This morning I was up early determined not to miss sunrise here in the South of France. It was pitch dark when I headed out so started with a few shots of my hotel – apartment.
I walked up the road a piece shooting back down at the hotel apartment and the winery across the street. I could see that today’s sunrise was not going to be quite as spectacular as yesterday’s. But, it was still a beautiful morning to be trolling around.
This is the D17E7. The climb from here to the top of the ridge is the best 3.5 kilometers of climbing road in the world!
A rare self portrait. I was glad to see that someone had installed a roadside bench at one of my favorite places in France! Looks quite peaceful huh? I can tell you that I set up the shot and ran over and sat for the long exposure….the bench was completely soaked with the morning dew and I had a wet ass for the next 30 minutes. Who says you don’t have to sacrifice for art?!
One more shot of the reddish sky and it was time to head to breakfast. Without any clouds, this would not be a spectacular sunrise.
As I walked past my apartment, I spotted some low lying mist in the distance and decided I had judged this sunrise too harshly.
I scampered between a couple vineyard and waited for the actual sunrise.
Boom! Cue the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun!”
Time for breakfast.
I was feeling pretty satisfied that I had a good size net full of images for my blog. I wanted a solid ride today without hauling around my big camera and lens so I plotted my route, had breakfast and set out with just an iPhone. Today was going to be a ride day not a photography day…..It wasn’t more than about one kilometer into it and had to take a shot.
Today’s route is one of my local favorite loops out of Lauret. I had forgotten that the Tour de France had rolled through here this summer. Time for more pictures!
The road on these couple rolling hills was marked up for the racers. I remember watching this stage (On recording because here is was where I was on that day…..here.), the riders rolled up these couple of punchy climbs as if they weren’t even there…..I was grinding up them today!
I completely encircled Pic St. Loup today. In this shot, you can see Pic St. Loup on the right and Montagne de l’Hortus. (Editor’s correction here: Yesterday, I called Montagne de l’Hortus Le Col de Fambetou…. Sorry Jacque!). I’m no geologist but it doesn’t take much of an imagination to see that both of these peaks were probably the same mountain at one time, a very tall one, and the middle has since eroded out.
This is an alley of trees that I have photographed before. They line the road going into Pomipignan.
Up on the climb, a few kilometers later, you look down on the same tree lined road.
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