{"id":548,"date":"2015-08-26T17:29:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T22:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/rickpress\/?p=548"},"modified":"2024-06-17T18:56:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T22:56:39","slug":"awe-and-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/awe-and-shock\/","title":{"rendered":"Awe and Shock"},"content":{"rendered":"

I (along with thousands of other people) chose a poor vantage point last night. The fireworks celebrating the liberation of Avignon looked more like bright lights behind a tree. I moved around a bit and improved things slightly, but the display was intended for the other side of the Rhone.<\/p>\n

The campground in Avignon had dedicated camp sites, but no grass; packing up muddy things frustrates me. I also left behind most of a big tube of toothpaste, and 10 (of my 20) trashbags – things I had bought but wasn’t going to carry. I still managed to leave by 9 am, with a lot to do and a long way to go.<\/p>\n

Having a decent map for this part of France, I spent most of the trip to Nimes navigating by paper map, as much to remind myself I could as anything. The climb out of the Rhone valley proved a recurring investment in elevation, with little return until the end of the day. I also managed to find road construction which had wiped out my intended path. I wandered through the area of construction, and after multiple paths, carried my bike across a field to get back to functional road (carried to avoid driving over a thorn bush).<\/p>\n

My path around France takes me through Nimes, but I had another reason to go there, that didn’t include Nimes being the origin of denim and Levi’s 501s. The ampitheatre in Orange sold me a combined ticket to also view the colliseum in Nimes (and other site in Nimes). Somehow I entered Nimes the same way I enter everywhere – the wrong way on one-way streets. Finding my way to Tourist Information, I turned around to see the coliseum. Wow.<\/p>\n

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The only remaining intact Roman coliseum, built 2,000 years ago. The audio tour did a great job. Besides the original purpose, the coliseum has since serves as a fortress, a walled city, and a prison. Restoration efforts finally removed everything back to the coliseum state. Wandering the halls where Romans also wandered, and standing in the center of the coliseum where gladiators fought. <\/p>\n

After that, I visited the Roman temple Maison Carre, also from the same time frame. After that I visited the Roman Gardens, with the Temple of Diana and the Tour Magne (the Roman guard\/watch tower). Today I found impact after impact on my sense of history. <\/p>\n

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54 kilometers to Nimes, and a full day of tourist. Instead of leaving Nimes at 2 pm as I expected, I didn’t rush, and at 4 pm I had another 60 km to Montpelier. The last time I made that big a jump on this trip (because of a missing campground), I added 40 km to the day at 4 pm. I had a well-defined cycle path, and a gradual grade. Today I knew my uphill wasn’t over, and I would have to find my own way. <\/p>\n

I met a couple of Canadian cyclists at Tourist Information in Nimes who pointed out a green way that ran about 8 km west of Nimes. That green way worked out; I made great time, over 24 kph, until forced to leave it for the remainder of my path to Montpelier. After that I navigated city to city, arriving in Montpelier by 7:30 pm and checking into the hostel. <\/p>\n

While I walked to several tourist sites, scouting things out for tomorrow, I will forever remember Montpelier as the city of restaurants. The street scene around the hostel bustles with street cafes. <\/p>\n

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I (along with thousands of other people) chose a poor vantage point last night. The fireworks celebrating the liberation of Avignon looked more like bright lights behind a tree. I moved around a bit and improved things slightly, but the display was intended for the other side of the Rhone. The campground in Avignon had … Continue reading “Awe and Shock”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3927,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions\/3927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}