June 16, 2014: Normandy D-Day Beaches

Today we took a step back in time to June 6, 1944. The beaches of Normandy are now quite tranquil and the towns picturesque. At first glance, it's hard to imagine the devastation, the terror, and the loss of lives that occurred on these beaches 70 years ago. If one looks closer, however, one can see areas still pockmarked by the bombs that were dropped here, areas littered with rusted German guns and bunkers, and the remnants of a quickly constructed harbor to aid in the disembarkation of equipment and supplies.

Our first stop today was the town of Arromanches, the site of the British landing at "Gold" beach. We viewed a powerful 20-minute movie containing actual D-Day footage about the 100 days of fighting in Normandy. With our thoughts attuned to the events of that fateful day, we walked into town and along the peaceful beach that was once soaked with blood so many years ago.

We continued our history journey and next visited the American Military Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, the site of the American landing at "Omaha" beach, nicknamed "Bloody Omaha" for how many young men died there in the early morning hours of June 6th, 1944. Again, it was such a powerful experience as we read stories about some of the individual men who fought and died there and then saw all the crosses stretching as far as the eye could see. More than 9,300 young men are buried here.

We didn't leave the museum and cemetery until after 6:00 PM, but only because they were closing and kicked us out. From there, we drove up the road to Pointe du Hoc, the site of intense bombing prior to D-Day as the allies attempted to destroy the German bunkers and guns trained on Omaha and Utah beaches. This area is still filled with huge craters created by the hundreds of bombs dropped here.

We were a very quiet and contemplative group as we headed back to our hotel tonight. Tomorrow, we're traveling to Honfleur, but with a stop in Caen first to visit the war memorial museum there.

Remnants of the temporary harbor at Arromanches

German bunker near Arromanches

Rich took this picture of us from inside one of
the German bunkers

At the American Cemetery

Monument at the American Cemetery

Reflecting pond at the American Cemetery

American Cemetery

Bomb craters and German bunker in background
at Pointe du Hoc

June 15, 2014: Loire Valley / Mont St. Michel

Lee and Mary left for Paris this morning where they'll spend two nights before heading home to California while we did a little more sightseeing in Amboise before heading to Mont St. Michel and the Normandy coast.

Our first stop this morning was the Chateau Royal d'Amboise, built in the 15th century by Charles VII. Not as elaborate or as large as Chenonceau, it was still an interesting sight. Before leaving Amboise, we stopped at the outdoor market for fresh fruit, bread, salami and cheese in the hopes of finding a picnic spot along the way, since our estimated driving time to Mont St. Michel was 3.5 hours. 

All of this took much longer than we had originally anticipated and we didn't end up leaving Amboise until after 1:00 PM. To make a long story short, after stopping for a picnic and other miscellaneous things, we didn't arrive at the Mont St. Michel parking lot until 5:15 PM. They've changed the parking configuration since we were last here and the parking lot is now a 45 minute walk to the island or a 15 minute shuttle ride. The last entrance to the Abbey was at 6:00 PM. Disappointingly, we missed the 6:00 PM cut-off. We did, however, wander around the island and the Abbey and got some wonderful pictures. From here we headed to to dinner in Avranches, the small town where we're staying for the next two nights. Tomorrow we tour the Normandy beaches.

This seems to be a typical pose for me

Amboise royal chateau

The Chateau chapel where kings worshipped
and Leonardo da Vinci is buried

My knight in shining armor

Mont St. Michel

The long climb up to the Abbey

June 14, 2014: Loire Valley

After a wonderful breakfast at our B&B this morning, we headed out for some serious chateaux sight seeing. Our first stop was the Chateau de Chenonceau, probably the most well-known and most-visited chateaux in the Loire Valley. It was originally built in the early 1500's by Thomas Bohier and his wife Katherine Briconnet and their initials are carved everywhere throughout the chateau. In 1547, King Henry II gave the chateau to his favorite mistress, Diane de Poitiers (can't remember how Henry came into possession of the chateau - perhaps payment for back taxes?). When Henry died, his widow, Catherine de Medicis (of the infamous Italian de Medicis clan), kicked Diane out and moved in herself. The chateau spans the river Cher and it was here, in the Grand Gallery, that a hospital was set up during World War I. During World War II, the Cher river was the border between Nazi-occupied France and the French Vichy government (not sure who occupied the chateau during the war, but it was probably the Nazis since they always took the best places for themselves). 

After Chenonceau, we drove to the medieval castle in Loches, about an hour away. The guys had decided they wanted to see this castle, since it had both a dungeon and torture chamber. I think they were a little disappointed since they didn't see much of either, but it was a stark contrast to Chenonceau's Renaissance architecture and opulent interior.

Dinner tonight was at a charming restaurant called Le Patio that our hostess, Gloria, had recommended. It was outstanding!! I am absolutely positive I have gained at least 5 pounds since we left Portland three weeks ago. I don't think it's my imagination that my pants are starting to feel a little tighter. Oh well, I'll worry about that when I get home.

Tomorrow, Lee and Mary head to Paris and the four of us are on our way to Normandy and the D-Day beaches.

Entrance to Chenonceau

Chenonceau

Lee and Mary in the gardens of Chenonceau

Overlooking the Chenonceau gardens

The only way Lee will ever tower over Jerry

The medieval castle of Loches

The Loches donjon (dungeon)

June 13, 2014: Provence Bike Tour - Day 6

The last day of our bike tour and we're all very sad. :( We went on a short ride this morning around Mazan before having lunch together for one last time and then we were on our way to the Avignon train station. Our Backroads leaders have been phenomenal and our fellow travelers were such a pleasure to ride with that we'll miss everyone. We're looking forward to the next stage of our trip, however, which includes the Loire Valley with Lee and Mary and then a few days in Normandy before we head back to Paris. 

We picked up our car at the train station while Lee and Mary rented a car. Once bags were loaded, we were on our way. I rode with Lee and Mary since they've never driven in France before and we followed Rich, Jerry and Becky. We left the train station at 1:30 PM expecting to have a 6.5 hour drive to Amboise in the Loire Valley. We had made dinner reservations at a restaurant in Amboise for 9:00 PM and thought we would have plenty of time to make that. Of course, things don't always go according to plan, and this was one of those instances. Our first delay occurred when we reached Lyon and got caught up in what had to have been Friday night rush hour traffic. An hour later we were finally through Lyon and headed west. 

The second delay occurred in the town of Clermont-Ferrand where the exit to the A71 tollway was closed and we had to take a detour through town. Again, this was @ an hour delay. To make a long story short, we didn't get to Amboise and our B&B until 10:30 PM. Dinner was a loaf of bread, sliced salami and cheese in the car as we drove. I guess we'll try for a nice dinner tomorrow night.

Returning from our ride

Sunset on the tollway

Jet stream tails

June 12, 2914: Provence Bike Tour - Day 5

Today was another hot and beautiful day with gorgeous scenery along the way. We climbed (of course...what else do we do on this ride?) from Mazan through the Gorges de la Nesque to the cycling town of Sault. We started off with a few .5 - 1.5 mile climbs and then got serious at @ the 8 mile mark. It was at this point that we started our gradual 11-mile climb through the Gorges de la Nesque. I realize that a 4% - 6% grade isn't that steep, but climbing ANYTHING for 11 miles in 95 degree heat starts to get hard! 

Once we reached the summit, we had beautiful views of a valley carved eons ago by the Nesque River coupled with an exhilarating ride downhill toward the town of Sault. Before we reached our lunch destination, however, we had another 2-mile climb to conquer, this time at a significantly steeper grade. 

As I mentioned earlier, Sault is a cycling town, since it's here that cyclists usually stop for lunch after riding up (and down) Mt. Ventoux, the 6,000 foot summit that's one of the hardest (if not the hardest) climbs of the Tour de France. Since the majority of us had decided NOT to tackle Mt. Ventoux and were therefore done riding for the day, we decided to shuttle to the top of Mt. Ventoux and see what all the fuss was about. This is not a climb for the faint of heart! The AVERAGE grade of the @ 13 mile climb is 9%. 

We also had our farewell dinner tonight (so sad to say goodbye to everyone), as tomorrow is our last day of riding before we leave Provence and head toward the Loire Valley and its gorgeous, over-the-top chateaus.

Climbing the Gorges de la Nesque

Halfway to the summit

Another view of Gorges de la Nesque, looking downhill

At the summit

Jerry (on the left) and Pablo reaching the summit

At the top of Mt. Ventoux - Doesn't this look like snow?
It's not, it's limestone!

June 11, 2014: Provence Bike Tour - Day 4

Today our wanders through the Luberon mountains took us to the small hill towns of Lacoste, Roussillon, Gordes and Venasque with our final destination for the night being the Chateau de Mazan in the town of Mazan. This was the most challenging ride of the week (unless one decides to ride Mt. Ventoux tomorrow), as each of these towns is perched at the top of a hill. Factor in the heat (it's been somewhere between 90 - 100 degrees all week) and the rides become very difficult (as Rich would say, "Are we having fun yet?"). 

Surprisingly, this was my favorite day of riding so far, as the scenery is spectacular and the towns are very quaint. Lacoste was our first destination and is best known for the Marquis de Sade's castle, which sits on the hilltop just before entering town. It's now owned by Pierre Cardin, who has renovated the lower part of the castle, but has left the upper part pretty much in ruins. One can walk through the grounds and imagine what it was like in the Marquis de Sade's time. There's a statuary garden at the top, to which Cardin adds a new statue every year.

Roussillon, the next stop on our ride, sits on a deposit of ochre, giving the earth and buildings of the town a distinctive red color. It's perched atop Mont Rouge ("Red Mountain") at 1,000 feet above sea level. The town is very picturesque and Becky and I did a little sightseeing/shopping while the guys had a gelato. 

We left Roussillon headed for Gordes, our lunch destination, and saw eye-popping lavender fields just starting to bloom. At this point, Becky and I were riding with Rich and Jerry (downhill ride out of Roussillon), but as we started to climb again, Becky and I pulled ahead. Somewhere along the way, we took a wrong turn or didn't turn where we were supposed to and got ourselves lost. When we came to the town of Lumieres (which wasn't on our map at all), we both knew we were lost. As we started to retrace our steps, Becky's phone rang and it was Sara, our ride leader, checking to see if we were okay. The guys had made it to the van stop and thought we were ahead of them. When Sara indicated they hadn't seen us, they knew we were lost. Anyway, Sara rode back toward us as we continued to retrace our steps until we finally met up. Sara led the way to Gordes, which was going to be another hot, uphill climb, but Maud met us with the van and we shuttled to the top. By this time, Becky and I had already ridden a number of extra uphills and were done for the day.

"Route Rap" map for the day

"Tree of Life" statue in the Pierre Cardin garden

View from the Marquis de Sade's castle in Lacoste

Lavender fields

Red Roussillon

Ooh la la! 

The lost travelers have returned! 

Hilltop town of Gordes

Moonlight over Venasque - our dinner site

June 10, 2014: Provence Bike Tour - Day 3

Our rides for the next few days will be exploring many of the hill towns in the Luberon mountains of Provence. Today we left Les Baux and headed toward Menerbes, with stops in the small towns of Eygalieres, Robion and Oppede-le-Vieux. Since we are in the mountains, we are still climbing lots of hills. In Eygalieres, we bought fresh fruit (cherries, strawberries and apricots), salami, cheese (including a goat cheese rolled in herbes de provence), and a baguette of bread for a picnic lunch in Robion. We ate our lunch in the park in Robion's main square, after which Becky, Jerry and I got back on our bikes to ride to our new hotel in Menerbes. Rich took the van, since by this time he had already ridden 28+ miles and his bum was hurting.

We gathered again in the early evening and our Backroads leaders shuttled us to a wine tour and tasting at Domaine de la Citadelle. They were very generous pours and by the time we finished our fourth tasting, I had had enough wine for the evening (I am such a lightweight!). We had dinner at our hotel, which was one of the better meals we've had in France, and then we all called it a night. We have an early morning tomorrow riding even more challenging hills than what we did today. Sara says it's her favorite ride of the week, but we're all a bit nervous.

Ready for our third day of riding - Notice Rich and Lee are
both wearing Dr. Seuss' jerseys

Sara and Pablo fixing Lee's bike shoe with duct tape

Our picnic lunch in Robion - Rich maintains it lacks the
presentation of Pablo's lunch yesterday

Sights along the way

More sights along the way - I have no idea what town
this is.

Enjoying our wine tasting