Sudden end of the road

Sometimes unexpected things make us to change or stop our course. Just early this morning, after the publishing of the last post we've received some not very good news from home, so after spending 129 hours and 46 minutes on the bikes and doing 1885km we are now finishing our travel.

After tomorrow we will catch a train and will soon (hopefully) be back in Slovenia. After all we did a respectful distance for two beginners and we have touched the Atlantic for the first time. We have met so many nice people willing to help us and we now have many stories to tell.

Thus, we have to notify all the people in France that we contacted trough HC and WS and have not reached yet that we will not be able to visit you. Thanks to all of you anyway. You have been a great support. Maybe one day we could return to France and visit you then.

We also want to say thank you to all those people who stood by our side and gave us moral support throughout this voyage. We also feel homesick so we will be very happy to see our family and friends again. Anyway we have been travelling since September 2006 when we started our EVS volunteering in Slovakia and to be honest we could settle down a bit now.

We are sure we will do more travels again but until then we will just be happy to help other travellers who intend to come to Slovenia. We would really like to give them back the same positive energy that we received on this travel. Also we want to invite all the special people we have met so far to come and be our guests, especially those who have been giving us the best of their hospitality. COME TO SLOVENIA!!!

At the end of this travel we can add this: THANK YOU FRANCE, THANK YOU FRENCH PEOPLE! YOU ARE GREAT AND WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN! THANK YOU HOSPITALITY CLUB AND THANK YOU WARMSHOWERS!

The map, finally refreshed!

Here is what we have done so far!



Enlarge the map

From Toulouse to the Atlantic

Oh, gosh! It is so hard to keep up to all the exciting things that happened in the last week! We also have to apologize to our Slovenian friends who do not speak English, because it is hard in such a short time to do both, English and Slovenian texts.

Despite the bad weather, which even helps us making extraordinary pictures, we are really enjoying our time. All the credit goes to the amazing people we have met (Joel, we dedicated some text for you but we still have to translate it, so it will be published a bit later...).

I (Aleksander) also got sick before yesterday, but today I recovered and tomorrow we will go on towards La Rochelle, but stoping first in St. Savinien.

We are also a bit sad we cannot share all our feelings in order to keep the texts short enough. Hopefully we will be able to translate bit by bit the rest.

Right now we are being hosted by Jean-Pierre and Eleanor, a lovely couple from Saintes, a town not so far from the Atlantic, so today, guess what... WE SAW THE ATLANTIC FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! But let's go trough the pictures in the proper order.


Here we are still in Toulouse. We wanted to show our friend Sebastien, a marvelous person who has been hosting us for 5 days!!! He is the one who went from Toulouse to Gibraltar on his Recumbent bike. Sebastistien... very nice memories back in toulouse! Eating, playing the guitar, singing, listening to Eddie Vedder... Sebastien you are the man!!! See you in Slovenia or in Spain? :)

Azra is showing to Sebastien our cat Cofka on the phone... you would never guess, wouldn't you? :)


The cheese really does smell bad...


...but hey, it is worth trying it...


...and it tastes really good!!!

Then Sebastien made us a "typical French food" - tortilla!!! :) So after this joke we realized we discovered a new term - SPENCH FOOD! :)


Here is the real French food - cassoulet.


Me, Azra, Sebastien and his recumbent.


Me trying it. IT WAS HARD!!!


Leaving Toulouse.


We had a nice storm in Montauban.


Meeting with Leo, a passionate cyclist who came to meet us in Montauban and escorted us the next day to St. Maurin, where he is living with his wife. Leo recently just returned from Cuba which he saw from his bike and now he will go to North America West to the East coast!!! Thank you Leo and "bonne route" to you in America!!!


Here is another lovely family that was hosting us in Montauban!


Sebastien who accepted us trough the WarmShowers website also did some very nice travels with his bike.


Here are some pictures.





A loud tradition. :) We just cought those masked students 100 days before the main exams while warming up with a nice hot chocolate.







I asked the lady why she does not want to reply to my questions about local architecture and she just sat there, doing her stuff as if I did not exist!!! How rude of her!



Reaching Leo's home. A wonderful and peaceful region.


Some more slopes...






Next day.






Camping wild next to the vineyards. The owner Gerard and his douther cought us while pitching the tent, but as you will see, we soon became friends and he would leave us alone... with the dears... :) He asked us if we are not afraid that the animals will eat us during the night. :) We tried to show him our gratitude and we tried to scare the dears off the vineyards, so they would not be able to destroy the vines.


Before leaving the next morning.



We were heading towards Cognac where Sophie, our next Hospitality club host was waiting for us. But Ludovic, her boyfriend cought us accidentally on the road, just 13km before the town. We've loaded his car with our bags and equiped with Ludovic's GPS found our way directly to their house. :)




Ludovic is a cook who told us many interesting stories about his life in Paris and his close connection to the "Buddha Bar" trade name, but most of all we enjoyed eating the food he made. He also invited us to his parent's restaurant where he works as a chef. We were full of delicious food.

BTW, if you need to know anything about Cognac (the drink and the city), you just contact Sophie. :) Sophie was also sooo kind to us. She went with Azra to see the doctor, she helped me at the post office when I was sending the stuff at home and at their house we felt more than comfortable! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts again!




Here we are: Sophie, Ludovic, me, Azra. THANK YOU GUYS!!!


And here we are today in St. Palais, where we had our first real contact with the Atlantic sea. Eleanor and Jean-Pierre took us with the car to a wonderfull trip we really enjoyed, despite the not perfect weather. Anyway, the experience was still great, because the landscape and the light were perfect for great photos and the company of Eleanor and Jean-Pierre was great! they accepted us in their house trough hospitality club and really helped us. I was a bit sick the last two days and they let us stay in their house untill I got better. So, here I am, feeling good and publishing this.

Enjoy the last few photos and we will get back to you soon.













Dear Eleanor and Jean Pierre, thank you so much for everything! We hope it is not the last time we see eachother and that we will be able to be as good host to you as you were to us!

Link exchange with TouristClick travel guides

Ok my friends! I received an interesting offer for a link exchange from the authors of the website TourictClick, so here is one useful link you could use while (or before) travelling:



I thought this might be a very good link exchange.

Etang de Vic, Canal du Midi, Toulouse

Ok since there is not enough time and we cannot keep up with all the mew photos, here we give you some of them which we had to put on long before. Also we will add and translate the text in Slovenian some other time!

After leaving Joel and Montpellier, here is what we came across.





French cheese and the start of the Canal du Midi in Beziers.
















We met a nice English couple, living on a boat on the Canal du Midi.


A nice family we met in Lezignan-Corbiere. We had a nice talk.


Toulouse!






















We already have so many new pictures that it will be hard to keep up with, but we will do our best!

"Mira la Bici" / "Look at the bike"

Preden karkoli objaviva, sva se odločila da vam najprej predstaviva najinega trenutnega gostitelja Sebastiena v Tolouse-u. Ne bova ga opisovala z besedami, ker je to že storil sam na svojem spletnem mestu in vam bova raje ponudila nekaj povezav, ki vas bodo zagotovo pritegnile, če je v vas vsaj malo popotnika.

Meniva da si je vredno ogledati foto-video predstavitev, ki jo opremil s primerno glasbo. Tako se lahko kot opazovalec za dobrih 12 minut (v treh epizodah) popolnoma zatopite v svet kakor ga vidi popotniški kolesar. Na svoji lanski poti od Toulouse-a do Gibraltarja je Sebastien ujel te čudovite posnetke: VIDEO TOULOUSE - GIBRALTAR.

Lahko si tudi ogledate njegovo spletno mesto, ki pa je žal samo v Francoščini tukaj.

Kakorkoli že, slike so čudovite.


READ THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION BELOW

Before we go on and publish other stuff, we decided to present Sebastien, our current host in Toulouse. We won't describe him with words, because he already did it by himself on his web site. Rather than doing that we will give you a couple of links which will for sure attract you if there is at least a bit of a traveller inside you.

We think it is worth looking at the photo-video slide-show to which he added very nice and proper music. In this way you can, for good 12 minutes (in three episodes) wonder off into a world as it's seen by a cyclist-traveller. On his last year travel from Toulouse to Gibraltar Sebastien cought these wonderfoul shots: VIDEO TOULOUSE - GIBRALTAR.

You can also check his web site which is only in French here.

However, the pictures are amazing.

Najina pot / Our trail

Agrandir le plan

Ansouis - Lansargues - Montpellier

Spet se oglašava, tokrat iz hiše dveh čudovitih oseb, ki naju gostita čisto po golem naključju! Malo več o temu kasneje, ko bo kaj več časa, saj bi se komentarju teh dveh oseb rada popolnoma posvetila ker si to zaslužita. Za sedaj bi vama rada samo predslavila pot od Ansouisa do Montpellierja.

Here we are again, this time from a house of two wonderful people that are hosting us by pure coincidence. More about this later when there will be more time, because we really want to dadicate them time and a good comment. They really diserve it. For now we would only like to present you the road from Ansouis to Montpellier.

Smo še vedno v Provansi, v krasni, mirni vasi Ansouis, katere zgodovina sega najmanj 10. stoletje, ko je bil zgrajen dvorec. Ulice so izjemno strnjene, mirne in v zavetju pred pogosto aktivnim vetrom.

We are still in Provance, in a beautiful and peaceful village Ansouis of which the history reaches at least the 10th century when the chateau was built. The streets are really narrow, peaceful and in a shelter from the wind.

Skozi zanimivo sotesko preko hribov Luberona, na poti iz Ansouisa proti Bonnieuxu in dalje proti Avignonu.

Going trough an interesting gorge, over the Luberon hills, on the way from Ansouis to Bonnieux and on to Avignon.

Na severni strani kolesarske trase "Tour du Luberon". Po nasvetih Bernharda in glede na najino smer sva se odločila pustiti južno stran trase in se usmeriti proti severni, proti Avignonu, ki ga ne gre izpustiti. Na spodnji sliki se lepo vidi Bonnieux, če me spomin ne vara.

On the north side of the cycling path Tour du Luberon. Bernhard advised us to take the north part of the road towards Avignon that we could not miss to see, so we decided not to go on the southern part as we first planned and followed his advice. If I remember well you can see Bonnieux on the photo bellow.

V ozadju dolina Luberona.

The Luberon valley in the background.

V Lacoste sva bila priča zanimivi dirki oldtimerjev.

We saw an interesting oldtimers race in Lacoste.

Proti Avignonu po napisanih Bernhardovih napotkih. NITI ENKRAT SE NISVA IZGUBILA!!! Če greste kdaj v te kraje, mi sporočite, pa vam posredujem Bernhardov kontakt. Je izkušen kolesarski vodič in zna super angleško ter nemško, saj je od tam doma.

Towards Avignon following Bernhard's advice on which roads to take. We did not get lost at all. If you decide to go to these places, let me know and I will send you Bernhards contact data. He is an experienced German cycling guide and he speaks English and of course German.

Nalepke na znaku so nama govorile, da sva na pravi poti, na Bernhardovi poti, kjer je srečanje z avtomobilom redek prizor.

The stickers on the sign were telling us we were on the right way, that Bernhard suggested to us and where you rarely meet a car.


Skoraj v Avignonu.

Almost in Avignon.

Tam sva srečala Detlefa, še enega kolesarja iz Nemčije. V ozadju je palača papežev.

That is where we met Detlef, another cyclist from Germany. The palace of popes is in the background.

Zaželela sva si malo miru pred sicer privlačnim a hrupnim in kolesarjem neprijaznem starodavnem centru Avignona. Z brezplačno ladjico sva prečkala reko in se takole razkomotila na urejeni zelenici, kjer sva srečala mnogo miru željnih ljudi, turistov...

We wanted some peace from the traffic noise and unkind to cyclists but yet attractive old Avignon city center. We crossed the river with a free boat and this is how we got cosy on a nice grass where we met many people who were also looking for some peace...

Slavni avignonski most.

The famous Avignon bridge.

Iz Saint Remyja v edini močnejši zpon na najini poti.

From Saint Remy on to the only climb on this way.

V ozadju je Le Beoux.

Le Beoux in the background.

Najina gostitelja iz Hospitality cluba blizu Arlesa, Nathalie in Salvatore. Takole sva morala natovoriti kolesi v avto, saj sta naju prišla iskati v St. Martin de Crau, ki je oddaljen 10km od njune hiše. Kraj kjer živita je težje najti. Kako lepo od njiju, kajne?

Our Hospitality club hosts, Nathalie and Salvatore that live close to Arles. This is how we put the bikes into the car; because they came to pick us up to St.Martin de Crau, that is 10 kilometers away from their house. The place where they live is harder to find. That was really nice of them, wasn't it? :)


Večerja v prijetni družbi. Na fotografiji sta tudi Tomy in Nina, njuna hčerka in sin.

Dinner in a nice company. Tomy and Nina, their children, are also on the photo.


Kratek nastop pred spanjem, predvsem pa pred toplim kaminom. :)

A short performance before going to bed in front of a nice and cosy fireplace. :)


Proti Montpelierju.

Towards Montpellier.


In tukaj se pojavi Joel, oseba, ki se nama je zelo utrnila v spomin in o kateri bomo več napisali, ko bo za to več časa, saj bi se njemu rada posvetila v miru. Naj za sedaj samo na kratko povem, da sva ga po naključju srečala 20km pred Montpelierjem na cesti, ki pelje skozi vas Lansargues, kjer živi s svojo ženo Anne. Ko sva mu povedala, da se bova verjetno ukampirala nekje, ob kaki njivi, naju je kar sam od sebe povabil v svojo hišo, kjer sva preživela čudovite tri dni ob prijetni družbi in čudoviti hrani, plod Joelovih kuharskih veščin.

And this is where Joel comes in. A person that will stay in our minds and about whoom we will write a bit more when we have time and peace. But for now, let me just shortly say that we met him by coincidence 20 kilometers before Montpellier on the road that goes trough the Lansargues village, where he lives with his wife Anne. When we told him that we will camp somwhere on a field, he invited us in to his house where we spent three extraordinary days in a great company and delicious food that was a result of Joels great cooking abilities.


Odpeljal naju je tudi v Montpellier, kjer sva srečala Pierra, izkušenega kolesarja, ki ima za sabo preko 30.000 km poti po sem svetu.

He also drove us to Montpellier, where we met Pierre, an experienced cyclist that has over 30.000 kilometers of cycling all over the world.

Nakupili smo nekaj rož za Anne, Joelovo ženo in se odpravili nazaj v domov.

We bought some flowers for Anne, Joels wife and we went back to the house.

Dobra glasba.

Good music.