. . . Destruction? Calamity? Fatigue? Insanity?

Tomorrow the real riding starts with 93 miles and an advertised 7300 feet of climbing. Here's a rundown of the trip:

	Stage	Distance	Climbing
1	Biarritz to Bielle (vallee d'Ossau)	93	7,300
2	Bielle to Mane	111	10,400
3	Mane to Mirepoix	97	5,700
4	Mirepoix to Collioure	128	8,700
Rest	Collioure
5	Collioure to Quillan	90	8,465
6	Quillan to Saint Pierrre de Dessus - next to Foix	79	8,652
7	Saint Pierrre de Dessus to Mane	93	11,000
8	Mane to Saint Lary Soulon	92	14,600
Rest	Saint Lary-Soulon
9	Saint Lary Soulon to Saint Sauvin	92	12,600
10	Saint Sauvin to Arette	65	8,600
11	Arette to Osses	86	12,200
12	Osses to Biarritz	79	6,700

	Totals	1,105	114,917
	Daily Mean	92	9,576

Today was just a day to make sure the bike works, that I work, that the Garmin works with the Europe maps I loaded a few weeks ago. Following is a link to the short route I rode today. Note the weird directions taken right at the beginning and right at about 5-6 seconds in. Pffft. . . soooo frustrating. The Garmin signals when you're off course and it kept telling me I was off course no matter which direction I chose from the roundabout right there at the 5-6 second mark. I had trouble viewing the map (actually making sense of the map I viewed since it was hard to move the visible image on the Garmin's screen to where it made sense). I FINALLY figured it out after what must have been 15 minutes. I think I went through that same roundabout 5-6 times. I couldn't tell if any of the locals noticed--I don't think so, it was too busy of any intersection.That section of the ride was covered on the way out and the way back and I think, somehow, the Garmin was mildly confused.

https://www.relive.cc/view/1154311470

Anyway, once I got back on track you'll see two more little wrong turns--see if you can spot them.

Short day, nice ride. Fine roads, a little busy in some parts, but never felt threatened. One weird thing I notice with French drivers--French drivers around here anyway--is that they pull up REALLY fast to intersections and stop signs, like they're going to run it. Then they see you and they stop and back-up. I'm going to have to be extra mindful of that.

In a little hamlet of Arbonne just outside of town there was a little Basque festival of some kind. They had the main road cordoned off--I could ride through on my bike. There was a "pelota basca", or, literally, Basque ball--term used for various Basque ball sports, including Jai Alai. This pelota basca I saw was handball in an open area, not like the handball courts played on in the U.S., and played with a much harder ball than we use. There appeared to be a little tournament going on with two pairs of boys, probably 10-12 years old. I wonder what happens to their hands after a lifetime of this stuff.