See Me Now

 Photos from today's ride Today's route.  I forgot to turn on my garmin when we started. Today's mid meal.  Fantastic salads.

 Just photos today: Approach to Les Baux de Provence View from our hotel balcony.  Hotel Mas D'Aigret Today's route (split in 2).  54km/34m 1716 feet of climbing

O n Friday evening, we finally got the bikes and gear for our 2 nd bike tour. Earlier in the day, we scouted the bike shop and were not encouraged. It wasn’t even really a retail store – more of a scrubby warehouse full of rental bikes, scooters, and motorcycles. But we had a 5pm appointment with Fabienne, tour company representative, and when we met up with her, she quickly put my apprehensions to rest. Fabienne is a French woman, maybe 50-something, and extremely organized. She reviewed our accommodation bookings, the route/map booklet, how to work the GPS device and everything else. We got squared away within an hour. Officially, our bike tour didn’t start until Saturday morning but we were eager to give the bikes a spin so we rode across the Rhone and made our way to Fort Saint-Andre . This involved a bit of traffic and some google maps confusion, but we got there and were rewarded with an amazing view back across the Rhone of Avignon.           ...

We are enjoying our days of respite here in Avignon. The hotel has turned out to be perfect, and we’ve done tons of walking.  Back in Marseille, I had hoped to introduce The Hubs to a typical European fresh market. I had imagined buying fresh fish and produce and preparing it in our AirBnB apartment. Obviously, that didn’t happen but after arriving in Avignon, I re-discovered its fresh market. I marched The Hubs over there first thing Tuesday morning and was gratified to see his face light up when we stepped inside.   On Wednesday morning we returned to the market and purchased several cheeses, enormous tomatoes, avocado, chocolate, wine, and bread. Later on, we set up a picnic for ourselves at a table under shade trees in our hotel courtyard. Delightful. Tomorrow, we’ll check out of this hotel and walk a few blocks to the hotel that is the start point for our 2 nd cycling tour. We’ll get our bikes and instructions in the afternoon. Avignon from across the Rhône ....

Friendliness: Everyone (everyone!) is friendly and helpful and delightful. When we were momentarily confused finding our B&B the first day, a woman noticed, asked if we needed help, and insisted on walking with us to figure things out. Asking help from locals as we walked around was likewise met with an eagerness to assist. Restaurant and bar servers were efficient and kind. It seemed a level of civility that has slipped in the U.S.   Food:   My memory of past visits to Ireland is that the food was ho-hum. Heavy on root vegetables – not just potatoes, but beets and rutabagas too – and light on lettuce; nobody offered salads. This time was different! Every meal we had in Ireland was delicious with plentiful salad greens and imaginative starters. Breakfast offerings always include the meat-intense Irish Fry , but also lighter options such as egg+smoked salmon. They’re not much on espresso drinks, but the strong French-press type coffee was excellent. Toilets: None o...