Up until today, we have been riding mostly flat lands or slightly rolling hills. Today, we entered the Alpilles. Sounds a lot like “Alps”, don’t you think? They aren’t as high as the Alps, but for a prairie girl packing a 25 pounds in panniers, it was an unnerving prospect to ride some serious hills.

We started near sea level in Arles and scaled two mountains (hills?). By the time we finished our day we had climbed 400 meters.

I do have to admit that the effort was worth it. Our reward for the first climb was the charming town of Les Baux-de-Provence. Here’s the view and other highlights.

We continued on to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and our second “hill”. Seems like we missed something exciting there, earlier in the day.

I must say, I look on with envy when we are passed by the more typical cycle tourist, seemingly floating effortlessly up the hills thanks to their lack of panniers! Tomorrow, I am going to the hardware store and buying a bungee cord. Dennis can give me a bit of a boost.