To Saint-Maxime

November 19, 2022

Today’s ride is really two adventures in one. The first half was a relaxed, breezy jaunt as we continued eastward on the littoral veloroute we arrived in Hyères on two days ago. Yesterday’s fierce winds have abated, leaving just enough of a tailwind to count as a modest assist up the few simple climbs we face. It’s the weekend, and we share the bike path with many club cyclists, families and individuals out enjoying this fine late autumn day.

Eastbound from Hyères, heading inland as the coastline bulges south around Cap Benat.

Mostly the ride is like this for the first twenty miles - green, quiet, relaxed. We’re a few miles inland from the sea and won’t really see it again until we return to it at Le Lavandou.

There is high ground all around it but it doesn’t translate into much work for us as we follow the route of an abandoned rail line.

It’s not quite true that there’s no work involved. Here we’re climbing about 200’ at a very lazy grade, courtesy of the old rail line that smooths out the rough spots.

We have plenty of company on the path today. These two are OK but sometimes, as with the packs of club riders racing two abreast in the other direction, it feels like a little too much company,

Fifteen miles into the ride we return to the coast at La Lavandou. It’s as lovely here as the name suggests.

Dramatic cloud formations are massing to the east, but too far off to concern us today.

The entire Team has been exulting all morning long about what an enjoyable ride this is, when we come to the second half of the ride. We’re following the coastline now, and it’s crowded by the rugged topography. In spots shortish tunnels are involved. The nature of the ride changes though when we come to one with a sign indicating it’s closed for several months, beginning several days ago, assuming we’ve interpreted the French correctly.

Looks innocent enough, and safe enough too since this is only a bike path, not a road. Who knows though, and who wants to find themselves in the middle of a narrow dark tunnel if there’s a problem?

In retrospect, it would probably have been smarter to bike at least a short way into the tunnel to see what the issue is, if any. Seeing a reasonable path that apparently would let us skirt the tunnel on the seaward side though, we took it.

The trail was reasonable and bikeable at first, and we did get some splendid coastal views that we would have missed otherwise; but its drawbacks soon became apparent. For one thing, the surface soon coarsened and steepened to the point that we had to dismount and walk. Not long after that though we came to a fork in the trail, with neither tine looking appealing. On the left was a set of stairs curving steeply up the hill and around the bend; and on the right the trail dropped steeply to the shore, where a closely packed row of bronzed, unclad bodies lay gleaming in the sun.

On the plus side, we would have missed this nice view back toward La Lavandou if we’d gone with the tunnel.

Or the buds on the prickly pears, also very interesting.

The views ahead are dramatic too. The clouds are turning interesting, but they’re far enough off that we’re not too concerned about them yet.

It’s important to clarify what’s happening here. Rachael is admiring the splendid coastal views, not the row of closely packed, bronzed, unclad bodies on the beach.

Dropping down to the beach was obviously out of the question, so I left Rachael behind and tested the stairs to see how far they went. They went far, I discovered, but they did lead to the road eventually. I backtracked on the road, found another path leading back down, and a few minutes later came back to Rachael from behind. We turned back and pushed up this very steep but at least stairless track and eventually made it back to pavement again.

For a while, at least. Soon enough though we took RideWithGPS’s excellent suggestion and followed it to a side road that gradually deteriorated. How long did we bike on this unpaved trail? Too long.

Eventually that too passed though and we found ourselves on the pavement again, and for most of the remaining miles to Saint-Maxime we enjoyed a fine ride, much of it on another paved railway conversion.

Our hotel in Saint-Maxim, the Bon Repos, is a quite interesting establishment - and a unique one in our experience. For one thing, we were required to present both of our passports when we arrived, something I think has not occurred before in the whole 8+ month tour. Even more strange though was the requirement to present our fingers so our fingerprints could be scanned in - we need them to enter the hotel or parking lot where the bikes are stored. We told our host (herself just a bit on the peculiar side) that we’d never seen this before, and she acknowledged that many guests tell her that.

Have any of you ever stayed in a place where you use your scanned fingerprint to enter the hotel?

The entrance to the harbor, Cavalaire-sur-Mer.

The view east from Cavalaire-sur-Mer. It looks like it’s a good thing we’re nearing the end of our ride!

Port Grimaud, at the head of the bay of Saint-Tropez, looks like a curious place. A new town more or less influenced by Venice, it is a private and exclusive place, the Venice of Provence. We’ll just take a quick peek from the distance.

Video sound track: Shadow Dancing, by Andy Gibb

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Ride stats today: 40 miles, 1,700’; for the tour: 1,924 miles, 104,700’

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 1,924 miles (3,096 km)

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Jeanna & Kerry SmithI think the fingerprint for entry is a great thing - no worries about lost or forgotten keys or cell phones. We've never seen or heard of it before, but I like it.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jeanna & Kerry SmithWe’d like it better if it worked consistently. It’s a good thing we had two hands to work with.
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2 years ago

Kelly IniguezMaybe the fingerprint thing is up and coming. Let's try and remember this in five years.

I still think our being required to bring our own pillows this summer was an odd one. We bought Dollar Store cheapies. Then, our beds did have pillows! I am guessing that was the response to my email saying we were traveling by bicycle - but they didn't email back. I had no idea they decided to provide pillows after all.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezThat peculiar pillow policy was a new one on us too. We’ve never seen that. We’ll have our eye out for it though - we’re definitely not staying at a BYOP joint.
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2 years ago

Bob DistelbergInteresting about the fingerprint access. On the one hand, kind of handy (no puns intended) since I try to keep my hands with me at all times. On the other, I guess you could wonder what they do with that data. Are you now in some Interpol database? Then again, I guess I could wonder about the same thing with the fingerprint lock on my phone.
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2 years ago

Kathleen JonesFingerprints also keep the baddies away. I’m surprised that cartel members such as yourselves agreed to use this.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Kathleen JonesNot a problem. We rely on FakePrints ®️ for situations just like this.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Bob DistelbergYes, I wondered what we were exposing ourselves too. She seems like such a nice lady, but of course the worst ones are always like that.
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2 years ago