With the travel day, 3 hour time change and late-night bedtime, it seemed like a short night. I snuck out to breakfast, as Ken was still blissfully dreaming The breakfast area overlooked the pool with a very large selection of arabic (hummus, labneh, grilled vegis, freshly grilled flatbreads with cheese and herbs, etc) and western (eggs, bacon, etc). Ken wandered down and we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, slowly getting into the day. Our plan today was to taxi to the Citadel, and then wander to the Roman Theater and on to the souq (marketplace). Eventually we got going, and soon we were entering the Citadel with our Jordan Pass. Note to anyone visiting, get the Jordan Pass before arriving...it includes the visa and access to most of the major historical sites in Jordan. Very worthwhile! The ... read more

I can’t believe it is our last full day on the bikes…the week has just flown past and it is always sad to be almost at the end. This morning’s ride had two options, 20 miles or 31 miles. Both ending in Mouries, where we were scheduled for lunch and for those doing the short option, an olive mill tour. We were all together until a certain point where the long riders would turn off, but up till that point we were skirting the base of the baby Alpes while passing pine trees on rolling hills. We stopped for a quick coffee and Ken/Sandy/Eric/Sam all choose to power through the longer ride, while I hung with Sue/Anthony/Ed/Shelley for the shorter version. We pedaled up a nice sloping hill for several kilometers and found ourselves quite high ... read more

Day three started similar to all of the others, bright blue skies, brilliant sun and more birds chirping/singing than I have heard in a long time. Obviously they are in their happy place, as are we. We slept extremely well, with the windows open and the only thing we heard was the gurgling fountain in our courtyard. Breakfast started at 730a with the route rap at 830, and we along with our co-riders Ed and Shelley were the first of the group to arrive in the restaurant. This means we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the vineyards while we enjoyed the varied food, with as much healthy or non-healthy options as you wanted. The others straggled in and before long we all made it to the parking area, where Vidal and Scott had our ... read more

Today we woke to a peaceful Avignon and were excited to finally start biking. I walked through the quiet alleys and found take-away coffee as our B&B wasn’t showing signs of movement. As I arrived back Annaliese our B&B owner was also arriving with fresh baguettes and advised to head up to the first floor for breakfast. I let Ken know, who was still getting moving and went up to check out breakfast. Annaliese had a wonderful open kitchen where she had put out a wonderful typical French breakfast of croissants, baguettes, homemade jams and yogurt, fresh blueberries and muesli. She was making fresh strawberry jam in large kettles which looked and smelled wonderful. While waiting for Ken, she shared with me the history of the villa which included the original owner wayyyyy back in 1700’s ... read more

I have jumped from Monday to Thursday, as Ken spent Tus-Thurs exploring Nice, Villafranche and just wandering the wonderful area. By the time I got here he had had an average of 20k steps per day! I was going to have a nice dinner with Ken once I arrived at 9p on Thursday, but due to delays due to air traffic, so by the time I exited it was 1020p, so it was a bit of a slow start to my part of the trip. On Friday, we woke to the daily church bells at 8a from Notre-Dame next door, no way to sleep through those! The day was sunny and beautiful but Ken said it was the least nice day he had since arriving. We grabbed a coffee at the small café next door, and ... read more