Made it!
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New-age scarecrow
Jousting
Jousting
Jousting
Art shot
Great ride, all the way from Geneva, Switzerland to the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sete France. Over 600 miles of biking, many many swims along the way, culminating with a swim in the Mediterranean and beers on the beach at Sete. Good times.
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Van Gogh and Gehry
A trio of gargoyles in Arles
The Bronze Man on top of the clock tower. It depicts Mars. Flag pole turns and it is a weathervane (1555)
Brass plate embedded in sidewalk. The symbol of Arles(Arelate), showing loyalty to Caesar’s Sixth Legion
Van Gogh’s Arles. Modern light is harsher, but Rosana says she can see why he was so inspired here
More tire mischief, but mostly a short trip into Arles, a labyrinthian roman city which pops out of the countryside almost without warning.
We arrived by 2 so that we could clean up and go visit the Van Gogh museum: new exhibits of Van Gogh and some more recent (and disturbing) artists, then back for sauna and hot tub!
Many of the pics (and the slide video) are from the new Frank Gehry Luma Foundation building, which I didn't go to.
An Amazon of seaweed makes swimming difficult
Guiness and "Irish Poutine". In Avignon.
Our off day in Avignon, so of course Reinhard, Than and I decide to do the 40-mile round trip to Pont Du Gard, a 2000yo roman aqueduct. There are some fascinating engineering details, such as how they were able to calibrate the slope so finely, but more to the point it was very cool, as was the water we swam in underneath.
Sadly, riding home wasn't quite so smooth. Than went through some goat-head thorns, leading to a flat front tire and two flats in the back. All told we might have pulled two dozen thorns out of the tires. He eventually was able to get on the road w/ a donated tube. However, no good deed goes unpunished, so after donating my spare tube to Than I had a flat. Opening up the tire to patch the tube I discovered that....there was no tube. I had been riding tubeless w/o realizing it. This is fine, but my only way to get on the road was to install a tube (borrowed from Reinhard). So in the end we limped back w/ no spare tubes between the three of us.
My flat was interesting: I'd been pumping up the front every few days because it was slowly losing air. After Than's flats, in an abundance-of-caution I put even more air in my front. Evidently this unplugged a previous hole that had been plugged w/ the sealant that sits between tubeless rims and their tires. So it's kind of Than's fault.
Very short day, but 30+ mph tailwind that didn’t stay a tailwind.
Short day, the "sunniest" day according to our writeup, and also 88 degrees. We had a good hard day early, stopped at an artificial lake for a swim and some imbibements, and got to the hotel by 1:15. Amazingly, our rooms were ready and the baggage arrived within a half hour.
I had a 2-hour nap :-).
The pedestrian bridge was cool, the naked kid on the nuclear cooling tower.
Not content w/ the riding up the mountain yesterday, today Reinhard, Mary, Greg, Rosana and I did some "VeloRails": we biked up the mountain, then partway down on the train tracks w/ Reinhard and I in front, and Rosana, Mary, and Greg in the back. This was vaguely downhill, so not too strenuous, especially the last part when we coasted at up to 19 mph.
Than, Reinhard, and I decided to do a 20-mile add-on to the 31-mile day. The add-on was going over the top of the hills to Lamastre, where we'd pick up a train pulled by an old steam locomotive (
Train de l' Ardeche) back to Tournon-sur-Rhone.
The ride was great: a 1600-ft climb up to the top, then a bit of up and down, and then a 30mph+ descent down to where we picked up the train. Strava says this is my fastest 10-mile segment in 2026.
Euro-News building.
Jousting
Mostly unremarkable day after a lovely off day in Lyon, other than some unplanned climbing (I don't have the gears on this bike, knees are messed up), and some relatively hard off-road / gravel biking on the way to an ending 10-mile stretch that was smooth, slightly downhill, and w/ a slight tailwind. Shower and then off to a wine tasting, pizza-eating, and drinking beer on the lake w/ Than and Reinhard. Not at all a bad day.
As for that picture of jousting, per Gemini, the mural shows water jousting (known in French as la joute nautique). It is a highly celebrated, traditional sport in France, particularly in the southern coastal region of Occitanie and towns like Sète.
How It Works: Two opposing boats (typically one painted red and one blue) are propelled toward each other by teams of 8 to 10 rowers. At the stern (back) of each boat, there is an elevated wooden platform called a tintaine. A jouster stands atop each tintaine dressed completely in white. They hold a wooden shield (called a pavois) in one hand and a 2.8-meter-long wooden lance (or stick) in the other. As the two boats charge past each other, the jousters use their lances to strike their opponent's shield and knock them off the platform into the water, all while trying to maintain their own balance.
The sport is deeply rooted in French maritime history and is treated with a mix of fierce athletic competition and festival celebration, often accompanied by live traditional music featuring oboes and drums playing from the boats
Day spent on tour of traboules and history, followed by Bib Gourmand lunch, and finally a grand opening at our hotel in Lyon.
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Today we had short and long options. The latter was a bit prettier, more climbing, and ten more miles. Naturally, Than, Reinhard, and I did the latter. It was a lot of fun, and we even managed to sneak in a dip in a lake before meeting up w/ the rest for lunch.
The cruise into Lyon was a bit hectic just because Lyon is a big city: 2.3 million in the metro region. It's also unmistakably French, beautiful, and filled with good food. We are staying in a 5-star hotel (the Villa Florentine) for the next two nights, as tomorrow is our first day off.
Today was a short ride into the medieval city of Perouges, evidently first settled by refugees from he Italian city of almost the same name. The day dawned code, but we knew it would warm up quickly. We enjoyed croissants, yogurt, fruit, and espresso provided by our host Tierry, and hopped on the bikes to trundle off.
The ride was ostensibly only 17.7 miles, so Amy had contacted the hotel to make sure they'd let us drop our bags if and when we arrived early. The ride was bucolic, w/ a castle to see at Sainte-Julie. Sadly, the castle was closed to visitors (ironically today is a Sunday), so we continued on. Reinhard and I feel that no day can not be be improved by a swim, so we decide to stop in to the Rhone nearby, where it seemed to slow. After a few false starts, we made our way down to the rocky shore and got in a bit of water. The rocks were slippery and the current swift, so we didn't submerge completely or stay in long, but it was highly refreshing nonetheless! Reinhard had squirreled away some croissants w/ cheese from breakfast, and a single beer, so had everything we need.
Following this we biked hard and soon came upon Rosana, who was just finishing up lunch. 20 minutes later the three of us were in Perouges, a beautiful old town that reeked of history (at least to my eyes) at every turn. Our rooms are just ridiculously large and swanky. After a nap we had a fabulous dinner that included duck, veal, salad and libations of multiple sorts, and then walked back through the dark cobblestone streets to the hotel under the dark skies.
Good ride, slightly longer than the others, but continuing to reduce in difficulty. We arrived in Villebois at 3:30pm, where we were supposed to be able to check in, but sadly 5pm was the limit. Reinhart had seized the opportunity to do some partake in some water sports, whereas Than, Greg, and I enjoyed a beer.
Very cute countryside, river-side croissants, and a very relaxing lake swim and beer.
Very hard first day, w/ large chunks of the last climb between 10% and 14%. On the plus side, this will easily be the hardest day on the tour!
We had to say goodbye to Hildegard this morning, as her meniscus tear definitely was not healed well enough to go up the some of the climbs today. We still had fun, though. We started out in Geneva, biking near the Rhone, but quickly made it to the suburbs and then out in the countryside. The border crossing into France was only 16-ish? miles out of town, and noticed only because we saw the border delineated on the RideWithGPS map. Gotta love the EU!
To be clear, the whole day was only 40 miles, but a relatively hard 40 miles. We were riding rentals and some of the climbs were quite steep. The elevation gain was only 2300 feet, which is twice as much as the second biggest climbing day. traffic was relatively light, but in France, especially, we encountered some aggressive trucks. The countryside was beautiful, segueing from picturesque tiny berg to picturesque tiny berg w/ forested paths in between. Lunch was picked up from supermarches and boulangeries on the way.
Our hotel in Seyssel is freshly renovated, but spartan, seeming w/ one guy who does everything, from checking us in to waiting on us at the exception dinner, matched w/ a couple bottles of quite decent Cote de Rhone.
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