the quiet sleepers had a peaceful night - until the churchbells, mairie bells, cow bells and 1st if May parade bells announced that a new day was to be expected. Excellent breakfast (hotel le Siecle in Mazan - very comfortable!). We ventured out once we had been promised that the polar bears and the wolves had been captured. It was VERY nippy - our hostess who took our photo had to be dragged from her warm kitchen to do the honours! Once we had bypassed the May 1st bands and joggers our Garmins then sent us off - the wrong way and an hour later we were back where we started! Off again - the wind was strong and cold - the Cypress trees seemed to suffer from Peyronie's disease (look it up) but fortunately pointing towards our destination. The forecast for the windy giant (none of us!) was red alert and we instead followed excellent cyclectracks eastwards and very iften upwards - interspersed with rocky sections that would even scare off a lunar landing module! Stopped for a good lunch in Apt (..... named!) followed by long climbs in the afternoon sunshine - in total we climbed 1175 metres by the time we reached Manosque - I had had enough and we all decided that the booked hotel would suit us!
All our bikes have behaved well although the winds made descending tricky.
After the obligatory clothes wash we headed into yown - dead as a churchyard! The local population must have celebrated so much that they have gone into hibernation - and I cannot blame them- it is b.... Cold! My evening outfit involved very long sox and espadrilles - will it catch on? My excuse is that whereas my companions brought long warm gear I brought shorts- and on me they are never long! After a so-so Pizza / burger ( no waitresses worth mentioning) home to warm-up under cover!!
Tomorrow we aim for St Tropez and St Raphael - unless snow has closed the roads! No heatwave in sight - another mulled wine anyone??
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