Road Climber: N2A - day 5 - Rest day (Gordes).

In addition to today being a rest day, it is also Bastille Day. Known in France as "La Fete Federale" or "Quartorze Juillet", it celebrates the 1790 Fete de la Federation held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, symbolic for the uprising of the modern nation. I'm told festivities are held all over France to celebrate the day.

The camping ground we are staying in has a very good pool and, in addition to doing some washing and visiting the village and local tourists spots, some of my fellow riders plan to make full use of the pool. It is worth mentioning here that men are required to wear "budgie smugglers", boardies are absolutely not allowed. We were warned about this requirement before leaving Australia. While some didn't believe this could be correct, they found it was most definitely correct when they tried to wear them into the pool - they were "turfed out!" Apparently it has something to do with cleanliness. Boardies can be worn as shorts and not just used for swimming.

I did a bit of washing and then headed for the village to look around. The camping ground is about 2km out of Gordes and we learnt there was a track we could take that would avoid the road. I didn't have a clear route and managed to miss a turn and ended up walking further than necessary on yet another very hot day.

Gordes as stated yesterday is a very beautiful village. I'm told it is one of the most well-known villages in the region, and one of the most beautiful in France. The pictures recorded below will not do the village justice and I suggest you get on the internet to view it.

Gordes is built on the foothills of the Monts of Vaucluse, facing the Luberon. Its houses and buildings of white stone root themselves into the sharp cliff of the mountain, and has a labyrinth of "calcades" (narrow cobblestone streets). A castle and church dominate the village. The castle, rebuilt in 1525 already existed in 1031. It is well preserved and carefully restored and "brings together the architecture of the troubled medieval period with new ways of the Renaissance". My first view of Gordes as I rode up the hill towards it was absolutely breathtaking.

Gordes, as you can imagine, is very much a tourist town - they were everywhere. However, I couldn't find an ATM anywhere. I sought the advice of a kind lady in the local Tabac shop which seem to be everywhere. Tabac shops are licenced to sell tobacco products and also sell newspapers, telephone cards and postage stamps, etc. Even when she gave me directions to where a machine was located it was not very obvious.

After taking a good look around Gordes and having lunch I made my way back to camp for a fairly relaxed afternoon. The walk back to camp was very much uphill. The previous day we had a very long uphill ride into Gordes and up to the camping ground. Turning into the camping ground the road pitched up even more steeply; one of the riders said it was 16% on his device. As you can imagine eveyone just loved this "sting in the tail" after riding in very hot weather and facing the constantly blowing mistral after lunch. Notwithstanding, I thought it had been a fantastic day.

Luke and I walked back into Gordes for dinner and had our first bad experience of service.

Tomorrow is the first of the well known big mountain rides, Mont Ventoux, known as: "The Beast of Provence", "The Giant of Provence" or "The Bald Mountain".

The mistral had not stopped blowing since we encountered it yesterday afternoon and if it is too strong on the mountain, we will not be able to ride it. The last 6 kilometres of the ride are totally exposed. The Mont Ventoux stage of the Tour de France had to be shortened last year due to the fierceness of the wind. That was the stage Chris Froome picked up the bike and ran with it.