a distant bonfire layering the valley with smoke. In principle, a relatively lightweight day of less than 200 miles awaited us, aiming for Uzes in the Languedoc-Rousillon. Bikes were ok, having been left in the public car park - John woke up about 1 am to hear suspicious noises, and look out of the window, but it was only the road menders hammering away at the buried lid of a circular drain, which of course is mandatory in the small hours (?!).
The first half of the ride was utterly magnificent, beautiful smooth roads in generally good condition, with enough bends and sufficiently little traffic to bring a smile to the face. The most striking thing for the whole trip was the smell of pine, and the occasional drift of woodsmoke. I can see why Provence is so popular, the hills, the pine woods, the houses, the sun and light. Yes, it's sunny today, hurray!!
We stopped for lunch in Rians, planning to get a sandwich, but the proprietor talked us into an Escalope Milanoise each, on the basis that he didn't do sandwiches! It was really tasty though, with salad and frites; the frites were a mix of normal fries and alphagetti-style letters, unfortunately we didn't have enough vowels to make any interesting words! One of the old guys (apparently 74) in the square came up and practised his English on us - ex-airforce radar tech, he'd owned a "Commando Norton" in the 60s, and regaled us with tales of a wealthy 89 year old ex-pilot who lived nearby and owns a nice stable of cars including Lambo Miura, Diablo, Countach, a Ferrari Daytona replica, a Lotus 23, and who is apparently a very nice chap.
The rest of the way the road was more like a typical French main road - long straights lined with trees, broken up by bends, roundabouts and small villages. We stuck to the speed limits pretty much all the way, it's very pleasant bimbling along looking at the surroundings and stopping for re-direction, fags and "natural breaks". Let's face it, overtake one bunch of cars and 30 seconds later you're either at the back of the next queue or stopped at a traffic light or stop sign with the passed cars' drivers sniggering at Les Motards Anglais (maybe moturds??)! The pleasant ennui was broken for a considerable distance by the presence behind us of a rusty white Peugeot hatchback, which was clearly being driven by a very committed local - it was catching us in the bends and only got lost on the longer straights, very impressive!! We eventually turned off and that was it, didn't get a chance to wave our acknowledgement to the Finnish-standard driver.
Finding the BnB was the only semi-stressful event today - it wasn't in the satnav, so we entered the post code which turned out to be a larger area. John spotted the road as we sailed past, then spent 3 miles trying to alert Jim to the need to turn around! Eventually we got back and parked up, only to find that the local village doesn't have any restaurants, so we ended up riding back into Uzes, John pillion with Jim driving, looking like a right couple of gaylords in matching helmets, casual jackets and jeans. At least we pulled a one-er on the way home in the twilight! A single beer for John and no booze at all for Jim means we are even now conducting an experiment on the survivability of the holiday night without alcohol. See you in the morning...
The first half of the ride was utterly magnificent, beautiful smooth roads in generally good condition, with enough bends and sufficiently little traffic to bring a smile to the face. The most striking thing for the whole trip was the smell of pine, and the occasional drift of woodsmoke. I can see why Provence is so popular, the hills, the pine woods, the houses, the sun and light. Yes, it's sunny today, hurray!!
Today's Lunch Stop
We stopped for lunch in Rians, planning to get a sandwich, but the proprietor talked us into an Escalope Milanoise each, on the basis that he didn't do sandwiches! It was really tasty though, with salad and frites; the frites were a mix of normal fries and alphagetti-style letters, unfortunately we didn't have enough vowels to make any interesting words! One of the old guys (apparently 74) in the square came up and practised his English on us - ex-airforce radar tech, he'd owned a "Commando Norton" in the 60s, and regaled us with tales of a wealthy 89 year old ex-pilot who lived nearby and owns a nice stable of cars including Lambo Miura, Diablo, Countach, a Ferrari Daytona replica, a Lotus 23, and who is apparently a very nice chap.
The rest of the way the road was more like a typical French main road - long straights lined with trees, broken up by bends, roundabouts and small villages. We stuck to the speed limits pretty much all the way, it's very pleasant bimbling along looking at the surroundings and stopping for re-direction, fags and "natural breaks". Let's face it, overtake one bunch of cars and 30 seconds later you're either at the back of the next queue or stopped at a traffic light or stop sign with the passed cars' drivers sniggering at Les Motards Anglais (maybe moturds??)! The pleasant ennui was broken for a considerable distance by the presence behind us of a rusty white Peugeot hatchback, which was clearly being driven by a very committed local - it was catching us in the bends and only got lost on the longer straights, very impressive!! We eventually turned off and that was it, didn't get a chance to wave our acknowledgement to the Finnish-standard driver.
Finding the BnB was the only semi-stressful event today - it wasn't in the satnav, so we entered the post code which turned out to be a larger area. John spotted the road as we sailed past, then spent 3 miles trying to alert Jim to the need to turn around! Eventually we got back and parked up, only to find that the local village doesn't have any restaurants, so we ended up riding back into Uzes, John pillion with Jim driving, looking like a right couple of gaylords in matching helmets, casual jackets and jeans. At least we pulled a one-er on the way home in the twilight! A single beer for John and no booze at all for Jim means we are even now conducting an experiment on the survivability of the holiday night without alcohol. See you in the morning...
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