This map shows our route each day with the alternating red and green lines.
This picture of Patrick and I was taken by the owner of a wonderful B and B near Alba, where Patrick and I had rolled in at 10:30 the prev night, ready to kiss the floor of the establishment. Thanks to the delicious breakfast of hazelnut cake, we were excited to ride again the next morning.
Patrick's aluminum Redine cyclocross bike equiped with rear blinky light, GPS, a handlebar bar for camera and map, and a bag under the saddle for rain jacket, fleece jacket, shorts,and tools.
This trip had been inspired by reflections on the amazing cycle trip Patrick and I made on the Camino del Norte in 2011 and daydreaming of Anna and I during long rides in New England. We decided in the winter to meet up with Anna and Sasha, who are living in Germany. Anna browsed her guide to cycling in France and suggested instead or in addition to visiting, we should make a bike tour. We kicked around location options and settled on Provence due to Patrick's desire to take on one solid climb - Mont Ventoux seemed appealing for that and I liked the idea of perched villages (the word perched guaranteeing climbing would be involved). We had a little Skype call in the summer to pin down the itinerary of the trip. 2 weeks with modest miles and plenty of possible exploration of sights. It looked possible we could ride one day across the border to Italy and Patrick was very interested in this. Seemed exciting and I ordered a learn French CD and set about learning how to count to 5. Shortly thereafter, it was made clear at work that our traditional holiday shutdown would not happen and I'd be expected to work through December. I decided that the Europe trip could be extended for another week. Patrick and I mulled over the map to see where to spend another week. Venice caught our eye. I'd been interested to go for some time after seeing my aunt's vacation pictures. It was fairly close to Nice so I spent a week poking around the internet to determine if it was possible to ride from Venice to Nice in a week. I determined that it could be done and we purchased flights and a guidebook - see post vacation crazy for notes on that time. Once the guidebook came, we started getting interested in seeing a lot of Italy, perhaps renting a car and going to factory tour. Imaginations ran wild for a while and I pulled together two possible itineraries and sets of hotel bookings. What ended up keeping us from Florence and Cinque Terre in the end was the surprisingly expensive cost of a 4 hour car rental. Bicycles it was and we will have to return another time for Florence.
I didn't fully the consider the fatigue that 500 miles across Italy without a rest day would cause nor did I foresee the effect of those miles on Patrick's backside. Nor did I examine Anna's trip plans in detail enough to realize that the 1st day out of Nice would be quite a full day of cycling (much of it through quite glorious country) complete with plenty of climbing followed by headwind. After a few subsequent days enjoying the hills of Provence I found it quite amusing that a truly awesome selection of based goods would be found under the sign Festival of Pain. Yes, it really was Pains with an s and at yes the effects of cycling weren't really that bad - but I found it close enough to be funny. Anna has started some good posts about our trip here http://annaandsasha.blogspot.com/.
