Scenes from Cycling in France

We spent six weeks cycling in France, leaving Paris on 2 September, arriving at our most southerly point, Saintes Maries de la Mer, on 24 September, and cycling back into Paris on 13 October.  Altogether, we cycled about 1400 miles over the course of 37 riding days.  Because of some technical limitations associated with having no computer, the day-to-day progress was recorded in another blog.  Here are some of the photos that I took with my regular camera and could not post at that site.

Alison on an early riding day through the Burgundy Region

First rest day at Semur-en-Auxois

Stunning roof tiles in Meursault.

Tournon-sur-Rhone

View east from an historic dungeon at Crest

Arches supporting roadway at Vaison-la-Romain

Fontaine-de-Vaucluse

Pont Saint-Bénézet at Avignon

View north from Avignon

Jacques-Louis David's La Mort de Bara (Avignon)

Abbaye St Michel de Frigolet

Ingrid in the Alpilles overlooking Les-Baux-de-Provence

Flamingos in the Camargue

Van Gogh's Young Peasant (Arles)

Detail at Cathedral in Vézelay

Auxerre (on the Yonne)

Chateaux at Fontainebleau

Off to France…

… and follow us here.

[Explanation: We'll be self-contained on our bikes, so I won't have a full computer, just an iPod Touch.  I needed to switch over to WordPress to be able to seamlessly transfer photos from the Touch to the blog.]

Training Ride: Point Reyes Station

Philadelphia, PA

Academy of Fellows gathering …

… at the start of Indoor Air 2018 in Philadelphia.

Point Reyes National Seashore

We just returned from a 3-day outing to Point Reyes.  We stayed at the Lingonberry Farm about a mile outside of Point Reyes Station.  Our dinners (both nice in their own ways) were at Stationhouse Cafe and Sidestreet Kitchen, the latter being quite informal.  

We split the three day outings into bike-hike-bike, covering about 34 miles on each biking day and 13 miles for the hike.  The first bike outing was a cut-short attempt to get to the lighthouse from the visitor center.  (Traffic was heavy, winds were strong, road surface was bad, and we were running out of time from a noon start before the checkin limit at our accommodation.)  The second bike ride was excellent, looping out toward Petaluma past the Nicasio Reservoir, then north on Hicks Valley Road, west to Marshall (complete with ride up the infamous "Marshall Wall"), and then a blistering fast return via Hwy 1 aided by a brisk tailwind.  The hike was also great: starting from the Estero trailhead, we hiked out to Sunset Beach, with the last mile and a half or so in cross-country fashion along the low-tide shoreline.  Wildlife sightings were great: otters, harbor seals, egrets, quail, and an owl, among others.  On the hike, we only saw one (maybe two) other people the whole day.  The second bikeride was also with light traffic, especially once we started north on Hicks Valley Road.

I had no computer with me, so these photos are coming in after returning home on day three.  The first four and the last four are from the two bike rides; the middle nine are from the hike.