2015-10-08 : Leaving Saint Emilion .. Heading home
Today we are packing up and cycling from here to Bordeaux and on to the airport hotel. We ended up staying here in Saint Emilion for our last few days mostly because it was impossible to find a hotel in Bordeaux .. but we could find a reasonable apartment here in S Em. .. with the bonus of being able to do a ride or two in the vineyards .. glad we did as it was a nice location and we had some very nice meals here too!
Our ride into Bordeaux will be along the Roger Lapebie bike trail which is all paved and, last time we took it, it was very quiet and down hill all the way into downtown Bordeaux.
Highlights of our trip have to be the Alps and our week in Saint Jean de Maurienne, wonderful rides out of Sault in the Mont Ventoux area and our trek across the midi from Gaillac area to Saint Emilion .. Where we managed a number of three day stays and great day rides (unloaded!).
We managed to stay in many Chambre d'hotes and as a result we met a lot of very interesting people .. so fortunate to be able to manage in French .. Marion had a blast!
From a technical view, we have to say our navigation and on-the-fly route creation with our Garmin edge 810, Nexus smart phone (using Osmand) and file transfers via an OTG dongle worked fabulously! Doug .. its time to upgrade!
Last but not least was the ability to keep in touch with all our friends and especially the surprise lunch we managed with Jean and John!
Next trip we need to make sure we spend more time with friends as this is what we missed about this trip .. although in reflection it was a fabulous trip and so many people would see what we just did as an adventure of a life time .. and so do we .. we just like to repeat repeat repeat as long and as for many years as we can!
We hope you enjoyed seeing our pictures and tracking our progress .. and we look forward to catching up with all of you soon!
