Aix en Provence to Pontevès

It was forecast to rain today with potential storms, but we managed to miss it all. The rain fell in Aix as we awoke but had cleared by the time we left. We cycled below Mont Saint Victoire along the Route de Cezanne. 

It was a great, although hilly, ride and, as it was Monday, there were few cars on the road. We had the mountain beside us for quite a while and could hardly believe we were on the top of it yesterday.

The grape harvest has now started and as we passed through one village they were offloading the grapes. We could smell the yeasty aroma as we cycled past.

 We kept to very minor roads until we had to join the DN7 into St. Maximin la Sainte Baume where we had an uncomfortable last few km into town along a narrow cycle strip with huge lorries and fast cars whizing by. The sky in the north was looking very black and we could see it raining in the distance. As we turned north towards Barjols the sky darkened even more and we could see lightening flashes and heard it thunder. Fortunately it passed from east to west and by the time we reached our chambre d'hôte in Pontevès it had gone. The last stretch of the cycle was beautiful as we passed through forest with limestone outcrops. It also had hills and hairpin bends but we are used to them by now. We had time to look around Pontevès before dinner and it had an authentic, not too touristy, hilltop town with the remains of an old castle. The views were pretty good and we could see over the vineyards to the mountains in the distance.

There is still plenty of cloud about but the focast for tomorrow is sunny.