France by Bicycle | PART 20: ADVENTURES ALONG THE MED

A fabulous sunrise over Cap d’Agde and a breakfast on the terrace looking over the Mediterranean starts our day. We spend a bit of time on the beach, dipping our toes in the water and enjoying the sun before we go back to the hotel for our bikes and luggage. Then we follow the seaside path to Sète, latticed with canals and lovely architecture. A good part of the afternoon is spent in the sand, at the local beach. In the morning we leave the city, along lovely natural parks and marshes and waterways, where to our delight we discover flamingos, in abundance and on full display. What a treat! We find a pleasant beach to enjoy before resuming our trip eastward, through the bizarre and delightful resort of La Grande Motte with its unique architecture and sixties vibe. Then we reach Le Grau du Roi, finding a nice beachfront hotel and a satisfying Italian meal. Tomorrow we head inland to the Rhone and Arles.

Music:

Accordion and Glockenspiel Comedy – JK Productions
Pond Five
081716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-com
a href=”https://www.pond5.com/royalty-free-music/item/81716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-comedy-short-version”Stock Music/a provided by JK_Production, from a href=“https://www.pond5.com/”Pond5/a

The Nymphaeum Part III – Angelwing
https://www.freemusicpublicdomain.com/royalty-free-new-age-music/

Parisian Cafe – Aaron Kenny
YouTube-AudioLibrary

A Pinch of Salt – Headlund
Epidemic Sound

Affectionate Writing – Howard Harper-Barnes
Epidemic Sound

Two Birds – Stafan Carlen
Epidemic Sound

French Connection – Medite
Epidemic Sound

Flamingos how cool is that we’re looking at flamingos Oh little breakfast with the people boy that is just gorgeous what a great way to wake up huh We made it to the Mediterranean baby for the footsteps sitting on a Mediterranean enjoying the morning such a beautiful beach in the morning we had the hotel hold our luggage so we could take a walk along the beach we knew that our time on the Mediterranean would be short and not

Knowing when we would ever be back to these Shores we savored that bracing energy that salt water and Tides have upon the human spirit We got on our bikes and begin the short ride along the coast to set All right good morning baby good morning baby how you doing I’m doing okay are we filming each other yes we are well it’s not morning because we had a 12 o’clock checkout and we used our time to hang out at the beach hold on a minute and uh it’s a very relaxing morning it’s a great morning Good morning we uh we got a short day today because we really want to kind of spend a little time in this section here we’re going to set which is maybe 15 miles away it’s all on this Trail eventually it’s going to follow the ocean but for right now it’s just kind of

Going through some low lands yeah so we’re gonna have another Beach day today this afternoon had a nice night kind of a lousy dinner tourist dinner overpriced tourist dinner I would say Of a bag out of the freezer and I don’t know keep the quality at an expensive price so it was kind of a shame the muscles were good but the prawns were way over cut met a real nice guy that was sitting across the table

From us a local and who actually had a good restaurant and said this place is crap for food we’re friends and he says my place is great I was like oh it’s too bad we didn’t find your place yeah there weren’t many places open it’s a tourist

Area there just wasn’t a whole lot left it’s all tourist stuff the staff at the hotel was amazing they were so friendly and so helpful it’s getting a nice they upgraded our room so we had a balcony view overlooking the Mediterranean so thanks Hotel conch Grand conc worked out very very well

Another windy day looks like we heard really good things about this Trail between haghdad and set but so far just along the highway but I think it’s going to get better here pretty soon back close to the uh Mediterranean again that’ll be nice it’s been a bit of a boring ride so far Thank you riding in the sea oh wait I guess it goes this way you want to stop no it’s all right tail what do you think of this day baby beautiful day isn’t it gorgeous got the breeze going but it’s a nice Ocean Breeze kind of cooling

It’s always nice to just be like I wouldn’t mind just hanging out by the beach today let’s do it foreign It’s kind of amazing how many of these cyclists just look so grumpy yeah first of all they got the wind at their back so quit your bitching and I don’t know what you got to be unhappy about you’re on a bike on the Mediterranean not everybody’s happy and

On vacation and retired like us that’s why you have to be kind to everyone just be kind even when that’s right Coming into scent The trail was smooth and direct and soon we were in the city of set we rode alongside the Azure Waters of the Mediterranean until a route led us Inland and Into the Heart of the City This is A place is fabulous set Is known as the Venice of language the Eastern Terminus of the canal do midi and many canals crisscross the city we explored the town a bit then headed for plaj de lazarray a local Beach and enjoy the warm afternoon sun and the sand in our toes before retreating to

Our hotel on the outskirts of town And set spent a beautiful day here today [Laughter] In the morning a route led us back into the beautiful Santa Fe and then we fought our way out of town negotiating the waterways and bottleneck traffic soon enough we found our way to the outskirts of town good morning from the industrial armpit of set France It’s not that bad set’s a very pretty city very nice had a wonderful time beautiful beach this boy really nice sand yeah they’re marvelous food was marginal seems like more south than we get in France the worse the food is yeah for some reason food really yeah

But our restaurant tour told us that it’d be a little not great ride for a little while this morning and then we would start to see flamingos so with any luck we’ll have some flamingos to show you uh oh we got a detour come under your hand

Hopefully we can figure our way around this one but uh yeah set has been a very pretty City full of canals but we’re moving on following the coast got another day to close oh there’s the route right there so it’s on to uh some City on the Mediterranean and then

Tomorrow we’ll cut it kind of Inland along the kamark to uh Aura so slowly making our way into another chapter of our trip how you feeling this morning babe good awesome more arrested than yesterday yeah good right I assume Flamingos how cool is that we’re looking at flamingos exquisite Foreign I think there’s some more flamingos up here on the left or on the right yep I see him Billy see the red wings oh these beautiful birds are known as the greater Flamingo the largest species of flamingo found in Africa India the Middle East and here in southern Europe

During breeding season they are more showy with their vibrant pink feathers at other times they’re lighter in color as these were I hope you all can see that because that is gorgeous just watching all those flamingos just beautiful what a cool display I love it here this is their natural habitat

Southern France and I suppose Africa too their name comes from Spanish or Portuguese and it means flame colored and a group of flamingos is known as a flamboyance oh [Laughter] Yeah circle around foreign [Applause] Path this is riding through this National Park protected area whatever it is lets you see the flamingos and lovely forest and totally protected paths so you can completely focus on the ride it’s lovely a lot of the times you’re next to the road but it’s not a problem

Just a really nice job here ponies Maybe it’s mustard See the bike route signs but I don’t know what bike route we’re on we’re on the Mediterranean route or you need to stop at one of these and take a look oh here’s some ponies right up here hey Buddies All right here we go [Applause] we are on eurovilo 17 which is the Via Ron and euroville 8 which is the Mediterranean will be on the road for a long time are we on the road now yeah apparently it starts over here so yeah neat good to know What kind of birds are you foreign today even when they put us onto a road busy road I was on a little side bike path separated it’s great a lot of bike tours today hardly any bike tours through here wear helmets it’s remarkable hardly any cyclists wear helmets I think they look

At us and be like airsome Americans right there always worried about their Noggin Southern coast there were more people more cars more traffic and more congestion the price of having a tourist draw that everybody wants to be a part of thankfully the bike trails did an excellent job of keeping us off the busy roads sure is better being on the bike trail [Applause]

Dog beach everyone can bring their dogs the dogs are having a great time [Applause] after cooling our feet in the water we continued on to our evening stop lagraw the wall the ride was quiet and Serene along the beach along the way we came upon one of those

Little surprises that you sometimes get when bike touring the seaside resort of La Grant Mont we go this way developed by architect Jean belladur in the 60s and 70s it was inspired by Mayan pyramids and the modernist architecture of Brazil are those ships over there no they’re building

It’s one of France’s most popular Seaside Retreats and in my eyes the whole resort was in turns impressive comical creative and just plain fun strange looking architecture a lovely little Easter egg in Our Endless hunt for adventure yeah some of the craziest architecture I’ve ever seen which is everywhere all right let’s see

If we can get through here hmm Dang you know we are staying like two miles up the road three miles up the road had I known this town was this funky and so strange I would have definitely wanted to stay here this is really neat but you just never know these things you know have to look into

This figure out what the story is on this town it must have been like designed by a bunch of Architects or something so cool it’s just really different in every way even the parks We left Legrand mod behind and headed for our hotel which faced the sea along a wide Esplanade of palm trees Cute tiny little elevator that’s special it is and you open the door that’s how it works with the dining in these Resort towns so consistently disappointing we are fortunate to find a good old Italian restaurant we happily carved up for our mornings ride tomorrow we reach the final stretch of

Our adventure the Rhone river Mediterranean the hospital