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Entreveaux stands for "entrance" or control point. It is situated at a restriction or narrowing of the gorge in the river valley and the mountains and was capable of controlling access along the trade route from Paris to the Mediterranean. As such it would tax all traders who would move through the area. Thus being in a similar situation to so many of the castles on the Rhine.

From here we travel along the Canyon de Verdun. I was expecting bigger things from this part of the ride since so many people talked about it and while it is pretty there is only a small canyon-like component which is particularly noteworthy. But since the road was the best way to connect the Entreveaux area to Gordes and the bee hive huts we didn't really drive out of our way at all.

We got to the beehive huts and it was scorching, easily as hot as 34C if not hotter. These huts are constructed of loose stacked stones in such a way that they are extremely strong, resist weather and water and were around for centuries. Many of the structures were converted and are still in use by people of the region for storing stuff and they continued to be built from neolithic through to 18th century times. In the picture on the right the pigs lived in the area directly adjacent and fenced from the home opening. In the heat we experienced it must of been a special day when the pig slurry was disturbed.

We toured this historic site for about an hour then headed off for Gordes itself with its fantastic walled presence overlooking a vast vally of Provence. The picture is actually 3 smaller pictures stitched together using the advanced digital photo system available with the camera.

The day continues with a short jaunt into Avignon to see the Palais de Papes, a sanctuary that was built in the 14th century when the Vatican moved from Rome to Avignon for about 40 years. It would create quite a turmoil in the church since there would be 2 popes for a period after, one being considered an anti-pope.

From here we decided to head north to some of the great wine growing regions of Provence ( we actually are in a lot already) and finally are stop for the night was a small B&B near Buisson, France. Sandra and I had stopped earlier in the day outside of Gordes at a winery and sampled some red wine. A particular variety "Cote de Ventoux" caught our tastebuds and we bought a bottle.

When we arrived at the B&B that night around 7 pm., one of the ones (L'Ecole Buissonniere)recommended on Rick Steve's website we were hot, tired and wanting to rest. We decided with the beautiful courtyard provided at the B&B that we would open the bottle and have a drink there first then go for supper. While we sampled the wine the owner whose wife works for another winery came by and while talking wehad a bit more wine. Then another couple, US by citizenship named Chip and Sandy arrive and we get talking to them and offer them some. In no time the wine is gone, I feel like I shouldn't drive since we hadn't eaten lunch that day, so the owners wife offers to bring out another bottle of their wine, some cheeses and some baguettes. So we finished off a second bottle of wine while enjoying some really stimulating conversation with Chip and Sandy. You know what they charged us for this wine and cheese plate( 5E) which is extremely reasonable.

The B&B owner is quite a bicyclist and during the period of time we visited he was talking about Lance Armstrong's tour de France group cycling close by. Matter of fact the section of the tour that he won so handily is very close to this area. So we thought we'd go see the section which was a tough mountain climb. Unfortunately the day started out cloudy and cool and with the cloud height low he suggested it wouldn't be worth seeing today. So we have vowed to come back here at some time to re-visit this area more.

The day turns into just a drive day with no particular roads we want to take or scenery to see and we just head cross country to end the day in Mouldings. Here again is the typical old city but with a twist. Most hotels etc. are full with some type of business activity so we have to work at finding a place settling finally on a Comfort Inn (Primavere). These used to be good in '91 when we ere there before but they are rundown and tired now. But they do the trick and they are cheap so we stay the night.

Another reason we pushed on more yesterday is that we wanted to arrive in Paris early enough in the day to find a hotel, get settled and see some sites of the City. It always works well when you get a bit of orientation under your belt for the next day.

This said we travelled some beautiful area on the way into Paris. As you can see by the road sign in the picture we are on the way to Paris and turn a corner and there are 2 nuclear reactors ( power generation). Whoa1 Drive a few kms. on and we arrive in a small village with this other picture for scenery.

The remaining distance into Paris was pretty easy. I had known Sandra was pretty concerned about driving into Paris and kept urging to stay outside but I had used the example of Florence where we were right in the centre and lost no time getting out and seeing things, and driving the bike into the areas is quite easy and parking is nothing at all.

So I kept going and hit the huge ring road that circles all of Paris then followed the directions for reaching the city centre. We were rewarded by the following scene as we got close to downtown and stopped for directions.

After stopping for directions twice since crossing the city was a challenge we finally arrived at the Hotel Chopin a place that had been recommended to us. They advised they were full but they had a sister hotel that she might be able to book us into. The Chopin is a nice little place close to everything and reasonable for Paris prices. And she suggested the other hotel while being 1 star more in features might be able to meet their prices for 1 night, but we wanted 2. They wanted to charge us over double our budget amount for the 2nd night and we said No we'd look around. They then agreed between the 2 hotel receptions to a Chopin price for the 2 nights and I then said yes. With some good directions we found our way over to the new hotel which was within 2 blocks of the Pompideau centre, one of the things on Sandra's must see list.

We then went to the centre which is a library and toured it. There must have been a 1000 computers set aside for use, but no email allowed. We got a password and caught up on some news, future weather forecasts ( I have a special Yahoo page established for quick travel stuff including currency rates), before heading out to see Montemarte cemetary, the Moulin Rouge and finally eating out at an Irish Pub in Paris. What??????

Our next day began walking the 2 blocks down to the Seine grabbing coffee and croissants at a cafe and sitting looking at the scene at the left from the bridge. After coffee we headed over to see Notre Dame Cathedral which is in much better shape than when we saw it in 1991. There is so much advanced stained glass in this church it is amazing and the stone work outside is beautiful as well. Since we had prioritized what we wanted to see we weren't going to go to the Louvre again since we were there before and the Accademia gallery in Florence was its replacement. So we walked around many of the sites just to see them either again or for the first time. On the Champs D'Elysee we stopped for crepes since this was on Sandra's menu of things to have in France. They were great and we continued on past all the fashion stores to the Arc D'Triumphe. Little did we know we'd see this all again the next day.

After this our walking tour took us to the Eiffel tower hoping that an earlier newspaper report of the Tower being on strike was no longer in-force. Unfortunately it was and we missed going up there again. We returned by walking down the Seine past the Grand Palais also closed, and finally back to our hotel where we enjoyed some more red wine and cheese.

Later in the evening we'd walked back down to the Seine and sat overlooking the city watching the lights and cruise boats play on a most beautiful city.

Our last look of Paris would be an initially terrifying notion for Sandra. We had asked for directions out of Paris toward the Normandy coast and the hotel receptionist said the simplest and easiest route was to go a block over to the Rue Rivoli, head west on it till you get to the Place de Concorde (2nd most congested traffic circle in Paris) then up the Champ D'Elysees to the Arc D'Triumphe around it and out the west gate to the City. I winced after hearing the directions because I knew what Sandra's reaction would be but after the screaming and kicking subsided we got on and did just that.

Well maybe I'm oversimplifying it a bit. I'm leaving out all the European scooter tactics I have learned, driving in bus lanes, splitting lanes, racing to the front of traffic at a stop light and generally driving as crazy as they do. And it was morning rush hour.

In 45 mins we were through the city out the west gate and in a town 25 kms away having quiche for breakfast. Not bad for a country boy from Alberta.

We continued going west towards Ruone and onto Honfleur. Sandra forgot about a travel log we had watched on it but it is a tourist site and we found it to be very similar to Lunnenburg Nova Scotia. Here we would be reminded that Champlain who founded Quebec sailed from here first in 1602 and later 5 more times in the settling of eastern Canada. And many of the early settlers came from this region as well. The Captain's quarters are in the stone building at the top centre of the picture.

We arrived close to noon and found a nice little B&B completely self contained just outside Honfleur on a farm. It wasa perfect little place and really cheap with a microwave and sink as well. The breakfast wasn't very good as typical but we enjoyed having a place in the country all to ourselves.

After a lunch at one of the sidewalk cafes where I had an omelette and Sandra "Croque Monsieur" with the local apple cider we walked around the parks that were beautiful and saw all the sites in the centre. I forgot that I shouldn't have a beer or cider at lunch and after our walk we found a nice park bench and green grass where I laid down and fell asleep almost immediately for 45 mins. Sandra said other tourists would walk by and point at me and laugh. Oh well, I'm on holidays!

That evening we had a nice meal at another of the sidewalk cafes in town and drove back to our B&B in the dark .

Canada was involved as part of the Allied invasion of France on June 6th, 1944. On our previous trip we had visited the WWI memorial at Vimy Ridge. This time we wanted to see the infamous "Juno" beach. Today was going to be spent entirely on the D Day beaches and we started off by driving down to Pegagus Bridge, the first bridge liberated by the British on June 6th.

Each set of allied forces had deliberate targets to achieve that day and the Canadians were the only force to achieve all of their targets that day. The beaches in Normandy are beautiful much more in a west coast of Canada type way than the tropical type beaches of southern France. It is too bad they will always have this stigma attached to them.

The house in the picture above alway carries a Canadian flag on its balcony as a reminder of the Canadians that liberated it on June 6th, 1944.

In the right hand picture you will see the actual photo taken of Juno beach and that house the day the Canadians came ashore in the invasion. Note in that picture many Canadians carried bicycles not because they heard the area was great for cycle holidays but because they were to penetrate behind enemy lines quickly and scout what reinforcements were coming. We watched a tribute to the veterans on June 6th in preparation for this area. It is 60 year since the invasion and the last major milestone date that most of the vet's will be alive. It is critical that we all remember the contribution made by the allies with their lives.

Incidentally, the area is great for a cycling holiday and Sandra and I are thinking we might come back and do France by bicycle in a future holiday. The Normandy and Brittany areas, probably the Cote D' Zur and more of the Rhone region.

We continued on to see as many of the beaches and sites as we could that day. There is a Canadian cemetary at Bene sur mer that has over 2000 soldiers buried there. On one gravesite, that of a French Canadian soldier, there are small Canadian and Quebec flags plus a larger Canadian one with the word "Merci" written on it. It was a very powerful site.

Also powerful was the 360 degree theatre at Arrowmanches, more into the Gold beach and Omaha beach areas, British and US respectively. Here you get to see a gathering of US military film that was for the "eyes only" of the Pentagon during the invasion. It is nw transformed for public viewing as well as current film pieces of some of the same areas today, to show the hell of that day and the peace of today. The film was developed by the French government about 10 years ago.

At Gold beach Sir Winston Churchill came up with the idea that they should attempt to build a portable harbor and bring it there to create their own protected port by which to land further troops and supplies. This was done and used effectively for the duration of the war.

Unfortunately the only site was missed out on was the US cemetary. We arrived there 5 mins after it had closed for the day. It is the only site that has a timeframe to it and for the obvious reasons.

Our next day heading out from the Normandy coast had a terrible feel to it. Because, we are definitely heading back to Holland to turn in the bike. The holiday is almost over but not before one last beautiful place to visit. Bruges, Belgium.

I won't bore you with the details of getting there but suffice to say that it is a major day's ride from Normandy to get there. On our way we had had a small lunch at a Mc Donald's in ST. Omer with "Harvey and Joan" from Sherwood Park, wow that was scary but we were still a bit hungry so Sandra still wanted to try the French Fries with Mayo that is popular here.

Once we got that out of the way we walked the centre of the city and saw quite a bit more than when we took the kids here in 91 or at any time when I had been there previously with my parents. Belgium is struggling under the EU rules and is quite expensive. We did buy Belgium chocolates here, though. We stayed about a block away from the Centre of the City and had a nice meal out of Lasagna. Mussels are supposed to be the speciality here but they are over twice the price of the ones we had in Italy and they could not have been better. Bruges is known as the "Venice of the North" with its picture perfect canals that wind through the town.

Our last day would be a rush since we had to drive 280 kms back to Apeldoorn, check into the Hotel and unpack and repack everything we would take off the bike, check on our mailed package and trace it if it hadn't arrived and return the bike to Burt Duursma.

The day was blustery and cool and threatened rain so we put on the rain suits though we didn't need them, fortunately. We headed toward Antwerp and caught a bypass Toll autobahn around there towards Breda, Holland. Just past Breda on the way to Utrecht traffic ground to a halt so I began to split the traffic lanes slowly moving towards what I expected would be an accident. I drove easily 8 kms that way until my left hand tired out from operating the clutch so much. I stopped and looked at a road sign that indicated an exit to N322 in 600Meters so I checked the map and it would provide a back route around the traffic tie up and onto Apeldoorn. So I caught the road shoulder drove to the exit and we were off.

We arrived back in Apeldoorn about 12: 20 pm. and pulled into the driveway of the Hotel at the same time a postal truck was driving out. The post office had finally delivered the GIVI case 2 weeks after mailing it from Italy and not a moment too soon!

We were welcomed by the hotel owners who then prepared tea for us with Dutch chocolates and sat for a while as we had tea and briefly went over our story. Later that day I would drive the bike back to the dealer, close out the contract on the most amicable of terms, and walk back to the hotel. Mission accomplished we headed out for one last european meal before heading home.

I hope you have enjoyed the Web epic, sorry it was so long but there was just such a great amount to show. And keep in mind there are a lot more pictures than what are shown here, so just ask or don't depending on your view.