Euroloop

Here I am in Provencal France spending some days holiday with my mum and dad in a really nice B&B. It’s slap bang in the middle of a wine making area and the house is totally surrounded by vineyeards, it’s about as ideal as the south of France  gets. I’m in one of the very pleasant sleepy villages nearby at the moment at an internet cafe.

So that’s the end of Euroloop Leg 2 now, around 3000 miles in and 2000 left to go. I’ve actaully managed to scrape another days holiday with the parents than I originally itended, taking it upto 3 days rest.  This is due to discovering that I’ve done about 250 miles more than what I thought up to this point. The extra miles in the bank mean that I can also alter my course through Spain a little too to make life a bit easier.

This week saw me whizzing through North Italy and some really beautiful towns (and some pretty horrible industrial ones too) on super flat roads before heading south to the Mediterranean coast. The Italian coast consisted of town after town jam packed with tourists, cars and scooters making for some pretty hairy riding at times, probably the worst so far. I was back in the land of campsites again for some welcome showers, temperatures are still cooking up to 40 degrees at the height of the day down here. Although I did end up paying a totally ridiculous £25 for one night in a particularly shoddy campsite, tourist rip off.

Crossing the border into France I then had to get past Monaco and into Nice. Why anyone thought that it was a good idea to build Monaco on the most ludicrously steep cliffs I have no idea. Anyway, I am definately not cycling anywhere round there ever again, total killer! There was then a one day sprint along the Cote d’Azur almost to Toulon in order to meet up with my folks. The roads round here are all feel vaguely familiar as I spent a summer working and cycling in this area about 6 years ago. It feels good to be in France where I can actaully vaguely speak the language and ask for things, almost the first time in the trip. I did get very excited about that in Monaco, ran into the first service station I saw to get water and asked what the time was just because I could, only to then get very deflated because the guy couldn’t figure out what I was on about! Never mind, I’ve had better results since then. It also feels good to be in France as suddenly I feel a lot closer to the UK and although there’s still 4 weeks left, I’m starting to be able to view the finish line.

So hopefully the 3 days has given me some valuable rest. My knees, back and bum were all fairly sore before I stopped, I think it’s still due to the massive day I put in a week ago. There was a big grin on my face as I cycled the last 4 km to the B&B, all downhill through vineyards in the sunset, totally stunning. And also knowing I had a small holiday, brilliant. Tomorrow I set off again heading along the coast to Spain and I think my next rest day is a little after Barcelona. I am all tanked up on fresh kit and supplies that ma & pa brought out with them and I’m looking forward to hitting the road again (Although going to miss a proper bed!). Click here to view the latest photos. Au revoir.

Blogged in France