Riding the storm

Arles, Provence, France
Sunday, July 1, 2012

I can't tell you how wonderful the last two days have been and I am sad to leave Mike and Christine and their pleasant little village. They have been excellent company and wonderful hosts. Unfortunately I have to leave as they have more guests arriving and this is doubly tragic as the weather forecast is for a storm passing through the area.

I set off east hoping that I could perhaps meet and ride through the storm (which is heading west) and then get some clearer weather the other side. No such luck.

I was only 10 minutes into the ride when I stopped for petrol and the black clouds warned me to don my wet weather gear immediately. 5 minutes later it was bucketing down and it did not let up for the next two hours.

Henry's right indicator cancel switch has packed it in so it takes a bit of fiddling to turn off the blinkers. I stopped using them on roundabouts as the French drivers ignore them anyway. As it is Sunday, there are no trucks allowed on the roads and it would have been a good day to clock up some miles. But it was slippery and miserable so I called it a day at Arles and checked into an Etap hotel at 2pm and then frittered the afternoon away on the net.

7pm: still raining.