the Cycle adventure starts...

Day 1: Thursday 13th
We left Montpellier yesterday, loaded to the gills. So much so that we decided to post some more stuff to Britain. We ended up sending two boxes - about 15 kg. bloody glad we don't have to carry that.
We didn't go particularly far, and found an utterly isolated campsite at Latte (cool name!). We decided that there was no way that we could continue to cycle with the amount of stuff we have (inc a laptop, camera, tripod, guitar...), so we cycled to a nearby bike shop and bought a bike trailer.

Day 2: Friday 14th
Today we headed South towards the beach. We stopped at Carnon, which is where Selina rode to from Montpellier last week) and had great morning tea of Pain au Raisin et Cafe, and had a swim at a very nice beach (the Mediterranean!) We had lunch at La Grande Motte, which had many awesome apartment buildings (styled like large luxury yachts - see photos). This place was weird - there was a long beach promenade that was like a cross between Burnside Village and the Royal Show. We had some lunch and visited a great bike shop, then headed on to Le Grau du Roi. We camped at 'Eden camp ground', which didn't meet our expectations, but we managed to cook up a nice dinner and had a quiet evening.

Day 3: Saturday 15th
Today we left the beach and headed into the Carmague towards the old walled city of Aigue-Mortes (translates to dead waters...) which looked pretty stunning from the outside. We only had a quick wander in the city, checked out the fabulous 13th century Church which is apparently where the 7th Crusade started some way back. We then rode on through the flat countryside amist vineyards and across a few canals towards the small town of Stes Maries de la Mer. This town is named because of the two Mary's who apparently brought Catholisism to mainland Europe. We arrived at our campground (no grass and has an odd smell...) and decided a swim was in order. As lunch had been small we were hungry early but discovered many restaurants were booked out. We got take-away (possibly the most expensive ever) - Calamari Rings, Chips & Paella + a bottle of Rose. YUM. We ate looking over the lovely beach and Mediterranean Sea - a lovely evening ;-)

Day 4: Sunday 16th
This morning we have decided not to cycle to far. We cycled about 4km north to the Parc Ornithologique. We had a pleasant morning, wandering around looking at hundreds of mostly pink Flamingos & some other birds. It is a large park but much of the area has few birds which was a little disappointing. This afternoon we came back & have been to a small 13th Century church where we walked on the roof and joined in with a Choir practice. We sat on the beach and cooked dinner together in the fading light. Quite peaceful ;-)

Day 5: Monday 17th
Today we packed up and had breakfast on the beach again. Then we rode NE to Arles (about 40km) where we are currently sitting in a Cafe looking at the cafe that Van Gogh painted in 'A Starry night'. not bad! And in the background are some 2AD columns from when the romans occupied this area of France. We're not sure what else we're going to do here, but probably check out some more Roman ruins and then head SE to Marseille & the coast in that area.