From sea to shining sea !

These guys are good!
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Yet another thunderstorm overnight but again cleared by morning allowing us fine weather to continue our determined surge south in search of the sea. Today we would complete stage ten riding from St Paul les Durance to Marseille. Headed off reasonably early and first ten kilometres was on a very quiet road through a quiet forest. Very ‘trancey’ according to Andy. Then climbed into Ollieres which featured a fantastic road stretching for miles ahead into the increasingly arid landscape. While climbing the hill at the end of this stretch we were given a lesson in our fallibility by some local club pros who breezed past us doing twice the speed with (apparently) half the effort. You see some very good riders on the roads in France and noticeably more in the south. Also noticed the difference in roads in some of the Departments of France. As we crossed the border of one to another, the road improved from horrid rough, patch strewn chip seal to a beautiful smooth pavement. Obviously some are wealthier than others.

Our first view of the Med
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We continued on undaunted and about three hours into it we passed through a nice town of Gemenos featuring fountains at each end of town. As we descended out of Gemenos, we came around a bend and sighted the deep blue sea of the Mediterranean. Have to say it was quite a sight having pedalled the length of France, or as Andy pointed out, across a continent! We descended quickly and called it a day feeling very pleased with ourselves. A few bottles of red wine were uncapped in celebration. All we have to do now is ride across the bottom, through the mountains of Pyrenees and then back all the way to Paris! But, we are both feeling good and delighted with progress so far. Ride today was 95km in 3 hrs 44min average of 25.6 kph. Total to date 1445km.

we came around a bend and sighted the deep blue sea of the Mediterranean