Living the Life of Luxury: We've arrived at the house where we will be staying for the next week and we are definitely going to be living the high life! This house is amazing! It is a newly refurbished, expanded farm house that sits in the middle of a vineyard. There is a huge pool with an outdoor kitchen where we have breakfast everyday, an indoor kitchen where Tom & Cherie have hired a chef to come in and cook Provencal specialties for us in the evening, mu...

The Blue Marble bike trip ends today in Aix-en-Provence. This means saying goodbye to old friends Nicolas, Richard, and Rich and new friend Kara. It also means saying hello to friends Kelly and Steve (aka Killer) who are joining us for our chateau stay in the vineyards of the Rhone. Not nearly enough time in Aix. It's a beautiful, bustling town full of students, art (home of Cezanne), book stores (Cherie could spend a month here) and restaurants of every ethnic ...

One of the joys of cycling in France are the town markets. One day a week, the main street in town fills with small booths selling everything from antiques, to produce to socks! Today we rode through Lourmarin on market day. I've been to many of these markets over the years, but this one really stands out. There was a wide variety of items and everthing seemed of very high quality. There was none of the flea market feel that I've had in other markets. So when co...

For the non-foodies in the group this may be a bore, but when in France, food is très importante! Nicolas has friends near Buoux who have a very interesting garden. Jean-Luc is the gardener and his wife Joelle is the cook. Jean-Luc is something of a leader in France's bio-diversity movement. He was concerned that so few varieties of fruits and vegetables were being grown. Every farmer grew the exact same variety of tomato or potato, even though there are dozens...

Provence Hilltop Towns: Today was spent cruising through the hilltop towns of Provence. This is the land of Peter Mayle and "A Year in Provence". His books were set in the towns we rode through today - Oppède; Menerbes, Bonnieux. The riding would have been easy if it weren't for every town being on top of a damn hill. But of course there are two paybacks for a ride up - spectacular views and a great downhill afterward. One negative note for today. I e...