Winter’s last gasp, summer’s first
	Push against headwinds and climb hills along Spain’s north coast
	One pretty fishing town after another beckons
	Sorry officer, we didn’t mean to ride on that road
	Finally, France, no winds, fewer hills
	Lourdes a place for money and pilgrimage
	Carcasonne, a picture perfect castle that is almost all artificial
	Wonderful museums in Avignon hold fabulous treasures

San Sebastion, SP to Biarritz, Fr

June 9 to June 12

San Sebastian, fortunately, proved to be a very pleasant town.  What first impressed us was just how bike friendly the town is.  Head down to the tourist information office, ask for a bike map, and they will hand you a town map that shows probably a good 50 km of bike paths, existing and planned.  Bikers and bike paths crisscross all of town but especially along the shoreline.  The beautiful half-moon bay is lined its entire length with a bike path completely separate from both the road and the pedestrian way.  The cute little bike stop lights were particularly amusing.  We were delighted to see this as it would make getting across the city a lot easier when we left on Monday morning.

The old town of San Sebastian is a nice grid work of narrow lanes bordered by 16th century buildings all located out on a peninsula that is punctuated by the statue of the Virgin topped hill.  Chic restaurants and shops line these streets.  But there is the usual interesting church to visit as well as a fairly well done municipal museum.  As it was Sunday we could visit for free.  We also wanted to visit the naval museum, but with Sunday's early closing hours, we simply didn't have time.

So after wandering the streets and eating lunch, we contented ourselves with a wander along the beach walkway watching the Sunday bathers all packed like sardines, side-by-side lying out in the sun to fry.  Brian found the "top optional" attitude of some of the local women quite interesting.  I just wondered how these women kept themselves from ending up with thoroughly toasted and roasted titties.  I just know if I attempted to expose my all too sun sensitive skin areas for more than 15 minutes I'd be hurtin for certain the next day.  Uh uh.  Not for me.

Monday morning was our last day and ride in Spain.  It was too bad it had to be a difficult one.  The maps we had showed only a red road and a highway going north.  Red roads are almost busy and bikes aren't allowed on the highways.  So we had to spend several hours dodging traffic and trucks as we slowly made way north.  This was the kind of nightmare type riding that all bike tourists dread.  It's practically impossible to avoid this type of ride entirely, but we do try to minimize it as much as possible.

Traffic certainly didn't decrease after crossing the border and riding conditions didn't improve either. However, we did notice a rather subtle change in the towns, beyond signs suddenly being in French rather than Spanish.  Coastal Spanish towns seem to be very compact.  In their centers they have many 4 to 5 storey apartment buildings.  Often they're not particularly attractive.  Riding through these towns feels a little like riding along the bottom of a canyon.  But, that's Spanish culture.  They tend to like to congregate in the small confines of city centers.

France, on the other hand, tends to have more sprawling cities.  If you look at the square area of the city of Biarritz on a map and compare it with San Sebastian you'd think it's was 2 to 3 times the size.  It is, but only in area.  In population it's less than 1/2 the size.  The French go more for individual houses spread out of a large area, much like the US. In the Basque region of southwest France these houses are usually covered in brilliant white stucco with bright red, blue, or green shutters.  It's rare to see houses with more than 3 floors and far more usual to see just 2.  For this reason it seemed like we were riding through one constant residential area for the over 20 km from the border to the campground in Biarritz.  It did feel like the residential area in a small town rather than a city.  Definitely a different kind of city environment than we found in Spain.

The other thing we noticed was the plethora of supermarkets and hypermarkets.  In Spain these are far and few between.  Towns of a fairly good size where you'd expect to find large supermarkets still have just these very small markets having a limited variety of foods.  This was perhaps one of the things we found most frustrating about Spain.  When you ride lots of miles in a day, you really want to find a good market within easy walking distance of the campground so you can get a good meal. This just doesn't apply to Spain.

Hypermarkets in France, on the other hand, were an absolute delight.  Whereas a hipermercado in Spain or anywhere in Latin America may have 1/4 filled with actual food items, the French markets are fully 1/2 if not more food aisles.  The variety and quality is astounding.  You could spend a lifetime sampling all the different cheeses, meats, and pastries.  Even the variety of canned goods was amazing.  We quickly went through a sampling of some of the local specialties.  The wine aisles were a delight as well.  We've never seen such a huge selection and every market has this.  It would be so much fun to have a camper so we could spend months sampling all the great food fare found in just a single hypermarche.  It's easy to see why France is known for gourmands.

Our first stop in France was the beach resort of Biarritz.  This is a very picturesque, former small fishing village that sits on the rocky cliffs overlooking the sea.  There are several small beaches both north and south of the town.  But it appears that the Fishermen were more attracted to the safety of the main inlet right in the center of town.  Today, not much of that original fishing village remains.  It's mostly modern hotels, restaurants, and residential areas.  If you want to see the old Basque architecture with the white stucco houses and brightly painted shutters, you'd need to go to one of the other nearby towns.

Taking a day off, we decided to visit the small aquarium.  We wanted to see just what kind of fishes those fishermen of old were hauling in.  Much to our surprise, the fish of the Bay of Biscay are really quite plain.  There are the usual eels, sting rays, star fish, sea horses, and normal fish ranging from tiny to huge.  But, they are pretty much all just plain brown or silver.  We didn't see any flash of blue, green, red, or yellow.  Really, quite boring.

Yet even the display of stuffed birds on the third floor revealed little color.  Nearly all the local bird species are plain browns and yellows.  Only a few have a little blue/green in their plumage.  There's no red cardinal, blue jay, nor even robin.  You can see why the colorful feathers of tropical birds have always been so popular. It seems most other birds are kind of dull.

Perhaps the most fun exhibit was the seals.  This little aquarium seems quite proud of the fact that for the first time in 25 years of operation they finally had the successful live birth of a seal pup.  Evidently when they had a previous male seal, all its pups died at birth.  With their new, 5 year old stud, Charlie, they just got their first pup.  Now they are, of course, expecting old Charlie will do the same over and over again.

Southwest Pyrenee Country

Biarritz, Fr to Lourdes, Fr

June 13 to June 18

To continue heading north along the Atlantic seaboard would have meant entering the top vacation season for all of Europe right when we were in the middle of the top tourist destination.  Also, it was getting hot.  And we wanted to add another leg onto our eventual connected route from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the eastern continent.  So we decided to head east toward the Mediterranean.  First there was the traverse of the foothills of the Pyrenees to complete.

We headed out early in the morning, fought our way through city traffic, made several turn around runs as roads turned from bikes allowed to no bikes, and finally found our way to the south shore of the river.  From here to Pau (rhymes with so) and on to Lourdes we'd be following the rivers which, for the first time in weeks, would mean flat riding.  It would have been a great day of riding had Brian not been sick.  Some salad dressing we were trying to use was giving him a bunch of trouble.

This is a river that has seen boat traffic for hundreds of years.  Consequently there are lots of beautiful old chateaus tucked in among the trees here and there.  Some were in excellent condition.  Some were completely abandoned and left to crumble.  It was a treat to round a corner and spy another chateau every now and again.

Two days of riding with an upset stomach was too much for Brian.  By the time we got to Pau, he was good and ready to stop until such time as his tummy decided to settle down.  Needless to say he was not in a very good mood when we arrived at the one campground in Pau we knew about only to find that it was closed for entire 2006 season.  We had no idea what to do.  According t the very limited campground guide book we had, the nearest site was a good 8 km away.  There was no way Brian was going that far.  But, as we had discovered, that guide book was very limited and often there were far more campgrounds around than indicated.  So maybe, just maybe there was another around.  The only problem was to find someone to ask as there seemed to be nobody around.

To our rescue came a gypsy.  That's right.  A gypsy with his son in a white van had just stopped by to check in on a band of his peers parked who were parked a nearby field.  When we asked if he knew of another camping in town, not only did he say there was one, but he was headed there right now.  He'd been staying there for the previous 5 days while he completed a painting job.  From there he would head up to Paris and then on to the mountains.  So we stuffed the bikes into the back of his van and soon we were off to the Pau municipal camping.

Unfortunately as far as campgrounds go, this was not one of your better ones.  The bathrooms were clean, but the sites were awful.  The ones in the shade were just dirt.  There was only a bit of sun.  It was right on the corner of two busy roads.  And not only was this gypsy living there, there were several others.  To top it off, that night after we'd gotten all set up, it started to rain.  It poured and poured all night long all the while splashing mud up onto the sides of the tent. By morning, we were still dry but the tent was filthy.  We wound up spending hours the next day cleaning off the mud and washing the zippers.  Add to that the strange people living there, one of whom demanded that I cut his hair after finishing Brian’s, and it all added up to a not very pleasant place to stay.  Had Brian not been sick, we would have left immediately.  But he did need a place to get back to normal and it did suffice, just barely.

By the next day we were so anxious to get out of this campground, we didn't even go to visit any of the few tourist sites there are in town.  Rather we packed and pushed on to Pau's far more famous neighbor, Lourdes.

Lourdes is perhaps the most important pilgrimage site in all of Europe, maybe second only to Rome.  And it is all about water.  I remember seeing an old 1950s or so movie, shown annually around Christmas, that went through a complete and probably overly theatrical recreation of the apparition that appeared to a young girl named Bernadette.  According to the story this young, country girl was approached by an apparition of the Virgin Mary.  This saintly ghost directed her to a holy place where she was to find a spring than was supposed to have miraculous healing powers.  Of course these healing powers would only work on other people and not on her or the 2 other children accompanying her.  She would die at the age of 35 and the two others much younger.

Naturally with this spring spewing out and endless supply of magical waters and with miraculous cures happening every so often, this seemingly innocuous pool of water soon became a major destination for all those seeking remedies for all sorts of incurable illnesses.  The definition of incurable has inevitably changed over the centuries and the number of miracle cures has declined dramatically. The last fully documented and authenticated miracle happening nearly 20 years ago in 1987.  But people still come to Lourdes, by the millions each and every year.

Lourdes has grown from that small, farm village of Bernadette's day into one monstrous and really strange city.  It can be extremely depressing and repulsive all at the same time.  Upon entering the Rue de la Grotte your senses of sight and sound are immediately hit smack on by a barrage of the most touristy, tacky junk imaginable.  Show after shop after shop house displays of Lady of Lourdes plastic trinkets that overflow and spill out onto the sidewalks.  Most popular are plastic bottles bearing the lady of Lourdes logo. Various sizes for various wallets and suitcase sizes, from gallon to 2 ounce.  People port these bottles down to the fountains at the main cathedral to be filled and taken home as a souvenir, or maybe to give to a family member or friend back home.  These shops go on for about 1 km all the way to the entrance to the holy site.  There they sit, even right across the street.  It's tackydom at its utmost.

Once you work your way past the plastic tack salesmen and get through the gates to the holy shrine you find a locale that could be a very nice, peaceful religious setting.  That is if it weren't for the hordes of visitors.  In fact, in winter when visitors are slim and half the town shuts down, it must be rather pleasant.  But, by early June the crowds have begun to descend.  We were amazed at the crush of humanity we found and it wasn't even July yet.  Thousands upon thousands must cram into this park like setting each and every day in August.  In fact, the largest of the church assembly halls, a super ugly underground bomb shelter type arrangement was built in the 1960s to fit 20,000 worshipers and we wouldn't be at all surprised if it fills to overflowing.

Many of the people coming to Lourdes are the very sick or invalid all seeking, hoping for, praying for that once in a gazillion miracle cure.  Aids, mostly women, wearing white shirts, light blue skirts, and light blue scarves with some sort of pin emblem on their shirts are assigned the task of helping these miracle seekers.  They push wheel chairs.  Or they pull these overgrown red flyer wagon things arranged to allow the sick to sit.  Once in a while a very, very sick person is wheeled along in a full hospital style bed.  They’re given water to drink, pass through a huge evening procession, and even can partake of a large bath.  So many come hoping for that improbable cure.  Just imagine the disappointment for those that really do believe they'll be that one special person.  It's likely their one last hope smashed to smithereens.

The site of Lourdes inside the gate is a large, park like environment bisected by a flowing river.  On one side is the main temple that gets all the photographic attention.  A chapel topped with a golden crown is approached by two graceful arching stairways.  Three chapels sit one atop the other.  The lowest one was the largest and probably has the nicest interior.  Each of its side apses is covered with a beautiful, bright, and colorful mosaic representation of part of Christ's life story.  Needless to say, camera flashes are going off continuously.  The two upper chapels seem to be in descending size and splendor.  It was tough enough getting into the top, smallest one in June.  It's probably impossible in August except at perhaps midnight.

Beyond this main temple you find a lot of other unusual features.  In the middle of the plaza there is a huge box stuffed full of long white candles with blue wax for about 3 inches on the bottom.  These candles come in a wide range of sizes, and correspondingly prices, ranging from about 1 inch diameter to the huge 20 kg super, duper and expensive granddaddy of them all.  Yet despite the high cost of even the smallest, something like 2.50 E each, they come pouring out of the box often 2, 3, even 4 at a time.  Huge boxes full of supplies stand at the ready, day and night.

The spring itself remains within a small cave like grotto, the source inaccessible to the tourist.  Rather its waters have been piped to a series of faucets arranged in a large semicircle.  Yet even at this low season, it was still hard to get in.  Beyond the cave are sheds for burning all those candles.  They come complete with a full time candle attendant who cleans up the drippings and makes sure each candle is burned to its full extent.

Beyond the candle sheds are the baths.  Rows upon rows of seats are arranged outside for the long lines of bathers.

On the opposite side of the river is a large pavilion where the many priests and assistants gather for the daily procession into the bomb shelter.  When we visited this procession must have gone on for over an hour.  In August it must last for hours on end.  Just the procession of wheel chair patients last seemingly forever.  All the while the priests chant and sing in a multiple of languages.

All in all it's a rather amazing site to behold.  But what really bothered us was the feeling that here was an entire city whose main reason for existence was to take advantage of people who were desperately seeking aid.  Hit them when they're down so to speak.  It’s far too commercialized.

Canal du Midi

Lourdes, Fr to Carcasonne, Fr

June 19 to June 23

Upon leaving Lourdes we wanted to head for the Canal du Midi yet at the same time avoid going into the huge metropolis of Toulouse.  Toulouse is one of France's largest industrial centers.  Airbus manufacturing is based there.  It's one gigantic city through which we had no desire to ride.  Had we been coming from the Bourdeaux area we could have ridden the Canal du Midi paved bicycle path straight through.  But, we were in the wrong direction.  So we had to negotiate a route that went a long distance around the city.

Toulouse sits at the intersection of several rivers as well as the canals.  We were coming in from the south west along one river. The Canal du Midi headed out of Toulouse toward the southeast.  We needed to span the angle between the two rivers on a straight path going through the hills.  So we headed out along some of the small white roads and immediately discovered why the main roads follow the rivers so closely.  These white roads can be mighty steep.  We had to struggle up each and every one, making full use of every gear we had on the bikes.  Add to that the fact that it was hot and really humid and you have one difficult ride.  We were beginning to really look forward to the flat riding of the Canal.

France is full of canals, some 9000 km worth.  It seems that anyplace there was water and a relatively flat countryside, they built a canal.  The Canal du midi was built in the 1600s to provide a much shorter path from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.  The Canal du Midi goes from the Mediterranean to Toulouse and the Canal Garonne continues onward.  Up until the French revolution it was a private concern being held by the descendents of Paul Riquet, a tax collector who saw to it that the canal was built.  It then became a part state, part private concern.  Eventually the government turned the entire thing over to private railroad company who decided not to upgrade it to more modern standards.  Instead cargo transportation was done by a newly constructed railroad.

Today the Canal du Midi is a fully functioning waterway used mainly for pleasure boats.  There are boat rental companies all along the canal so that you can rent one at one place, spend a week or so going to another, and leave it there.  There are also people on ocean going boats just passing through.  We saw a lot of dismasted sailboats passing through.  What we found most interesting are the live aboard canal goers.  Now there's an unusual lifestyle.

Just as many folks give up the live of a fixed, permanent house to live in an RV, there are many people who opt for a canal boat.  Often these boats are some of the original cargo canal boats built decades ago and continually modified for new uses.  Some are quite large, probably a good 60 ft long.  These people spend all summer and probably some winters just cruising up one canal and down another.  Many of these live-aboards seem to be from English speaking countries, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia.  We spoke with one couple who'd been canaling for 9 years.  They just motor from one site to another.

It's an intriguing lifestyle.  You can dock for free pretty much anywhere you want.  You always go through some of the oldest towns and often by some of the major tourist attractions.  Even Paris is accessible.  It's obviously a very relaxed life as you just can't be in a hurry.  It takes a long time to get through each lock and the locks only operate at certain times of day.  The main thing that wouldn't interest us is the fact that you're stuck to the flatlands.  There's no mountain climbing with one of these things.

The Cana l du Midi is an engineering work of wonder in itself.  It goes some 245 km from end to end.  It has over 100 locks.  Usually the locks come as one or a pair.  There are quite a few triples and even rarer are the quads.  But, the biggest tourist draw of them all is the 9 lock set at Beziers.  Getting through this set takes a lot of time and muscle.

The process of locking through really is a two person job.  One person keeps the engine going as the pressure of the water flowing into or out of the lock wants to move the boat about.  The second person has to go ashore to man the lines.  It takes quite a bit of muscle strength to keep the boat from shifting back or forward.  It's not such a problem if you are the only boat in the lock.  It's a tricky business when the lock is full.  Needless to say, locking through can cause a lot of marital arguments.

Much of the length of the canal is shaded by these gigantic plane trees.  These were planted 300 years ago and now actually achieve the purpose for which they were intended, a fully shaded tow path.  The canal passes through several very old towns that built up specifically around this major transportation corridor.  Today these old canal towns are more tourist attractions.  Each set of locks still has a fully maintained lock house complete with lock keeper.  Signs posted on the house give distance to the next lock in either direction.  In between locks and towns the canal passes through farm lands usually filled with grape vines.  Off the canal it is open and hot.  On the canal it's a bit of shady heaven although, it can sometimes be incredibly noisy.  The sound of the crickets is so loud it's nearly deafening.

One of the old cities visited by the canal is Carcasonne.  On a hill overlooking the city is an impressive walled city affectionately called La Cite.  In the 18th century this medieval fortress seemed to be destined for the brick junkyard.  It was a crumbling walled slum that the city fathers concluded was an eyesore and hazard.  They chose to tear it all down.  To the rescue came the controversial restorer Violet le Duc.  He's is considered controversial because his idea of "restoration" often meant making major "improvements" rather than trying to rebuild the original.  Evidently he had a hand in creating the Notre Dame we see today.

As a result of Violet's actions only the lower ramparts of la Cite are original. The higher walls were rebuilt and most of the 52 towers we re topped with extremely steep witch hat tile roofs.  It gives the entire structure a rather fairy castle effect, the kind of thing you'd see at Disneyland.  Yet, from the outside it really is impressive.  And had it not been for Violet's intervention, Carcasonne would probably be just a small farm town to this day.

Within the impressive walls of la Cite you find a tourist land that can easily turn into a nightmare in the peak August season.  We were there in June and even then the streets were quite crowded.  We just couldn't imagine tryin g to squeeze between the crowds later in the summer.  There are only a few permanent residents living within the rampart walls.  The rest of the buildings are filled with all sorts of tourist trinket shops, restaurants, hotels, and a few really forgettable museums.  This is a site that lives and dies by the tourist trade.  We had to wonder what visiting in the middle of winter would be like.  We guessed it would be a lot like Rhodes, no tourists, shops all closed, and everything in a sort of eerie time stopped moment.  It'd be nice to return at that time of year someday.

Mediterranean Coast

Carcasonne, Fr to Avignon, Fr

June 24 to June 28

From Carcasonne we had just a couple more days on the canal before reaching the Mediterranean.  The tow path continued along pretty much uninterrupted all the way to Beziers, although it's condition varied drastically from one section to the next.  Beziers was a rather dumpy city that we were perfectly content to skip.  It was at the sea side resort of Agde that we finally once again hit water.  So now we had a route extending from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.  It may take us years to finish the connection to the Pacific, but at least part one is done.

We headed northeast along the shore passing through one seaside resort after another.  This was a section of France that we'd ridden some 15 years earlier.  We always recall that we found this area rather ugly and uninteresting compared to more northern France.  Our second time through simply confirmed our first impression.  Still, thousands of French flock to these beaches every summer.  We, on the other hand, were more than anxious to head over to the Alps.  They are higher, cooler, and hopefully less packed in summer.

The city of Grande Motte on the coast is a particularly strange place. It was purpose built in the 1960s as France's b id to attract some of the tourists who were flocking to Spain.  Of course it was a "planned" city that in reality doesn't work all that well.  The streets are laid out in a rectangular grid, but many of the blocks have no continuation.  Getting from one part of town to another usually requires an odd zigzag route and a lot of backtracking.  There is one area where all the campgrounds are clustered, 1 or 2 streets with all the restaurants, and just a couple of shopping centers.

What was truly strange was the architecture of the buildings.  Imagine taking the top half of a cruise ship, sticking it on the ground, and calling it a hotel. Imagine an entire town filled with these "cruise ship" style buildings.  They're all white, have odd shaped profiles, and have balconies that have the rounded effect of portholes.  Not just one is like that.  That would be tolerable.  The entire city is filled with these monstrosities.  The place was so ugly we didn't even have the heart to take a picture. Why break a perfectly good camera.

While in Grande Motte we decided to crash a party.  We really did.  Some bank was having some celebration right out on the sidewalk.  At the end of all the perfunctory speeches, food was served.  We have no idea what the festivities were about.  We just knew there were no bouncers at the front.  So we waltzed right on in.  We dined on canapés, egg rolls, a couple of plates of muscles, and even champagne.   We would have liked to have stayed for dessert, but the grocery store was about to close and we needed to get breakfast supplies.  Yup, those banks sure now how to put on a good party.

A hot sweltering ride the next day took us through the Carmargue.  These sandy, swampy lands are the river delta of the mighty Rhone River which extends all the way to northern France and beyond.  The Carmargue is divided into rectangular plots of land where they raise rice or bulls.  Some of those big black bovines are destined for the bull fight ring at the town of Arles during their annual bull fight festival.  Yes, bull fighting and bull killing are not just a passion of Spain.  The region is trying to promote eco tourism.  You can take a jeep safari or rent a bike in Arles and follow one of the many cycle routes.  All in all, we just found the area hot, humid, bug ridden, flat, and boring.  Thankfully it was only a one day ride across.

We had a one night stop near the town of Arles.  We had chosen to come through Arles rather than swing further north mainly because they had some old Roman ruins that we hadn't seen before.  Specifically there were the skeletal remains of a theater and a reasonable stadium. Other than that, we weren't too excited about the town.  For some reason we just found that these lower Rhone cities from Avignon south and west not very interesting.

Avignon, on the other hand, is a city well worth a stop.  It's just one day's ride north of Arles along the Rhone River, yet it seems almost a world apart.  Avignon is a major tourist destination because of the beautiful castle and well preserved city wall.  The castle actually was once the seat of the catholic religion.  During period of unrest in Rome the pope's moved their headquarters to Avignon.  With this came an influx of many of the church's powerful and the city grew in both size and opulence.  The Pope's palace is a wonder to behold, especially at night from across the river.

Avignon is full of museums, including the one inside the Pope's Palace, although that particular museum is extraordinarily expensive.  Rather than spend the money on that one which is intended primarily to showcase the castle itself, we decided to concentrate a little on art and archeology for a much more reasonable cost.

The Musee de Calvet has two separate sections in two completely different buildings.  One, the Musee de Lapidarie, houses a whole bunch of artifacts from the Greeks, Romans, Asians, and middle ages.  There are statues, pots, daily use artifacts, jewelry, etc.  Some in fantastic condition, such as the carving of a boat full of amphora being towed upstream and the clear blue vase in unbroken condition.  Other items take a bit of imagination to figure out what they were.  Best of all are the descriptions, in well translated English, that give all sorts of detail information on the daily lives and belief systems of the cultures.  The museum is housed in a beautifully restored former school chapel which adds even more to the visit.  Unfortunately the museum isn't air conditioned and on this particularly hot day even the inside of this old church was still somewhat stifling.

The main part of the Calvet museum houses mostly paintings from the 16th century on.  Many of the works seem to be from the Netherlands and Flemish schools.  We got a kick out of the works by Joseph Buerger and his sons which show typical Flemish activities in a particularly amusing manner.  The wedding scene and the street party are both full of interesting bits of activity.  It's a bit like the Naive art of today.  You need to spend time working your way around the painting just to pick up some of the strange oddities it contains.

However, none of the paintings came even close to the one done by the master, Peter Paul Rubens.  It's a portrait of an unknown, but obviously aristocratic young woman.  She's wearing a black dress with a gold embroidered bodice trimmed by delicate lace.  She holds a beaded rosary in her hands.  What truly is amazing is how the artist manages to take various hues of yellow, orange, and gold and make it look like pure gold.  Or how he took the slightest wisps of white paint and produced what appears to be nearly transparent lace.  The skin tones were superb.  And her eyes appear to follow you wherever you move.  It's a painting that manages to produce a nearly 3 dimensional effect that not even a modern photo can get.  It's so clear why he is today considered one of the masters.  It's just too bad modern artists don't bother to produce such amazing works.

Museums in Avignon made the 2 day stop here well worth the time.

Appendix A - Route

Spain

May 28 - Route N550 through Ordes to Meson, backroads to Betanzos, beach route through Mino to Pontedeume, 76.57 km

May 29 - N651 through Cabanas, N642 through Abad, Felgosas Ortigueira, Espasante, 74.18km

May 30 - N642 through Viveiro, Xove, Cervo, Burela, Cangas, to Foz, 68.89 km

May 31 - N634 through Ribadeo, Navia, to Puerto de Vega, 66.42 km

June 1 - N634 through Luarco, N632 to Cudillero, 53.3 km

June 2 -N632 and A-8 through Aviles, N632 and back road to Gijon, A-8 and N 632 to turn off to Quintes, 72.02 km

June 3 - Backroads to Villaviciosa, N632 through Colunga to Ribadesella, 62.13 km

June 4 - AS 263 to Llanes, N632 to San Vincente del Barguero, 71.3 km

June 5 - AS 263 through Comillas and Santillana to Queveda, 37.13 km

June 6 - CA 131 and N 611 through Oruna, CA 240 through Escobedo and Revilla, N634 through Astillero, Solares, Hoznayo, Anero, Ambrosero, Gama, Calindres, Laredo, Orinon,to Islares, 84.01 km

June 7 - N634 to Bilbao, lost in Bilbao, various roads to Sopelana, 80.54 km

June 9 - BI-634 through Mungia, Bi-2121 to Gernika, BI 633 to Lekeitio, BI-638 to Mutriku, 79.35 km

June 10- BI 634 through Deba to N-634, through Zumaia, Getaria, Zarautz, Orio, to N1 to San Sebastion, 59.6 km

France

June 12 - N1 to Irun, N-10 through St. Jean De Luz and Bidart, NB11to Biarritz, 55.57 km<BR>

June 15 - City roads through Anglet and Bayonne, D261 through Hastingues, Peyrehorade, backroads through St Crico du Gave, Lahontan to Belloca, N117 to Orthez, 85.19 km

June 16 - N117 to Gouze, backroads to Arance and Abidos, N117 to D33 and D2 through Laroin to Pau, 51.52 km

June 18 - D937and D938 to Lourdes, 56.82 km

June 19 - D937 to Montgaillard, D28 and D120 to Cieutat, D938 to Mauvezin, Capvern, La Barthe de Neste, Tuzaguet, Aneres, St. Laurent de Neste, Mazeres de Nestem N117 to st Gaudens, N117, 75.2 km

June 20 - N117 to St. Martory, and Boussens, D10to Cazeres and Carbonne, D73 to Peyssies, 68.16 km

June 21 - D48 to D298 to Capens, D622 to D74 Through Beaumont sur Leze and Lagardelle sur Leze to Vernet, D19 through Venereque to St. Leon, D38 to Ayguesvives, Canal du Midi to Avignonet - Lauragais, 83.3 km

June 22 - Canal du Midi to Carcasonne, 74.56 km

June 24 - Canal du Midi to La Redorte,back roads to Pepieux, 45.80 km

June 25 - Backroads to La Redorte, Canal du Midi to Capestang, 58.45 km

June 26 - Canal du Midi through Beziers, Vias, to Agde, 52.39 km

June 27 - N112 to Frontignan, Bike path along D114 to Vic-la-Gardiole,  Frontage road to Villeneuve-des Maguelone, Bike path to Les Quatre Vents and Palavas-les-Flots, D62 and D59 through Carnon-Plage to La Grande Motte, 77.70km

June 28 - D58 to Grau du Roi, D979 to Aigues Mortes,D58 to D179 to St. Gilles, N72 to D37 to backroad to Arles, 70.46 km

June 29 - D35 to Tarascon, D81 to D2 to Villeneuve les Avignon, 49.37 km

Appendix B - Campsites

Spain

May 28 - Camping Ber Door, Pontedeume (11.37E/night)

May 29 -Roadside rest stop north of Espasante

May 30 - Camping San Rafael, Foz (10E/night)

May 31 - Camping La Ancla, Puerto de Vega (10 E/night)

June 1 - Camping Amuravela, Cudillero (14.70 E/night)

June 2 - Camping Playa de Espana, Quintes (12.70 E/night)

June 3 - Camping Ribadesella, Ribadesella (14.55 E/night)

June 4 - Camping El Rosal, San Vincente del Barquero (11.82 E/night)

June 5 - Camping Altimar, Queveda, (11.10 E/night)

June 6 - Camping Arenillas, Isleras, (15.41E/night)

June 7, 8 - Camping Sopelana, Sopelana, (15.66 E/night)

June 9 - Camping Aritzeta, Mutriku (11.25E/night)

June 10, 11 - Camping Igueldo, San Sebastian (12.40 E/night)

France

June 12, 13, 14 -Camping Biarritz, Biarritz (15.40 E/night)

June 15 - Municipal camping La Source, Orthez, (7.40E/night)

June 16, 17 - Municipal camping Pau, (11.50 E/night)

June 18 - Camping Ruisieu Blanc, Lourdes, (7.50E/night)

June 19 - Camping Municipal Belvediere, (9.30 E/night)

June 20 - Municipal Camping Peysies,(10.50 E/night)

June 21 - Aire Natural Municipale, Avignonet Lauragais, (7.70 E/night)

June 22, 23 - Campeola de la Cite, (14.30E/night)

June 24 - Municipal Camping Pepieux, (6.90 E/night)

June 25 - Municipal camping Le Tounel at Capestang, (9.00 E/night)

June 26 - Camping Pipiniero, Grau de Agde, (9.60 E/night)

June 27 - Camping La Petite Motte, Grande Motte, (14.75 E/night)

June 28 - Camping Des Rosiers, (17.00 E/night, dump)

References

Lonely Planet Spain Guide

Lonely Planet France Guide