The awesome adventures of Jack Chi: Saint Tropez !

I took off today at 10am from Cannes and arrived around 6pm in Saint Tropez. The journey took about 4 hours of cycling of 80km.

The ride itself was just amazing like always. The south of France is dotted with picturesque photo opportunities. I stopped for some but if I had taken a photo at every point I would have never arrived in Saint Tropez. The biggest obstacle was the first mountain out of Cannes, it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was 548m and 500m down. The climb with my newly lubed up gears was a pleasure.

I was making good time, by 3 or 4pm I was already done 60km and had only 2pm to go. So I relaxed on a beach in Saint Maxime and soaked up the sun.

When I did arrive in Saint Tropez my couchsurfer Aurélien was out for his work. He works as a waiter in one of the restaurants here everyday in the summer but he actually lives in Carcassonne. He gave me the number of his friend Lio and said I can go there first and we can meet later in the evening. So I went to the apartment to find Lio and her boyfriend waiting for me. At first I thought they were also hosts here in Saint Tropez, but as it turns out they are surfers themselves and are being hosted by Aurélien just like me! We hit it off immediately. I took a quick shower and we went to town.

There was a fashion show being show at the center by the various boutiques. That was really interesting and we stayed there about 1 hour. Then we walked along the beach and checked out another dance performance at a very exclusive lounge called Opera. Apparently the Lyon football team was there as I found out later from Aurélien. There is never a dull moment in the south ☺

Lio and her boyfriend had actually lived in Quebec city last year and so we were there at the same time! What a coincidence. They are originally from Belgium and Lio is ethnically Chinese but adopted when she was 9 month old. I had great conversations with them.

In the evening Aurélien came back and we chatted some more over a bottle of wine!

I have made my decision there is no way I can make it to Porto in time. So I am going to buy my tickets for Barcelona and simply rest there on the beach before I head back to Strasbourg.