Part 1: Eindhoven – Nîmes – Le Puy

The Bus

Day 1:

Nîmes - St. Ambroix

90 km

After a busy week with lots of preparations our bus left at Eindhoven station at 16.00h. The bus wasn’t completely full, so Bas (my travel buddy) and I chose a place at the back of the bus. (After the bus trip we were sorry about this decision, because we were sitting right above the engine) After a 14 hour trip the bus left the toll road suddenly and I realised that we were entering Nîmes. But it was only half past 5 and still dark outside. My good humour became a little bit less good. So the bus drivers dropped us at a camping site at the south of Nîmes. And they didn’t even tell us exactly where we were. At that moment we damned him and her.

Fortunately there was a map of the area at the door of the reception.

After we had cycled for two hours we were on our route for the next 20 days. We saw very much these two hours and it became hot, very hot. It wasn’t even 8 o’clock and it was already 30 degrees Celsius.

We cycled in the outskirts of Nîmes and this is very beautiful. I can recommend this to everybody; it’s almost heaven on earth. The view is enormous and the silence is scary. We didn’t hear any cars, only birds, a stream and a cow sometimes.

On this first day we started climbing and this was heavy. The Netherlands are as flat as possible, so this was a thing completely different from what we were used to. The temperature was very high and we made a mistake not to take enough water with us. So we were thirsty sometimes. I also forget to rub in my face, my arm and legs with suntan oil. When we were at the supermarket in the evening, everybody looked at me. In the mirror I saw that I was red as a lobster.

My Bike

This first day was a little bit disastrous, because in the evening we found out that our gas burner was broke. And in the supermarket they didn’t sell the part that was broke. We decided to go to a restaurant. I ate a very nice Tagiatella Carbonara, pasta with baked pork and a cream sauce. After this meal we were very tired and the moment I lay in my sleeping-bag I fell asleep.

Day 2:

St. Ambroix - Prévenchéres

92 km

At 8.

The beautiful river between St. Ambroix and Prévenchères

After almost 50 km’s cycling near a beautiful river (à photos), we took a wrong road. After 10 km’s we found out that we were on the wrong intersection. We looked on our big map and found out that we had a choice. We could either cycle 12.8 km’s on a different road to our route or we could cycle back 10 km’s and 15 km’s to the place where we would come on the route in a different way. We chose for the 12.8 km route. And it was a nice route, right next to a reservoir. (à Photos).

The reservoir

After this we had a nice descent. We drove around 50 to 60 kilometres an hour. It was a lot of fun. We finished in the village Prévenchères, a small town of some 600 inhabitants. The camping site was even smaller. It was a strip of asphalt and on both sides grass where you could put your tent. So we did.

Our gas burner was still broken, so we started to find a restaurant in the city. But there was not even one restaurant in Prévenchères. We went back to the camping site and asked a Dutch couple (after I had almost been eaten by a dog) if they knew a restaurant in the neighbourhood. They said there was a little restaurant near the road next to the camping ground. We only had to cycle around 1 km and climb 50 meters. A piece of cake. But the Dutch couple was wrong, 1 km became 12 km’s and 100 meters climb became 400 meters to climb up.

The wrong road

Day 3:

Prévenchéres - Pradelles

50 km

This day I woke up too (it would be a disaster if I didn’t do this anymore :P). When I came out of the tent, the weather was bad. It was cold and I was shivering.

The beautiful picture which bas made.

After 4 hours we reached our next camping site. The advertisement-board showed a very beautiful Olympic campground, but when we entered, it wasn’t so special. But it didn’t matter. We had namely two rolls of Prince Cakes (during this holiday we ate around 20 to 30 rolls of Prince Cakes, they are so tasteful) and it was half past one. We took our time and started a lazy afternoon.

Day 4:

Pradelles - Le Puy

Around 90 km

I was happy this morning.

Pradelles

After half an hour we came back from paradise and resumed our route. We started the descent and over took a car. This was on the part of the descent where we were riding around 60 km’s/h. It was scary as hell, but also very funny to look at the face of the guy who was driving that car.

In a couple of hours we entered Le Puy. We searched for our camping ground for two hours. It was in the middle of the city and it had a view of the church which was built on a volcanic mountain (à photos). On the camping ground our tent was just next to a French guy who listened to traditional French folk music. Not my type of music L.

Le Puy

Day 5:

Le Puy

Day of rest

In the last four days we cycled around 325 km’s and we were tired. So we decided to take a day of rest. I slept till ten o’clock. Not till 12 o’clock or later, because the sun was shining on our tent.

Le Puy is a beautiful city. It’s built halfway a mountain in a volcanic area. In the past there were two or more volcanos in the area around Le Puy. During years some geographic events removed the ground around the volcanos and the lava thickened.

Le Puy

Nowadays there are two little mountains of volcano rocks in Le Puy. In the dark ages some Catholic group of people built a church on one of these rocks. Important Catholic fathers also entered this church.

There is also another volcano rock in Le Puy. On this rock a general built a sculpture of Maria. He melted many canons from some war and made the Maria sculpture. I don’t know the reason why they painted the sculpture red/pink. You can enter the sculpture and climb inside the sculpture to the top. Then you can look through the eyes of Maria and this give you a view around Le Puy.

Like most of the cities in France, Le Puy has a dome. It’s in the middle of the main centre, with a beautiful old road and stairs in front of it.

The day after we left, the people in Le Puy had a big celebration of some historical fact. The people were very busy with the preparations during our day of rest. All around the main city some artistic marionettes were hanging above the streets.

The Maria Sculpture

In the Netherlands it’s very busy on the terraces in the main city, but not in Le Puy. On our last evening in Le Puy we decided to have a drink, but most of the terraces were closed or were almost empty.