Day 18 - "Good Return" - La Grande-Motte, France to Salin-de-Giraud, France
July 4, 2026 - biked 75 km (47 mi), ferry'd 0.15 km (0.09 mi) - biked 742 km (461 mi) total
We aspire to be off route again! The Eurovelo 8 curves north away from the coast around Montpellier, not to return for about 200 km near Cannes. There's a few reasons we want to take the coast road: the other way is hilly, not fully signed and requires a train skip, we want to go to Marseille, a desire to cultivate a spiritual connection to the sea, and flamingoes. We scoured the RideWithGPS heatmap to see which way to take and found a route that was short, but somehow went right over the ocean. That sounded too cool to not do.
It was kind of literally that. A storm surge protection berm that ran for 40 km just inland of the beach, surrounded by salt flats, marshes, and shrubs that all flood in the winter when it rains.
For Sarah, it was the most pretty scenery yet but unfortunately the pictures don’t capture half of it. She loves flamingoes and wish we had a way to actually capture pictures of their beauty.
Halfway on the gravel sand road was a lighthouse, and it ended up being a little shop! Sarah bought some kombucha and it made her very happy. As we were leaving, the attendant told us, "good return". We'll try to live by it. It's easy to get excited about your trip, but really you should get excited about what it means to you once you get back.
The beach towns around Montpellier continued to be a 60s fever dream of architecture.
It kind of reminded me of the old parts of Disney World.
The future of architecture is here.
Or here.
Not lunch, second breakfast. It was all chocolate croissants anyway.
Do you think this is energy efficient?
Want traffic to slow down? Make them literally swerve into the opposing lane.
Lunch.
Have you ever taken a ferry with horses?????
Also it was a paddle ferry. Vintage.
Wade's European car. Look at the plate!
Sand kills.
A beach entirely full of rocks shaped into hearts.
Endless gravel with marshes on either side.
Surprise! The lighthouse was a little shop!
Yes, this is still the right way. No we did not descend into the ocean.
Old watchtower / rich man house.
This sign would keep me out of anything. Also saw no evidence of any bulls.
Weird-ass bike rack #1742: log with notches cut into it.
All the apartments in Salin-de-Giraud were very institutional.
What's in the tent? We love building anticipation.