From the Alps I followed the Rhone for 3 days to Arles. I decided to cycle slightly shorter distances each day to have more time for sightseeing; this also allowed me to keep my average speed up a bit higher which made the cycling more enjoyable.
In Arles, I was staying with the parents of a friend. He had also been visiting them and I was unfortunately going to miss him by one day. But (unlucky for him and) lucky for me, his flight was cancelled due to a pilot strike so he was still there. That was a very nice suprise when I got there, as was discovering that his parents have a number of holiday apartments that they lease out - so I had a 1 bedroom apartment to myself. We played boules with the whole family which felt very French. It was great to stay with a local family - both to get a sense of life in France and to have a break from hotels.
From Arles, the first 50kms was ideal scenery and weather. There was even a prevailing tailwind and a few times I found that when the wind is going exactly the same direction as you it is a little bit surreal because it suddenly goes silent and feels like the wind has stopped... until you realise you are coasting along at 25kms barely pedalling.
I hadn´t given any thought to reaching the Mediterranean but first seeing it gave me a sense that I had reached a milestone. Within 2 minutes first seeing the ocean there was some deep sand on the road over which I felt I did very well to stay upright (wobbling and losing momentum but reaching the other side just before I was about to tip over), but I´m sure it didn´t look that way to the considerable number of people in front of whom I made a spectacle of myself. It also started to rain, so after about an hour I found a hotel earlier than planned.
The next day I was cycling along the Canal de Midi and some other canals in that area which was nice. Apparently trees were first planted along the canal 400 years ago to give shade - there are still trees there giving good shade and making nice scenery. Cycle routes through France are patchy (so I was only occasionally following a designated bike route). The best signposted section I saw (without about 6 signs over 1km) included 2 flights of stairs.
Crossing into Spain, I was very far East in the Pyrenees so it was only about 500m altitude up a very quiet bike path (with views of an impressive castle). Knowing bike paths could be patchy I didn´t book a hotel for that night until I saw it was okay (but before I reached Spain and lost reception). I booked it thinking I would just have enough time to reach Girona... then reaching what I think was the border (there weren´t any signs) the trail suddenly became unsealed, fairly rough and steep. The first 8kms into Spain were like this and fairly tough going - I had to change into my non-clip-in shoes and a quite a few times get off and push. It was a relief to reach civilization after not seeing anyone for about 3 hours - and suddenly they were speaking Spanish.
Stage 4 by the numbers (because everybody loves stats):
Days cycled: 7
Distance cycled: 730kms
Cumulative stats:
Distance cycled: 2,900kms
Days cycled: 27
Punctures: 0
