Day 15

Saturday, May 13
St Hippolyte-du-Fort to Stes Maries-de-la-Mer
112km

We did it.  We arrived at the Mediteranian.

Today's ride felt a bit mediocre compared with the breath taking scenery of the past few days.  However, it was a nice recap of the trip...almost an overture...as we finished.

We had hot, bright sun to start but that turned to overcast with scatterings of rain.  We had a pretty steep climb, with switchbacks, and a rapid decent, and we also had long stretches of flat road through fields.  We had narrow little windy country lanes, and busy main roads.  I rode with Steve, Charlie and Tara to start the day, but we met John and Roger when they stopped with a flat and spentthe rest of the day with them as well.  There were slow bits where we just bumbled along, and quick bits where John and I charged to the front.  There were boulangeries and wee breaks in the bushes, and even a short ferry ride across a small river.  All of these things were elements of our longer journey that made a final appearance today.  A nice recap.

The unique element of the day was the vinyards.  We had seen a few small vinyards on the trip before, but today there were many of them.  I was surprised by how small some of the individual fields were.  Some were only an acre or two, surrounded by little bits of forest.  There were other, much larger fields as well, whose symetrical rows looked much more like the vinyards of Niagara-on-the-Lake, close to where I grew up.

The other unique element was the canal that appeared as we approached the Mediteranian.  We rode along the long, straight, still canal for miles.  With some headwind, we soon formed little pacelines, and John and I had the group moving along at 30 and even 40km/h.  Even the girls were enjoying the speed as we chased the other group of cyclists in front of us.  Perhaps we all had a bit of extra energy when we knew the the finish was so close.

There were a lot of cars on the main roads, which was a new phenomenon on this trip.  On other days, we could go hours without seeing a car.  Today we got a few honks as we rode side by each.

Its a bit disappointing that the weather wasn't nicer today.  Its spitting with rain and there is a cool breeze as I sit on some rocks watching the waves roll up the beach.  I brought a swimsuit for today's arrvial, but that will have to wait for another trip.

One last dinner tonight, and we'll all head our seperate ways in the morning.