Day 1 Arles to St Remy de Provence

No sign of the bags this morning so we just packed up what we have and set off for St Remy de Provence. 
We had a short stop to sort out some local cyclist who had broken his chain then headed up over the Alpiles where we spent a couple of hours looking round the castle at Baux de Provence.

Then down the other side of the Alpiles and in to St Remy for an excellent meal at a wee restaurant called Le Forge, but not before Sandra managed to buy her third dress in 2 days!
A short day cycling today, only about 21 miles which on top of the 12 we did yesterday makes about 33 in total. 
Having missed a days biking yesterday we'll need to rejig our route for the next few days.

Today's route http://www.strava.com/routes/947204

The bikes have turned up!

Unfortunately no sign of our panniers yet.

Back into the airport this morning to find the bikes had arrived safe and well. However there is still no sign of our other panniers.  We each still have one missing.  I should be ok as long as the weather stays good as it is mainly my bad weather gear which is missing along with our stove and cooking gear ( I didn't think there was much chance of us doing much cooking anyway) Sandra on the other hand is missing a fair bit of stuff including some clothes, her biking shoes  and, apparently most important, her makeup!

Anyway, we got the train into Arles today. This had always been our plan since the roads around Marseilles airport look pretty dodgy for cycling.  There was a fantastic market in Arles when we arrived and we spent the afternoon shopping for essentials such as toiletries, puncture repair kits and dresses ( I didn't bother with a new dress for myself).  We also made a few unsuccessful calls to try to track down our bags.

This evening we went back into Arles for a wander round the old part of town and ended up in their Arena, a mini Coloseum, for a "Roman Spectaculaire" which was pretty cheesy apart from the short course chariot racing which was quite impressive.

Tomorrow we'll try to call and see if there is any info on the missing bags, but if not we'll just hit the road with what we have.

We're off! (Sort of)

For this year's tour (these seem to have become annual events), the plan is to fly to Marseille, tour round Provence and fly home from Nice two weeks later.  The intention is to do a bit less cycling than last years trip and spend some more time seeing the sights and enjoying the French food and drink.
We got dropped off at Glasgow airport this morning in plenty of time, packed up the bikes and checked in fairly easily with just a minor hold up getting the bikes put through outsize baggage. However, when transferring flights at Heathrow the phone chargers, spare batteries, bike tools and pedals in my panniers aroused the interest of the x- Ray machine operator and prompted a wee search of my hand luggage.  This was fair enough until they detected traces of explosives!  Luckily ( despite Sandra turning red and sweaty and looking generally guilty), rechecking everything and answering a few questions was enough to sort things out without the need for any rubber gloves.
We have now arrived in Marseille where our plan is to spend the night at one of the airport hotels before heading off on the bikes tomorrow.  This is just as well as there is no sign of our bikes or the 2 panniers we checked in as hold luggage.  BA reckon the bikes are still in  London and are due out on the next flight, but no one seems to have much of a clue where the panniers are.
Oh well...I'd better just have another beer and see what happens. Cheers!