I play Russian roullette with a bullet called cycle touring... Riot Police !?!?!?

"Life is a matter of inches", I hear Kevin yell from in front of me. Since we've been cycling closer to the Spanish coast it has become abundantly clear that the secondary roads on the maps are non existent. Many trucks take the non toll routes to save money as well as the normal drivers. We crossed another border a few days across to France through the Pyreness and celebrated with a bière! Wow, some gorgeous snow tipped mountains were in our sights as we left Girona, Spain. Some amazing views in yet another historically filled city with old fort walls, ancient churches, farmers markets & astonshing landscapes. I would definitely own a mountain bike here as we inadvertantly took a wrong turn to get out of town and hit some trails to the highway...

Onwards to Marseille to catch the John Butler Trio in which we got on the guest list for. Before I get into that, we passed through a city called Narbonne. We chugged along at a snails pace as we met up with some French wind farms, I smiled to myself as I felt the need to say, "That's my kind of progress!" But... uh oh, winds in the wrong direction which are not any cyclist's cup of tea. We intended on going a lot further that day but settled on 60 km's. We arrived in Narbonne and there were bus loads of riot police??? There was a rally, many wine farmers were upset with new legislation passed down from the government restricting consumption. Here's a link to the whole story, check out the name of this website (paste this into your web browser) http://www.fuckfrance.com/read.html?postid=1195295&replies=12&page=1
So Kevin and I are doglegging around the protest line trying to get to a bike store before the campground closes. We were getting some new tires and our noses start to burn, "What the heck is that?", Kevin said. We ride back and there are fires burning on the streets and the streets we're littered with tear gas cannisters... whoa WWIII was breaking out... well not really but it was something I've never been exposed to. We tried to get to the campsite but the river was blockaded by riot police and angry mobs setting fires, screaming and yelling. We got to the campsite which was closed but luckily we got signed in for the night... what an end to the day!

We arrived in Marseilles yesterday and we're on the guest list to see John Butler Trio, one of my brothers favourite bands. It was an urban folk festival, and a lively crowd to say the least. One thing I've seen from the French is that they are very spirited bunch. The show was fantastic!

I'm going to keep this one short, I'd like to thank Olivier and Marco for hosting us over the last two days. I wish we would have had more time to explore Marseille there are some phenomenal coast lines that I would have loved to explore, but sometimes that's the way life is for us on the road. We are headed to some organic farms in the next few days so over and out for now!

Steve