I love Provence, France

Provence is a "state" in the south of France, and I love it. I keep discovering the most interesting places to see and the most fun roads to ride.

First, the roads (and a little about French motorcycle riders)---

There are great superhighways all through France, but I tend to stay off them. I enjoy the little country lanes a lot more. Most of them are as twisty as a child's jump rope discarded at the end of play. It is hard to get up much of a head of steam on them before they hairpin around in a tight curve. I leaned the bike over so far several times that I scraped my foot peg. Odysseus is a dual sport bike, so the pegs are up pretty high. I think if I had been on a cruiser (a Harley or other bike with floorboard type footrests) I would have scraped on almost every curve.

Both the cars and I tend to go a little slow (45 miles an hour seems about right usually), and I am often passed by other motorcycle riders who sometimes seem to be doing about 100 miles an hour.  When they go around me, they always stick their right foot out. I was never sure what that meant. Were they saying "hi", or were they saying "get your foot off the brake and shake a leg, grandpa". So, I googled it, and learned that it was just a friendly way of saying "thanks for letting me pass".

Fortunately, there never seem to be any radar police on the road.

Lane splitting must be legal here, because motorcycle riders never sit in traffic behind cars like I do. They go around, and car drivers move over to the right to allow them to do that. I tried it myself, and felt a little uncomfortable doing it. I mean, what if the car I am overtaking, or the car in the oncoming lane had to swerve? Splat!

There is a lot to see and do in Provence. One thing not to miss is the Castle of the Popes in Avignon. Did you know that the center of the Catholic Church moved from Rome to France for a few hundred years around the 1300's? Here are some pictures of the castle---

Quite the little shack, isn't it? At that time, the Pope was more important than the King.

Here is a statue of one of the Pope dudes. Pretty contented looking fellow, isn't he?

Actually, there is not really much to see at the Palace of the Popes, or in Avignon itself for that matter. Here is a picture of Avignon for you:

Like all cities, Avignon is crowded, pricey, and set up mostly for the tourist set. That's not me. Avignon is on the Rhone River, if you are interested. That's it down there in this next picture. Not much to write home about, is it?

I didn't stay in Avignon long. I was more interest in riding the lanes of rural Provence. I was going around a corner in the sandstone hills south of Avignon---

When I spotted this city across the valley---

I think, when traveling, the best things to see are found by serendipity.

Can you spot all the cars and motorcycles parked there? People are exploring the heck out of this place on a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon.

Up at the old castle on the top of the hill they were putting on a show. The first thing I was interested in were the catapults and trebuchets. My students and I had made models of some of these in our classroom, and we had a lot of fun throwing balls with ours. The medieval knights here were throwing giant water balloons. 

Take that, ye varlets! Arg!!

 They were letting people shoot crossbows. I had never done that before and I got to take my turn. I missed the target entirely (I am hanging my head in shame as I type this. I'm glad you can't see me because it is a pitiful sight, I can tell you). 

Time to put myself in the stocks and pillory--

They were demonstrating medieval weapons--

 And they got some kids out of the audience to help do a medieval duel. Cute!---

This town is named Les Baux. And here is something that is probably only interesting to a geology teacher like me:  Here in Les Baux is the first place aluminum ore was mined, thus the name for the ore--Bauxite. How about that. I learn something new every day.

They were having a display of Monet art in the city. I thought I would try my hand at it. Here is a picture I took at an outdoor cafe as I was eating luncvh. Hope you like it--

Today, I was riding along when I kept seeing these fields of lavender.

I learned that Provence is the only place in the world where lavender grows wild. They were showing how they turn it into perfume. Very interesting, I thought.

But now, my laptop battery is about to die. I am in Toulon, a big city with not a thing to recommend it, and I have a ticket to catch a ferry to Corsica. I have to be on board in an hour for an overnight trip.

So, more to come later from Corsica.
Ron

I happened to camp next to another motorcycle rider when I was in Andorra. He was from Australia and he had shipped his BMW motorcycle here to ride around in Europe. The two of us agreed that Andorra is not a particularly fun place to visit. It is a tiny country that is almost all city, and it is filled with banks, hotels, and angry people who hurry-scurry along impatiently on their skinny roadways. I never knew what language they spoke, but I could tell it wasn't French and it wasn't Spanish. Actually, it looked to me to be some crazy offshoot from Latin (not that I would know).

The road north out of Andorra and into France goes up over a high Col, or Pass. And, the Pass was open (hurray).

























I stopped at the top of the pass to take a picture, and there were some Germans there on BMW motorcycles. They spotted me right away, and came over to check out my VStrom. I guess they had never seen one before. They looked at everything, and took pictures of some things, and kept talking about what I had that they needed (shoe plate to keep side stand from sinking into dirt, for one thing). They were a funny crew. One was smoking a huge Sherlock Holmes pipe; another had the worse set of teeth I've seen in Europe.  They wanted my picture with my bike, and then took a picture of me with my camera too.

It is fun being back in France. The drivers are so polite (and quite slow movers, actually), and most people take the time to smile and to greet you with a Bon Jour.  They don't seem to mind at all that my French is mangled and almost non-existent. We always seem to get by with a nod and a grin.

I like the southeastern part of France that I am traveling through now. I can still see the snow covered Pyrenees way off to the south. Here, where I am, there are huge vineyards and lots of wine tasting places (which I don't dare take advantage of and then ride because they have very strict laws here (although I never seem to see any police -- making it quite different that the good old land of speed traps back home).

This area has been fought over for thousands of years, and at times controlled by the French, the Arabs (Moors), and the Spanish. There are castles and old defensive walls and fortresses everywhere.

One such place is Carcassonne. It is terribly old, and quite the popular place to see. My wife and I were here many years ago, and I wanted to go back and check it out again.

Its a Unesco world heritage site. Everywhere you look there is a great picture.

This next picture might not be all that great because a strange person jumped right into the middle of it. Ha!

The streets inside the city are narrow and winding, with lots of stores and restaurants.

It was fun to sit at an outdoor cafe and drink some lemonade and people watch. This little girl was having a grand time running around chasing pigeons.

She never did catch one. (Smile)

I took a tour, and found out that most of the people live in the lower city down below the walls. That part of the city has been there for hundreds of years itself.

Narrow streets down there too, with lots more things going on. It was lunch time, so all the people were out eating. The school kids get out for about two hours, I think, and then they go back to the classroom with stomachs having finished with their meals. It is a good system. Everyone was having a good time.

I explored, then rested, then explored some more until about 9 pm. There was to be a sound and light show in the castle inside the walls when it got dark. I settled down to wait for that. This young guy was entertaining the crowd with the most interesting music. I asked him what his instrument is called, and he said it is a "space drum" because it looks like a flying saucer.

I joined the crowd to watch the free sound and light show, but it was all in French and I couldn't understand a word. I did know that they were explaining the history of the city, but I had already read all about that. So, time to walk back to my campground, a quarter mile away.

First, though, some night shots:

I had a good night's sleep. Lately I have been having leg cramps at night, and pain in my back and neck. None of that last night. I woke up feeling great, and now I am back on the road. I stopped for lunch at a McDonald's to use their free WiFi, and the lunchtime crowd is here now eating smelly fries and chicken sandwiches. Ugh.

I am heading off across southeastern France toward the ferry to Corsica. There is a lot to see before then, though, so I am in no hurry.

What do you think of this flower? Do you like poppies?  They grow wild in Europe, and are all through the fields of wheat and hay and all along the road side, a glorious color of orange everywhere and a real treat for the eyes.

Gotta get going. Talk with you later:

Ron