Guest Book
Friday, June 6th (did you donate your part?)
Today will be a good day. I mean, that’s what I decided when I went to bed. It was a bit after 1:00 am. At 1:30 am I woke up as a new person. Watch French TV and understand nothing. At 2:00 am go back to sleep. At 6:00am the phone rings and hang up. I got up. Today will be a good day. The sun is rising again. At 6:15 am a truck arrives and stopped under my balcony with the diesel engine running. At 6:20 am a small asphalt roller is rolling down from the truck with the engine. It uses a diesel engine as well. A lot a noise for a small street that they are building under my balcony. At 6:25 am they start cutting concrete stones for the sides of the street they are building under my balcony. They use a special cutter that uses a huge engine that make a lot of noise under my balcony. At 6:30 am the neighbor across the street opens the window and starts shouting at the driver and the workers on the street (the one they are building), all under my balcony. At 6:55 am, a concrete mixer truck arrives, to pour concrete for the stones they are cutting for the side of the street they are building under my balcony. The driver tries to go in reverse to the street that they are building where? Right! Under my balcony. In the meantime, the truck stops the traffic on road, and the first in line is a tourists bus, running his diesel engine to keep his air-conditioning running. At 7:10 am I thought my head is about to explode. What good day??????????
So, until Gidion wakes up, I had breakfast and went for my morning walk. What a cute town. This is a small fishing village that is trying to become a tourist center (hint – learn to speak English!!! It can help!). I forgot the name of the town, but if you check my report from yesterday – it is somewhere at the bottom. Two streets away from the hotel there is a tiny bridge above a river, and in the river small boats are parked on both sides. Just like cars parked on the streets. I continue to the beach. There is another river, and there, I see fishermen that look like they just came back from the sea. They are folding their nets, sorting clams, selling fish that are still moving and other sea fruits. Most of the people there are restaurants managers/owners, but you see some housewives too. Probably they woke up early because of the noise coming from the street they are building under my balcony.
From there to the market. Just the right way to start the morning. First of all it is a food market targeted at the locals. Beautiful small market. All kinds of meat, sausages, vegetables, flowers, everything. And the housewives that finished with the fish are here to buy beautiful vegetables for the morning salads. Mmmmmm, I would do anything for a good salad now.
Back to the hotel. Waking up Gidion and until he finishes packing I am already down with the bike ready to go. I show Gidion our daily route. Great weather. I already said that today will be a good day, right?
We are leaving the city. I am looking for a road I saw on the Michelin map. I strongly recommend the use of these maps you can buy at every gas station. If you learn the key of the map you can plan great trips. Try the green marks – they are the best. I can’t find the exit. I ask Gidion to look for it on the GPS (mine is not working) but can’t find it. Then I decide that I've had enough and I tell Gidion he can throw out the GPS if he wants, we are continuing with my senses. Usually I am quite good with navigation. We continue and leave the highway and pay the toll. There are not more details on the map and we are in a small town, with no signs. Gidion says that the GPS says to turn left and I don’t care. I must say for Gidion that he fully trusts me. I wouldn’t. Against the advise of the small woman inside the GPS that shouts ‘off route – off route’ we continue. We drive to a city called Carpentras and there I need to find our next town. The distance – 70 km. The road is narrow and going through (!) many small villages. Now in France, they discovered the use of the circles. Each way you look, there is a turnabout. You drive, lets say 80-90 km/h. The road is winding. Not a big deal but as you turn a corner – booom. A turnabout. Each time you stop at a red light (ok, I lied, there are lights as well), you start to boil under the riding suit. At a certain point I tell Gidion that I've had enough and I adopt the French/Israeli driving style.. we move to the beginning of the line. Gidion has some trouble with it as his bike is too big for these places. But he does enjoy the road regardless. And I promise him even nicer roads. We are about to climb the Alps.
We depart to Gap. Starting to climb. Curves start. We start living! If you read the previous days, you understand that these curves were born for me, and if you admit it, they are every bikers dream. Fast leans, very fast gear changes for speeding/slowing, everything you need in life. And here there are plenty. And on the road I stop from time to time to take pictures of beautiful small towns that are just hanging there, and tunnel, and fields, and mountains and GREAT! And that’s how it goes for 149 km. And Gidion shouts to me on the radio – “you have sparks coming from you bike”. That’s the result of the leans in the curves but I can't answer because if I take my hand off the handle bar to push the button I will have sparks coming from my head. We stopped at Veynes which is about 20 km from there to drink something. Someone from the local tourist office tells us that a storm is coming so we are in a hurry to leave and arrive at Gap and I find a hotel but there is no parking so I continue until I find one, and exactly then the rain starts. For once I made it on time!
Gidion says it is the nicest route he ever took. I believe him. I don’t have ‘my best place’, but if I had, this route would have been nominated for sure! Exhausting 370 km but rewarding ones. I said it will be a good day!
O yes, have a nice weekend.