Ride in the sunshine along the French Riviera: Hyères, Borme les Mimoses and meeting with Denis and Michel for a salad lunch on the front at Le Lavandou.
Continuing the road movie with a photo stop at Snack Popeye on Plage Gigaro at the village of La Croix Valmer. These little beaches are pretty much deserted at this time of the year and the storms haven't yet wreacked damage. Some more roads, hills, cliffs and plenty of curves then a stop for coffee and tea portside at Les Marines de Cogolin, just across the channel from Port Grimaud.

Read more: St. Tropez sunset

A fine day’s riding in mid-November. Putting together two favourite routes gave a full day’s riding - more than one tank of fuel. A day riding fully-focussed on the road and the ride, shutting out any thoughts about the various projects that I have in hand back at home in the UK.
Out from Marseille on the road to Toulon via the southern flanks of the Sainte Baume massif, passing the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet, then through the pine forest - that’s not a straight road. Moving on, more curves and the Roman town of St. Maximin and over the rocky ridge - some hairpins and more bends but stupendous views nearing the crest - to the lower gorge of the river Verdon. A pause for reflections and rider to bike bonding (in the style of VR46) by the side of the lake at Quinson and a chat with some hikers setting off on a path exploring the lower gorge of the Verdon; then up some more hairpin bends to ride the long straight roads over the Plateau of Valensole (my photo is meant to be in the style of a road movie); then Esparron, site of a previous GLME camp hosted by AMA, with its fine castle and a famous Domaine Naturiste in a secluded valley with its own beach.

Read more: Quinson - Esparron - Vinon

Impossible to visit Arles without thinking of it as a pilgrimage to the temple of conceptual photography. Herewith a sofa scene from a courtyard not far from the École Supérieur de la Photographie; also nearby, a convolvulus twines its vines up a villa, in this town this plant produces blue or white flowers and is cultivated; in the UK this is bindweed and the enemy of all gardeners. Here they honour a thing of beauty out of what would be a weed elsewhere; one could think of it as a metaphor for conceptual photography, the cause célèbre of Arles.
Out in the Camargue, the simple immensity of the Rhône delta is hard to understand, this river that brings at least a third of the water down from the Alps, the less-celebrated partner of the Rhine and the Danube. There are numerous water channels, shallow lakes frequented by wild birds, migrants and residents. Far away are the last of the mountains as Provence meets the Mediterranean.

Read more: Arles & the Camargue

Chalet Reynard, Mt. Ventoux, these days known mostly to cyclists, trail runners and walkers. Forty years ago and mostly annually before then, this modest cafe was one of the principal viewing points for a major motorsport event, La course de côte du Mont Ventoux (Mont Ventoux Hill Climb), the race to the summit of Ventoux, in the format of a time trial ie TT. First run in 1902, the roads were unsealed and the winning time over the 21½ km course up from the village of Bédoin (alt. 256 m.) to the summit of Mt. Ventoux (1908 m.) was 27 mins 17 sec.

Read more: Mont Ventoux Hill Climb