The real riding begins: Salon de Provence to Martigues

April 2, 2015

Well, I see by the news that even Leo had to take a hotel to get some rest. Tenting in the early days of spring is just not comfortable, especially for us older guys. To be fair, Leo is a couple of years older than me, but then I have more hair than he does. I have about as much more hair as Leo has years, so I suppose we're even. Less hair to comb and more face to wash, as my dad would say. Anyway, I got up early enough to catch the first rain to Salon de Provence, my intended start site all along. Salon is a charming little city, with a nicely preserved center. I stopped in the tourist office to inquire about detailed maps for the departement, but they didn't have any. They did have a little guide to Salon, which I perused briefly, and discovered that Salon's most famous son was Nostradamus. His house was just around the corner from the office, so I went to have a look. Its nothing special, and is not even marked so you just have to guess which one is his. Or maybe you're expected to read his famous prophecies so you can divine which one it is. I snapped some photos, and got on my way.

The tympanum over the door of the church in Salon is a fine example of Medieval decoration. It looks much as it would have done in Nostradamus day.

This bridge caught my eye as I was searching for Nostradamus house. Maybe it was used by him when he needed to sneak out?

The road out of Salon was easy to find, and it led straight to Miramas, but there, I got lost. There was a lovely looking small road leading south on my map, but I missed it and ended up on the main road to Istres. Luckily, I found another side route skirting le Etang des Oliviers by the simple expedient of following another cyclist. The etang is lined with "villas", all screened from the road by cypresses and olive trees, but as is true in much of Provence, especially along the coast, these are all fairly modern constructions of the trophy mansion/starter castle variety. The road, however, was lovely.

Roads lined with plane trees. Shady in the heat of summer, a bit bare this early in spring, but great to ride on.

I easily found a bistro in Istres and sat down to an enormous lunch of endive salad, steak (bavette), veg, and dessert all for the modest sum of 14€. It was way more than I could eat, though, even after the cycling I'd done. From Istres to Martigues was an easy ride, and I got there early in the afternoon. Being the first real riding day, I decided to stay in Martigues, so found a hotel, took a shower and went out to have a look at the town. Martigues is an ex-fishing port, now converted to a haven for Marseillaises escaping the city. There are planty of pricy looking yachts in the harbor,and lots of waterfront bars catering to the vacation crowd. This early in the season, its pretty quiet, but still nice in its way.

A rather fancy lot of boats, this. And lots more in the harbors aroud Martigues.

There are still some traditional fishing boats, now kept as prized pleasure craft.

The ancients also liked Martigues. This is whats left of a Roman temple by the harbor.

Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 107 km (66 miles)

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