Day 16 Orange to Nimes

Unfortunately C n d P was in the wrong direction

I was awoken in the night by the sound of "le mistral" whistling through the trees outside my "premiere classe"room. I had forgotten that the layout of this hotel chain's rooms lend themselves particularly well to having a bike with you. The rooms all face outward and open straight onto the car park. The helpful receptionist (beats F1 already) had given me a ground floor room, which meant that I could simply wheel my trusty Dawes super Galaxy inside and unpack. She refused to believe that I had cycled from Calais but I eventually convinced her that I had. She also thought that Narbonne was still a long way away whereas I feel as if it is one really good day's cycling away. Since I last used this chain several years ago the rooms have undergone a face lift and had air conditioning units installed.

le mistral

When I got up I nearly asked if I could have the room for another night for "le mistral" was blowing @ 50km/h with gusts much stronger. You know that it is a real wind when it has a name. It was blowing due south and my route to Nimes was due west or slightly south of that. Instead some instinct made me ask the receptionist if she could book me a room for the night in the centre of Nimes. At first the hotel was so busy the manager asked if she could call back in 10 minutes - not a good sign. I had another coffee and browsed through the local paper where I could see that "le mistral" was to turn into "le marin" an 180 degree turn for tomorrow - definitely not helpful. When she eventually got through I got the last available room which was confirmed as I was checking in at about 2pm when a family was turned away.

It had only taken me about 4 hours but two of those hours were really scary. The wind was so strong from the side that I was constantly blown into the centre of the road where the lorries offered no concessions to the conditions at all. Presumably they weren't being blown around. The gusts were the worst and at times I felt totally out of control. The worst part was a long steep descent into  Pont du Gard when normally I would have been down on the drops getting up maximum speed. I had the brakes on all the way down terrified that I would be gusted into speeding traffic. It was a particularly open and exposed part of the road. This evening my forearms and  neck and shoulders are stiff with all of the holding on tight. However, just before the wind was quite this strong, and the terrain quite so exposed, in the lovely town of Roquemaure, where it was market day, I met a Danish couple of about my age who were on a tandem cycling from Toulouse along the Canal du Midi then heading north. We had a fine chat and they hoped that I would "enjoy the back wind" and I told them that the wind was to change direction in their favour tomorrow for which information they were grateful. I had anticipated that I would come across many more cycle tourists and many more cyclists in general. They had difficulty getting in to hotels in the South but hadn't had to resort to their back up tent. they admired the fact that I was traveling so light. I didn't offer to let them lift the bike to see how "light" it is. They were a nice couple and I wish them well. I wish I had had the presence of mind to have taken a photo but I have never subscribed to the view that if it wasn't photographed then it didn't happen.

I passed Tavel where "la vendange" (grape harvest) was taking place by hand - the traditional way. The signs by the road side suggested that Tavel rose was the king of roses. I dare say that Provence and Anjou to name but two might disagree. I didn't stop to be able to offer an opinion but the "vin de pays du gard" which I am drinking at the moment is quite acceptable.

The hotel Premiere Classe is really quite nice and is as advertised in the centre of Nimes. I left my bike in a storeroom downstairs (I am on the third floor) and after a shower went off to explore the centre of Nimes. Helpfully a lot of the centre is narrow pedestrianised streets which radiate from "la place des Arenes" the Roman Arena.

It is stunning and incredibly well preserved but I just wasn't up for another tour of a fairly identical Roman Arena. Instead I ambled around the narrow streets watching what seemed to be mostly locals shopping and prancing in the squares. Cameras and glances at the buildings were scarcely in evidence. I waited in vain for about 15 minutes to ask a tourist to take my picture in front of l'Arene. However there must be lots of tourist because the hotel was full.

Tomorrow I will head for Montpellier and depending on what I find  in terms of hotels and weather and tourist friendliness, I may stay for two days, or head for a day in Sete, a town that holds  very mixed memories and which I would like to revisit.
The trip so far   has been great and I am almost sorry that it is drawing to a close but also scared to anticipate the finishing line, too soon,  which is still about 200 kms away. At the height of its strength today I doubt if I could have cycled more than 50 km against the wind in the whole of the day.  
I thought about school today for the first time.The song "Animal" from the album of the same name by Ke$ha came through my i pod's headphones and I couldn't help but think of KT and Dana dancing to that track in "Kettle's got Talent." They were robbed! I hope they are doing better in their new and more important competition - secondary school.  I hope that "the box" hasn't arrived yet but that it arrives reasonably soon so that you can all get this monkey off your backs.
I am having difficulty uploading pictures to blogger. I am not sure what the problem is but i will add pictures just as soon as they are accepted.