25/04/15 Day 39, Saturday, ANZAC Day, Rest Day in Brignoles, France. Rain in morning. Jenny & I had decided on a day off, in part because it's ANZAC day, but also we were a bit fatigued.
We caught up on washing, had a small look around Brignoles, which seems to be off the tourist radar. Heaps of laying around blogging, researching our route and surfing the net.
Washing day again, 3rd Laundromat in the last 6 weeks, things get a bit wiffy at times.
Washings Soooo Boring, Old Town, Brignoles France.
Main Old Town Square, Brignoles.
Lazy arvo at the Hotel Le Provence, where to next Brains, Brignoles
View out of our Brignoles Hotel room.
Jen & I later went out for dinner at a Moroccan Restaurant called Aladdin's, the owner/manager was an absolute crack ! He is running us through the menu and describing the food with his very limited English. He gets up to the Lamb section look at us and goes Baarrrr ! Next beef, moo, moo. Then chicken, yes you guessed it bok, bok, I'm starting to think we are at Old McDonalds Farm. Really was a fun night, food was great, we ate and drank heaps for only 60€. (We would pay well over a $100AUD for similar at home).
What a day, we experienced lots of emotional highs & some lows. Plus physical ones ascents were 480mtrs & descents 475mtrs (according to Google Maps). We said our Merci's & Aurivour's to our most excellent Hotel Owners, they were great. Grabbed Yellow Dawg & Black Betty out of the garage then tried to find our way out of yet another medium size french town, usually a difficult task.
Ok I'm ready to hit the road, it's going to be a great day, hey Jenny !
DavoGPS did not fail to let us down and proceeded to find us the most challenging route out of Brignoles. We knew he was having a lend of us when after 3kms we were lifting one fully loaded bike at a time over strategically placed large 400kg granite rocks across the road (no pics of that, to busy doing grunt work). If only we knew what the little electronic bastard had in store for us later in the day ! That was gaff one...
Finally found our way out of town, thanks for the extra workout DavoGPS, Onya !
We followed all the road routes stated above, there were some other cyclists out enjoying the mild weather also some Boy Racers driving a new Nissan GTS Skyline, newish Ferrari, new Chevy Corvette and older model Porche 911 went zooming past in a very fast convey, wish we'd had a chance to photograph that !
The Fast & Furious cars escaped our camera, but old yellow Citreon couldn't get away.
Lovely weir. Le Caramy. Nice....
Whoops down loaded the wrong selfie on the weir bridge.
The riding was just so good, hardly any traffic, the scenery & environment were fantastic. This is the France, Jenny & I dreamed of seeing ! Mountain views, streams with historic bridges, old villages with church bells ringing as we cruised through and so much more. Look there were some hills, but the down hills were heaps of fun. Finally after a pretty quick 27kms we rolled into Le Thoronet & stopped at the Patisserie which had a cool pic of Freddy Mercury baking Pain (French bread to Aussies). We ate our fill then continued on.
See on the wall, a picture of Freddy Mercury baking Pain...LOL
Davo GPS gaff number two: Dave gets us riding along a Chemin (French country single lane, usually bitumised with pot holes) this one goes for a fair way, maybe 4kms up hill, then there is a nice steep down hill run for a kilometre. At the bottom Davo wants us to turn right onto a Piste ( French gravel/dirt/rocky track) this one looks ok and after consulting the maps it appears to link up with a highway after 4.5kms. We do about 500mtrs and it's so isolated we decide it's a good opportunity to take a "piss" so we both do our biz and ride on.
Two kilometres later riding pretty slow with flash backs of our Munda Biddi Adventure we arrived at an old rock bridge crossing a clear stream. We stopped on the bridge, you could see ducks & fish below...wow !
4kms along & up the Chemin, now for the down hill...yippee let the fun begin.
No on the Piste, a bit reminiscent of Western Australia's, Munda Biddi.
Immediately after the bridge the Piste deteriorated to an eroded uphill 4WD track that would severely challenge our Landcruiser. Do we retrace our path back about 7kms and go a different way or take a gamble the track will become rideable or at least stay walkable and push on for another 2 to 2.5kms to the highway.
It is 2pm we are surrounded by France's version of bush ( spiky, prickly plants) on the side of a cliff. What would you do ???
How old is this bridge, out in the middle of no where.
Oh shit, this could end badly.
This hurts Willsie, "Beam Me Up Scotty"
Sshhuuss I can hear something Jen. Oh it's just the groaning of Straya Animals.
Well Team wiljen continue on, the track doesn't improve, it is ankle breaking stuff, some sections almost appear to be like an ancient cobbled road clinging to the side of the mountain. Jenny does a stoic job and after walking, lifting, dragging our precious bikes through this for 40 minutes we finally reach a Farm House and then not much further the D562 Highway, we only are 5kms from Draguignan.
We stop in the town centre of Draguignan (another medium size French town pop. 38000 ) We are about to eat our Pain & Chiritzo when 3 teenage girls engage us in conversation. They were very curious, one of them "Emilie" spoke some high school English, Lyly some School Spanish & Andrea, French. So it was an interesting hour, Jen & I picked up a couple of new French words & had a bit of a laugh. Thanks Girls.
Emilie, Andrea & Lyly, the girls must have been bored because they quizzed us for an hour about Australia and our cycle adventure.
Then they insistered they take a picture of us, thanks Girls.
Now it's 4pm, the weather is going to turn bad, heaps of rain coming. Jen & I decide we'll spend two nights at the Campground 3kms away in a bungalow & wait for a better weather window.
Davo's Gaff No.3: takes us the long way, up hills & into a dead end...FU Dave!
Madam Google provides some relief but still was a temperamental bitch that made us ride along a BMX track. As you can imagine Jenny was seething.
Finally at 5pm we arrive at the campground on the outskirts of Draguignan. We don't have a booking, I'm dying for a wizz & my back teeth are floating. The Reception is closed, though the sign say it should be open. After a lot of hassle I find Jon-Luc the "unpaid" caretaker, he says the boss/owner is away and unless we have a booking we can't stay until tomorrow, once the owner returns. To be honest Jon-Luc tried his best, he rung & did what he could. I even offered him hush money for just one night but no luck with Jon-Luc.
I still badly needed a wee so before departing I decided to head over to the nearby campground bar which appeared to be hosting a private party. All I wanted was a quick pee people, I was busting ! I drifted past the party people through the bar, Past the table with the remains of their 2pm banquet on it, I was nearly at Shangri-La and this older women starts screaming at me in French, I charade the urgency of my issue but she won't let me pass to the toilet and continues screaming at me to get out of the Bar, I'm guessing.
Beaten I head out the main door with everyone looking at me, I cross past the boom gates, Jenny is busy trying to find some alternative digs for the night & I just go over to the fence and piss on it with my back to the Party Crowd....aarrhh that's better, "hey Jen, I think it's time we make a move".
So where did we end up you are wondering, well about 2 more kays away there was this roadside motel on the main drag out of Draguignan on the way to Grasse, it is self serve place where I gather salesmen, overnighters, prostitutes, unfaithful spouses & touring cyclists stay. Put your credit card in the machine, it spits out a key card to a room and Bob's your Uncle, you have a room for the night, no questions asked. FYI the room is actually ok & Jen cooked up some dinner out the back. Catchya Later !
We arrive at the Motel Stimulate (real name to be kept secret) & I notice this Ducati parked in the disabled spot...I wonder what the disability is, small ????
This is reception, a robot serves you, takes your cash & spits out a key...cool I think.
The Love Shack ? Not tonight .
Jenny cooking up a storm, just outside our room, Sausage, Tomato & Rice. Bon.
Bloody fab, fab, fab! At least you can wee in the bushes in France....as for Kansas? Not a tree in sight!
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