Today was a wonderful day, although it was the first day we did not bicycle a Stage. When we passed through Sisteron last evening, we all saw this as a town we wanted to visit. Today we were rewarded in the morning by an amazing town with a protective castle above it. While we intended to spend an hour or two in the town, Sisteron turned out to be magical, and we didn't leave until after 3pm. We visited the old cemetary, shared by the local cat population. A combination of many old 18th century grave sites and mausoleums, commemorations to the war dead of the first and second World Wars. Pictures and sculptures of people who had spent their lives living and loving in Sisteron. Then a walk up the hill to the castle fortress, partially bombed during the second World War, but since perfectly restored. Gwen will provide pictures, but the place is stunning. Only on Rhodes have I seen an ancient castle/fortress of this quality and preservation. The more modern French craftsmen are to be applauded for their efforts to return this edifice to the condition of an age gone by. Napoleon visited here, just prior to his Waterloo, had the mayor chosen, perhaps Sisteron would have been his Waterloo, rather than Waterloo.
We returned to the quaint old town, had several "attitude adjusting" cold beers, and then partook in a very nice luncheon of lamb, egg plant, zuchini and french fries. We were sitting in an outdoor cafe, temperatures in the mid-70's, sunny, absolutely perfect. And....no tourists. Sisteron is one of the great places in the world, and it didn't even receive recognition in our Frommers Guide. We all agreed we had visited a very special place in the world, and enjoyed our day here. Cycling would just have to wait a day.
We drove the Stage 11 route to Valance. Unlike the previous few days, the route traveled through forested areas with few farms and even fewer villages. The landscape was green, but somewhat stark. Of all the stages so far, this was one we hadn't really missed much, by driving instead of cycling. We did miss one fairly long uphill Class 3 pull, but, with the smugness of being in an automobile and having just defeated a very difficult Class 1 climb, we knew we could have beaten this stage, had we wanted to.
We arrived at our very private Bed and Breakfast about 7pm. Roy and I even managed to play a little table tennis on the high quality outdoor table. We have excellent quarters with a large living room area, refrigerator, microwave, etc. We have been able to do some of our laundry and relax.
Tomorrow, we tackle a more difficult stage headed for Rodez and our meet up with Fran. I'm looking forward to getting on the bicycle and pumping out some miles. In the last three days we have seen more cyclists on the roads than we saw during the entire first seven-eight stages of the Tour. We seem to be in cycling country.
Gwen has mentioned the problems we are having with her Garmin. I hope the addition of some duct tape into the equation will solve the problem. She has been understandably frustrated by an instrument that keeps going off about the time she really needs it to tell her which way to go. Maps work well, but the 350 page French map we brought along still does not have the detail necessary to navigate a city, or meet up with the country roads our Tour route takes us on. Her job has been onerous and has taken its toll. Hopefully, I now have the problem temporarily solved, but, when we return to the U.S. the Garmin returns to the factory. It's power connector is clearly not working properly, and a fix will be necessary. In the mean time, we will just try to make it work. It has been fortunate that my bicycle Garmin has functioned perfectly. It would be almost impossible to navigate the Tour stages with a paper map. Thank you, Garmin, for an excellent bicycle GPS. And, if you're listening, the connection detail into your automotive GPS units, is, at best, amateurish. You need a stable connection detail like the ipod and iphone connector, not one that can wiggle and loosen the pin connection. A "snap-in" connector would be best, not simply a "push in". One that had to be "unlocked" to remove, rather than simply pulled out. Come on, Garmin, go the extra mile!!! We have been figuring out how to develop routes on the computer to best accommodate Gwen's van travel with our bicycle travel, and the Garmin unit could be the most amazing tool in bringing us all together at the right place at the right time. Without the Garmins, this trip would be very difficult to accomplish. Five years ago, even, we could not have attempted this, expecting the kind of positive results we now achieve every day, even dealing with the Garmin battery glitches. This is an amazing world we live in.
We returned to the quaint old town, had several "attitude adjusting" cold beers, and then partook in a very nice luncheon of lamb, egg plant, zuchini and french fries. We were sitting in an outdoor cafe, temperatures in the mid-70's, sunny, absolutely perfect. And....no tourists. Sisteron is one of the great places in the world, and it didn't even receive recognition in our Frommers Guide. We all agreed we had visited a very special place in the world, and enjoyed our day here. Cycling would just have to wait a day.
We drove the Stage 11 route to Valance. Unlike the previous few days, the route traveled through forested areas with few farms and even fewer villages. The landscape was green, but somewhat stark. Of all the stages so far, this was one we hadn't really missed much, by driving instead of cycling. We did miss one fairly long uphill Class 3 pull, but, with the smugness of being in an automobile and having just defeated a very difficult Class 1 climb, we knew we could have beaten this stage, had we wanted to.
We arrived at our very private Bed and Breakfast about 7pm. Roy and I even managed to play a little table tennis on the high quality outdoor table. We have excellent quarters with a large living room area, refrigerator, microwave, etc. We have been able to do some of our laundry and relax.
Tomorrow, we tackle a more difficult stage headed for Rodez and our meet up with Fran. I'm looking forward to getting on the bicycle and pumping out some miles. In the last three days we have seen more cyclists on the roads than we saw during the entire first seven-eight stages of the Tour. We seem to be in cycling country.
Gwen has mentioned the problems we are having with her Garmin. I hope the addition of some duct tape into the equation will solve the problem. She has been understandably frustrated by an instrument that keeps going off about the time she really needs it to tell her which way to go. Maps work well, but the 350 page French map we brought along still does not have the detail necessary to navigate a city, or meet up with the country roads our Tour route takes us on. Her job has been onerous and has taken its toll. Hopefully, I now have the problem temporarily solved, but, when we return to the U.S. the Garmin returns to the factory. It's power connector is clearly not working properly, and a fix will be necessary. In the mean time, we will just try to make it work. It has been fortunate that my bicycle Garmin has functioned perfectly. It would be almost impossible to navigate the Tour stages with a paper map. Thank you, Garmin, for an excellent bicycle GPS. And, if you're listening, the connection detail into your automotive GPS units, is, at best, amateurish. You need a stable connection detail like the ipod and iphone connector, not one that can wiggle and loosen the pin connection. A "snap-in" connector would be best, not simply a "push in". One that had to be "unlocked" to remove, rather than simply pulled out. Come on, Garmin, go the extra mile!!! We have been figuring out how to develop routes on the computer to best accommodate Gwen's van travel with our bicycle travel, and the Garmin unit could be the most amazing tool in bringing us all together at the right place at the right time. Without the Garmins, this trip would be very difficult to accomplish. Five years ago, even, we could not have attempted this, expecting the kind of positive results we now achieve every day, even dealing with the Garmin battery glitches. This is an amazing world we live in.
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