Tour de France 2011

Well we returned from our Tour de France which we completed in record low time. I for one nearly didn't make it as I nearly missed The Bike Bus on the 4th June! I arrived at my pick up point early at Leicester Forest Services having stayed overnight with my friend Maureen but having loaded other people the bus pulled away as I was turning my handlebars ready for the trailer. I ran after it with my bike ( it doesn't push well with turned handlebars ) shouting and hopping along. With the bus approaching the exit slip road and me losing ground the driver saw me in the mirror. After a few choice and unmentionable expletives I was loaded up and 24 hours later was dropped at Orange with my two friends John and Peter.

Our tour took us across The Gorges de l'Ardeche, over The Cevennes by way of the col under Mont Lozere (  never again ) down The Gorges du Tarn, up The Gorges de la Dourbie, down the river Orb and finally heading out of the mountains we picked up The Canal du Midi which we followed to Beziers. We spent two welcome days with my brother Tony who lives between Beziers and Montpellier. It was bliss to sleep in a comfortable bed after nearly a month of Spartan campimg. We then moved to the coast and rounded off the last three days swimming and lazing around before picking up the return bus at Montpellier on the 3rd July.

The photos were taken at St. Ambroix at a fete celebrating the local regional culture of Occitane which we were told has something in common with The Catalan region of Spain. Certainly the language seemed to resemble Spanish to some degree.

So one month older, a bit tanned, maybe a bit fitter but non the wiser I am back to my day job. I did a few sketches and am looking forward to painting them. All in all a very nice trip.