Provence, France

It was a 13 Hour flight from Buenos Aires to Paris.  We rented a car and stopped near Dijon and stayed in an old Abbaye de la Bussiere.  Beautiful.

The outside

Inside the Abbaye (Hotel)

Our Room

The grounds

We drove further down into Provence and decided to stay at a Castle that has a whole hillside of buildings with different styles of rooms and restaurants.  It is call Crillion de Brave.  It is on a hill in the town of Bedoin, which is at the bottom of Mount Ventoux, where we plan to bike.  You can rent really good Trek bikes, and reserve them ahead of time, right at the base of the mountain.  They were just like our bikes at home.  We brought our own bike shoes and clothes though.  

Crillion de Brave

Enjoying a little pool time and killing ourselves biking.

Crillion de Brave

For one of our bike excursions we hired a taxi to follow us to near the top of Mt. Ventoux, so that when we finished we didn't have to ride back down.  (It turned out that it was a very good idea!)
We started at noon.  The first 2 kilometers are relatively easy.  The next 3 to St. Esteve are about 7% grade.  After that it is between 8 and 18% without any leveling out areas to try to rest your body, then up to Chalet Reynard, which is about 5 kilometers from the top.   The last 6 Kilometers are above the tree line and steep.  There was snow the last 6 kilometers.  It rained on us about halfway up, we got soaked, and then froze on the top.  It took us a total of 4 hours 33 minutes with our stops and 3 hours 18 minutes of actual bike time.  It is a total of 23 kilometers.   My AVERAGE heart rate was 140!  I burned 2862 total calories!  We gained 1600 meters (5,250 feet) of elevation  That was the hardest bike ride I have ever done!  The snickers bar we ate on the way down tasted mighty good.

Testing the last 6 kilometers the day before the big ride.

Yes, I am frozen.

I thought I might die.

If you think he looks miserable, you are right.  He just did 23 kilometers of 15% grade!

The summit is 1912 meters

That was the hardest bike ride we have done.  Riding back down for 5 miles, we nearly froze.  Our hands were so cold, it was hard to brake.

Notice that it says 23% grade.  They are not lying!

After a nice breakfast the next day we went on a 50 Kilometer bike ride thru some small towns and had a picnic.  We enjoyed lots of different bike rides around the area we were staying.  We also drove to other hilltop villages, went a market, and basically ate our way around.

Shopping at the Market in 'Isle de Solange

Town of Gordes.  A beautiful town on the top of a hill.

Another bike ride.  There seems to be a lot of hills.

Town of Rousillon

French Pastries after a hard bike ride.  This is how we ate our way thru France. 

After loving all the biking and the place we stayed for 5 days, We turned in our bikes and drove over to Cannes.  We got a room at the Majestic Barrier right on the waterfront.  Cannes is a lot like La Jolla, but it has an old cobblestone city on the hillside, just above the waterfront. The waterfront is modern and glitzy.  We ate at a great restaurant called Avisio.

On the waterfront at Cannes

From the old city

Cannes waterfront

Barb

We drove over to Monte Carlo the next day to see 2 days of the Monte Carlo Tennis Tournament.  You've got to love the way the roads wind around the mountain.  We stayed at the Monte Carlo Beach Hotel right next to the tournament and on the water.  It is way too expensive for what it is, but it is right where we needed to be.  We bit the bullet.   The tournament was great.  The center court holds about 6000 so all the seats are great.  We saw Tsonga, Juan Monaco, and Murray all play.  The next day we saw Djokavich, Nadal and Ferrer.  After the tournament we drove back to Cannes and stayed at the JW Marriott.

Murray

Tsonga

And the best of all in my opinion-Scott

Our Hotel-Monte Carlo Beach Hotel (Photo taken from the top seats at the tennis tournament.)

Nadal

We left Cannes and drove to and old castle called Chateau Rochegard.  It is above Avignon and Orange off the Bolene exit.  We (Scott) put the wrong kind of gas in our car (not once, but twice) and we had to have the rental car company come and pick up the car.  (Ooops)

Chateau Rochegard

 Oh well, we took the train from Avignon to Paris, (which was okay, but we wouldn't do it again, we prefer to drive).  In Paris we went to a dinner on a nice sightseeing boat.  We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel right inside the airport, which was easy for catching our flight the next day.

Dinner cruise

Barb in Paris

Paris by night on a dinner cruise

 It's been a good adventure so far.  Now we are off to plan and enjoy a wedding.  Then our adventure continues on August 20, 2012.  See you then.