5 juin

I’m now awake, and still very ripped. Slept for three hours, but I figure I still have at least two drinks to metabolize before I’m fully sober. So far, no problems with the public sector strike in France - it appears that our flight to Lyon will depart as scheduled. The trains, however, are rumoured to be on strike. This should not affect us since we have reserved a car. But the word on the street is that the strike has caused a run on rental cars - I hope EuropCar holds our reservation. Upon landing in Lyon, we learn that we do indeed have a car. This is, however, a small consolation. The bastards in Memphis forgot to put our bikes on the plane. Somehow it slipped the moronic ticket agent’s mind that we might want to take all of luggage with us. The bikes should arrive this time tomorrow. As we were waiting in vain for our bikes, we spotted Ric and Marci also lingering dejectedly in baggage claim - all of their luggage was MIA. We decided to pool our misery and caravan to Avignon. Chris and I are pretty aimless without our bikes, so we decided to tag along with Ric and Marci. Part of the appeal of this strategy is that KLM has promised to deliver all of our luggage by mid-day tomorrow. We had planned to spend the first part of trip riding in Provence - so this hiccup should mean we miss only one day of riding (today). We fought exhaustion all the way to Avignon. We arrived at 15:00 and checked into the Hotel Medieval. Explored the old town with Ric and Marci, had a few beers, and then had a dinner at an Italian restaurant. Ended the evening at a brasserie with a few rounds of 1664. Then back to the hotel, for a bottle of wine, and then bed.