TUSCANY

There really is no excuse. Well actually there is when the option is to spend time writing the blog or to wander around another beautiful Tuscan town. We are now at San Gimignano. Stunning. In fact so special it looks more like something from a film with all its special effects to make it appear as if was still the 16^thc. We have spent a day longer here than planned as Bridget hurt her knee getting here – we think when she allowed the bike to topple over on to her having stopped and lost her balance slightly – and we haven’t been to Voltera yet as we were going to cycle there. Instead we took a day trip to Siena which was stunning if brief. We are returning to Siena on the way back north once we have been to Pompeii so today was a taster really. Tomorrow we ride (Bridget’s knee allowing) to Cortona – a small village north of the town to be precise where we are due to couch surf with a photo journalist. And then as we couldn’t find anyone to couch surf with in Siena we are heading to Pompeii which we think will take about 10 days. Then the Amalfi coast and back north via Siena and on to Florence.

I think I need to play catch pretty quickly now as I will be so far behind and my memory being what it is I won’t be able to give much useful info anyway. Having left Spain behind and said hello to France we made excellent progress – how wonderful flat roads felt – to Carcassonne. At the time I remember being fairly impressed with the structure of the Cite but quite disappointed with the tackiness of it all. Very Disney and very chocolate box. Now in hindsight having visited Lucca, St Gimignano. and Siena I am even more disappointed. It was something, having read Labrynthe, I was really looking forward too. The consolation of course is that at least we didn’t pay for a flight to get there or book an expensive hotel.

Having spent a couple of days in Carcassonne – partly to help my sore ankle recover – we left thinking it would be really great to cycle along the Canal du Midi – something the woman in the tourist office said was quite straightforward. We lasted a morning at best. It was beautiful but a route best used by single track mountain bikers or day trippers, not touring cyclists with up to 30 kg of weight in their panniers. There were rocks, roots and gravel all of which made it extremely bumpy and it was very narrow. Combine these together and my fear of falling into the canal wasn’t as fanciful as it might seem. So we soon left the canal side and took the road which pretty much followed the same route and was equally picturesque but unfortunately not as sheltered. We laboured into an extremely strong head wind. (We found out later it was 40 kpmh but it was a mere trifle when compared to the following day when we contended with a 40kpmh side wind) Even so by the end of the day we were able to re-join the canal where the tow path had been tarmaced (sp?) and bombed the last 10 kms or so to the coast where we found a lovely campsite and a kindly woman behind the desk, who, when we told her what we were doing, took pity on us and only charged us 10 euro for the night.

Now by the end of the next day we had reached what I thought was really a kind of Milton Keynes on Sea. La Grande Motte I am sure is very popular in summer and has lovely beaches and great kite surfing and sailing and such etc but really in late spring has nothing to offer the cycle tourist other than a choice of campsites and a supermarket. We had had such a hard day by the time we arrived that we were relieved just to find somewhere to pitch and go to bed. If only we had been able to struggle on about 10 km more we would have reached the delightful Aigues Mortes on the edge of the Carmargue and would have enjoyed weathering out the storm that was to arrive the following day. Instead we endured a day in La Grande Motte where according to the woman in the tourist office (they do always seem to be women) there was absolutely no indoor entertainment of any kind. The only plus side was free wifi access in the tourist office where I am sure we outstayed our welcome – sitting drenched to the bone surfing the web in the corner where there was access to the only power point.

It is strange how thinks work out and so often in combination – bad with bad, good with good. We had the hardest day of the trip by far getting to La Grande Motte. We cycled all day along the coast buffeted by the wind as it blew in hard from the sea, struggling to get much above 10 kmph even though we were on the flattest roads so far, struggling to keep our balance and having to contend with heavy traffic and the biting sand as it flew in off the beaches. By the end of the day we were just glad to be off our bikes but would have been so much happier if we had landed up somewhere even half pleasant. Had there been no wind we would have easily made it to Aigues Morte and the good would have been mixed with the good. But no we ended up in La Grande Motte – ugly, depressing and unsatisfying – insult added to injuries in bucket loads (of sand). And then of course we were forced to stay an extra day there because of the storm that followed the wind and that part of the French coast was forever blighted in my memory and cast aside to the never visit again pile.