Canal du Midi

B at Pont du Gard

Road to Castellane

Well we were a while in Agde as we suspected. The weather was windy and cool, but the vibe was good so we hung out for an extra day or two.

Biked the canal du Midi on two days (tandem one day, ours the other), and met an Englishman and his Norwegian wife and in-laws, got invited on board his guppy for some box wine and a hilarious chat that would have sat very well with brother John in its blunt references to other boaters from various countries (that we shall leave unnamed, although we did watch one of them try at least three times to line up a lock, while a tug and barge did the same thing in one shot). Agde was an interesting ancient town that has the old streets but not the tourist bucks to fix them up. Did a wine tasting (Mas St Antoine - bought and drank some Picpoul de Pinet white and St Nicolas red). We eventually decided to leave because the beaches were too cool and windy for bikinis, and the store at the campsite opened so they stopped delivering croissants directly to your campsite.

Made it along the coast via beaches, oyster beds, windsurf/kite board areas, another walled town and a load of pink flamingos (unlike in Woodbridge, these ones moved) to the Pont du Gard, another 2000 year old Roman structure that we as a society should reflect on more. Had a campsite in pine trees overlooking the Gard River - more like Canada than we would have expected, but with this wonderful human creation around the corner.

Then off through Provence poppy and lavender fields (if I typed this before the panache, wine and port, it would be a lot faster) along yet another truly amazing road (with Barb doing her best imitation of M. Villenueve in a camper car) to our campsite in Castellane and the Gorge de Verdon that we will explore in the next couple of days. Campsite has free wireless internet and a truly amazing radio station (still primarily the rock that we grew up on, or some French copies of same).