June 24, 2018
Sète to Aigues-Morte
Sunshine and blue sky - another glorious day in Southern France.
After closing up Christine's apartment, we headed out for a day of biking along the Mediterranean. Our destination was Aigues-Morte, a walled city located in the Petite Camargue.
We had a few navigation hiccups getting out of Sète, and were held up by the morning drawbridge. However, we soon found our way to the beautiful and well-marked Eurovelo 17 route, which we generally followed to Aigues-Mortes. There were all sorts of recreational activities on this sunny Sunday. In addition to the usual cyclists, boaters, windsurfers, my favorite had to be the paddleboard yoga class. Talk about working your core! Cycling along these narrow strips of land between large ponds and the Mediterranean was magnificent. The air was replete with the sights and sounds of numerous waterfowl, and we spotted our first flamingos. The sun shimmered on the sea but there were enough clouds to keep us from totally baking.
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We stopped for lunch in Carnon-Plage and fought a bit of a headwind heading to Aigues-Morte. Arriving around mid-afternoon, we navigated through the narrow streets filled with tourists to our small hotel inside the walled city. No one was in the hotel but we found our key, door code, and room info on a small desk inside the door. While we were parking our bikes under the stairs, the manager at the neighboring store came by to check to see that all was good, and ask if we wanted breakfast in the morning. Remarkable - a self-serve hotel! We explored the city a bit before dinner, finding a number of penitent chapels. One church had modern stained-glass windows of various shapes and colors designed by Claude Viallat . The significance of the shapes/colors was lost on me, despite the explanatory display. My seafood dinner was rather pedestrian - fish okay, but blah otherwise. I went to bed recollecting a remarkable day of cycling that finished in an unremarkable city.
Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 869 miles (1,399 km)
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