Cycling from Tarascon, France to Arles, France

From Tarascon to Arles it is only a short way, about 20km, and a nice white road, the D35 right into Arles. It was Saturday and the town was out shopping. On the way there was a computer store that showed the way to logon to CompuServe with the France 800 number. Up until then I had the number, but couldn't log in. Typical of CompuServe, their web site gave the number, but no logon instructions, so I was calling to the Netherlands number.

The hostel was closed until 5, so I had a good lunch at the Cafeteria Casino and a short tour of the old town. The Mistral was still roaring. The repas that night at the hostel was pea soup, stuffed cabbage with fromage d'chevre and a banana for dessert. At breakfast I met 2 Germans, Joachim and Timothy, from Fulda, near Frankfurt. They helped me repair a blister in one of my tires and we ended up having a nice 83km tour that day down to the Mediterranean at Stes. Maries-de- la-Mer, taking the D570 and the D85a down to the beach. It was the first time I had seen the Mediterranean since 1973 and it was as blue as ever.

After a rest and a picnic at the beach we headed back and, fortunately for us, the Mistral calmed down quite a bit. We made a speedy ride in both directions, so I was pretty tired on getting back. No repas at the hostel that night (the group of students had left), so I went again to the Cafeteria Casino with Miguel, another German of Indonesian family. He had a great menu at 29FF, but I went for the tagliatelle and rouge. Afterwards, we all played with the email and shared some more wine.