Birthdays and Bike Trail Maps
This date, September 11th will always be a somber date for all of us but it is also a happy date in our family because it is our sweet Elsa's birthday. Happy 8th Birthday, Elsa! We miss you so much!
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Is she trying to tell me something with that shirt? |
I thought I would start today's blog off with some information about planning bike rides in France. Over the years we have purchased many different books and maps to help us decide where we would like to ride in a safe and pleasant environment. The EuroVelo organization has some good maps but now you can access them on their website instead of hauling around maps and heavy books that become outdated as improvements are made. Also the website France Velo Tourism is a great source for the bike trails all over France. With our French sim card for the iPhone we have plenty of data to use these online sources while on the go.
Okay, so using our online map from France Velo Tourism we drove back to Caderousse and parked where we ate lunch the day before. We wanted to continue riding this fabulous part of the ViaRhona because the surface is so well maintained and it's along the river. We rode up to the outskirts of Mornas and back to Caderousse for 38km. This section of the bike trail really has no services...no benches, no picnic tables and no towns. Mornas is across a big freeway so we decided to get out of the wind in a bus stop shelter and eat our lunch. We arrived back in Caderousse thinking we could get coffee again but our cafe had closed. Darn, I really wanted to use that bathroom again. 😂
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| The view from the bus stop |
As we were walking around to find a restaurant for dinner (in Avignon there are so many restaurants not many require a reservation like most other places in France) we came across a couple of fantastic opera singers on the Place des Corps Saints. There are many musicians displaying their talents around the city but these two were exceptional! (I recorded a portion but didn't take their photo and it seems I can't upload a video...je suis désolé!)
Dinner was at Restaurant le 26, a small off the beaten track lovely spot. Jay had a giant lamb shank reminiscent of one he had in Ireland in May, and I had cabillaud en croute which in English is "cod in parchment paper". Both were delicious but we were stuffed when we left. We are obviously well fed!
