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We visited the medieval walled city of Perouges situated 30 km north of Lyon. This place is like a living museum.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/634/2...1a8df392_c.jpglyon 161 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5825/...9561bf37_c.jpglyon 208 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/657/2...a0247f2f_c.jpglyon 160 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/564/2...ed8e82cb_c.jpglyon 162 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5809/...f47ef8d0_c.jpglyon 164 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5637/...9ec742b5_c.jpglyon 168 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/766/2...4cd51943_c.jpglyon 169 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/593/2...d39afb05_c.jpglyon 170 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/734/2...340bec06_c.jpgDSC05623 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5810/...fe9b7e2d_c.jpglyon 177 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/670/2...9a33f99d_c.jpglyon 187 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5638/...c5eeb5d2_c.jpglyon 189 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5669/...b406351f_c.jpglyon 192 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5799/...f3a3b57d_c.jpglyon 195 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/568/2...0b848e6a_c.jpglyon 196 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The next stop was to visit the pilgrimage church at Ars. This is the home of Saint John Vianney the “universal patron saint for all the parish priests” of the Catholic faith. People came from around the world as early as 1827 and he was seeing 20,000 pilgrims a year in 1855 and working 16-18 hours a day hearing confessions.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/673/2...d8331492_c.jpglyon 140 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5776/...125342d3_c.jpglyon 151 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5797/...b6eba237_c.jpglyon 156 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/772/2...12427abe_c.jpglyon 158 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/604/2...251ff854_c.jpglyon 159 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/778/2...167c79be_c.jpglyon 150 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5720/...5ce0c6f1_c.jpglyon 141 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5618/...5ab6a3a6_c.jpglyon 146 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/651/2...007ff853_c.jpglyon 147 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Today’s dinner was another French specialty potatoes au gratin and andouille sausage prepared by Franck. We had a great visit with our friends here!!
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/631/2...e315d859_c.jpglyon 214 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5638/...04ae7143_c.jpglyon 215 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5775/...22b32999_c.jpglyon 210 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The weather has not improved much as we headed south from Lyon it got worse and worse. We plotted a course to Gordes southeast of Avignon using the secondary roads. We did not stop at Vienne as planned since seeing Roman ruins in the pouring rain is no fun.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5784/...90cdcaa7_z.jpgScreen Shot 2015-10-10 at 10.55.27 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We followed the Rhone River down until Tournon-sur-Rhone where we rode east to Pont-en-Royans and into the National Park Vercours. At the turn off we spotted Valrhona, which is like the Mecca of Chocolate and is the French company where our friend Antonio (Marbella/Madrid) works.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5830/...c1df77ef_c.jpgcarpentras 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/729/2...9a36f83a_c.jpgcarpentras 3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Pont-en-Royans is a small village hanging on the side of the riverbank.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5746/...33ba01dd_c.jpgcarpentras 4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/601/2...4a5e648e_c.jpgcarpentras 5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5721/...0509c42f_c.jpgcarpentras 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5834/...fd763b09_c.jpgcarpentras 7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
From here we went to La Chapelle-en-Vercours and onto Die on the single track twisty and hairpin route thru the fall colored forest. We hardly saw a car all day.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5746/...c4598d40_c.jpgcarpentras 9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5697/...1470a206_c.jpgcarpentras 10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5820/...f0911212_c.jpgcarpentras 11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
On the way we stopped at the Serran de l’Ane geologic site. It is one of only a very few places on earth that you can clearly see the transition between two geologic stages the Valanginian and the Hauterivian.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/575/2...5bd9c97b_c.jpgcarpentras 12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/646/2...78461c6f_c.jpgcarpentras 14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5775/...85f708fc_c.jpgcarpentras 15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/663/2...bb24df3a_c.jpgcarpentras 22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/575/2...a53c0c40_c.jpgcarpentras 23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/705/2...81eb0744_c.jpgDSC05704 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/605/2...5d20b0e2_c.jpgcarpentras 16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5721/...b1c00163_c.jpgcarpentras 17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5814/...61a3d1ee_c.jpgcarpentras 18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/572/2...8405fa74_c.jpgcarpentras 27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5695/...6af729cd_c.jpgcarpentras 26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We had a nice ride thru the Gorges de St May. The rain did slow a bit late in the afternoon, but it had slowed us down enough that we called it a day at Carpentras. On the way we stopped at a Mc D to use the wifi and found a good place to stay. Just after we arrived it really started to pour again and the thunder and lightening was epic.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/614/2...2a490ea8_c.jpgcarpentras 28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The forecast for the morning was sunny, which was hard to believe, but totally correct. The plan had been to head to Toulouse, but we found out that Fernandita the daughter of our dear friends Mario and Fernanda in El Salvador was in Barcelona for a week. So “road trip”! We were pretty happy about the change in the weather since we had planned a pretty long 400 Km day thru the National Parks of des Cevennes and Haut-Languedoc and on to Narbonne.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5824/...8115a83f_b.jpgScreen Shot 2015-10-07 at 10.34.47 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We made a swing thru Avignon to view the Palais de Papes, but since we will be back here next summer we did not stop long.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5787/...57eb49a9_c.jpgmilau 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It was just over 100 km to get to Ales, which is where the route today gets good. You could spend days making loops here thru the hills and forest on the tiny twisty roads. We planned just one track from Ales to Florac along the Corniche des Cevennes. Over a section this is a very narrow track of switchbacks to the town of Saint-Roman-De-Tousque. From here the road widens and looks a lot like the Blue Ridge Parkway. https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5625/...e86b74b9_c.jpgmilau 2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
From Flornac we rode over another mountain pass, but we could make some miles, as the hills were more rolling. By 4 pm we made it Milau for a view of the famous Viaduct. South from here we again routed on the small roads thru Lacaune ad the park to Narbonne. The roads here are sweeping curves and again in almost no traffic we could make some speed. Arriving here we opted for the Ibis Budget, which is in a word Budget…but better than the slightly cheaper F1 which is full of truckers with whom I don’t care to share a bath.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5700/...ee9ac23b_c.jpgmilau 3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5748/...e3fa95cc_c.jpgDSC05724 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5750/...24456b58_c.jpgmilau 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5734/...c5c4bb5d_c.jpgmilau 7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
From Narbonne we set out south and stayed off the toll roads. We only had 300 km to go and most of the road was secondary highway.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/692/2...6248e4db78.jpgScreen Shot 2015-10-10 at 10.59.22 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5811/...b5fbda46_z.jpgScreen Shot 2015-10-10 at 10.58.02 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Arriving at the Spanish border we found the usual outlet malls and cross border shoppers, but here there were numbers of gaudily dressed prostitutes standing at the rest stops and round abouts waiting for the truckers I would guess. Border towns are sketchy everywhere but this was one of the worst we have seen in a while. https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5679/...408ec0be_c.jpgbarcelona 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Southwest of Girona we got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean! Arriving to Barcelona we had forgotten the mayhem of the scooter drivers in Spain! They buzz around you like flies. That said we arrived uneventfully to our hotel and met up with Fernanda. It was so funny we had kept the visit a surprise for her parents. We posted the helmet pic with no comment on facebook. Mario saw it and called Fernanda, who when she skyped us was so excited she totally forgot how to speak English!
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5671/...d350b00bdb.jpg11214284_10153525869846131_2886453210861377242_n by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/695/2...124ac24f38.jpg12115923_10153525905326131_894111713299356178_n by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
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