Since we've been married, Nancy and I have done a bike trip overseas every few years. We find that you can really get a feel for a country by biking through the less traveled areas. Taiwan and Japan are where we've been in past years. This time Nancy decided I needed to see Europe, so France is where we went. The trip essentially had 3 parts, biking in Provence, biking in the Alps, and post biking in Cassis and Paris.This blog is separated in three parts to reflect that.
For our past trips we have enlisted locals to help plan our routes and lodging. This time Nancy did all of the work herself using online sources and a good bit of advice from a new friend (and Frenchman) Jean-Claude Payen.
When we first started telling friends that we were doing this trip, Lee Blackwell suggested we contact Jean-Claude. They had met when Jean-Claude came to AZ a few years ago to do the Coconino 250. Chad Brown also knew Jean-Claude from that time. We figured, if these guys say he's alright, then he must be OK. Nancy contacted him and he offered route suggestions for the trip. Additionally he offered to pick us up from the train station and let us stay at his place for a couple of days. Outstanding. So, thanks to Lee and Chad for putting this guy on our radar and many, many thanks to our new friend Jean-Claude for welcoming us into his home and being such a great host.
This trip was high in planning complexity as it involved many different lodgings and transfers to different parts of the country via almost every conceivable means of public transportation (planes, trains, automobiles, metro, bus, bike). Nancy did an amazing job of putting this all together. Surprisingly, we made every connection.
We came back with 1300 pictures, a few of which I'll post here. The entire set can be accessed here. They are from 2 different cameras and 2 different cell phones, so some pics may be out of order.
Since we planned to use bikes as our primary transport, we needed to travel as light as possible. Additionally, we had to get creative with luggage. We had bikepacking seat bags and a few other things we'd strap to the bikes, plus backpacks. The backpacks were easy to carry, but the other stuff was a little cumbersome when it wasn't strapped to a bike. Nancy came up with a great solution for how to carry the "other stuff" on the plane. She found these cardboard boxes that were essentially suitcases. We could use them as suitcases for the trip and discard them when we started our bike trip. This ended up working out great. On the way home, we'd just have to acquire some cheap luggage to do the same thing in reverse.
This is everything we had for 3 weeks - including bike gear (pedals, bike shoes, helmet)
Travel
Sidebar: Flying economy on an international flight on American Airlines was miserable. Our flights to Japan and Taiwan were soooo much better. If you go overseas either travel business or take another country's airline or just bring sleeping pills.
Due to the fact that the flight for the trip was funded by frequent flyer miles, we had to make some compromises. First, we had to fly into Frankfurt, Germany and come back home from Paris - so right away the complications began. We started the trip visiting a couple of days with Jean-Claude - whom neither of us had met. He lives in Paradou, France. So Nancy arranged to take a train from Frankfurt to Avignon. The Frankfurt airport is not close to the Frankfurt train station - so a bus and subway had to be navigated to get to the train station. Then a few hours wait for the train. Fortunately Nancy got a good deal on first class train tickets. That got us entry into the lounge and free food and drink.
Free wifi and beer - what else does one need...
...other than champagne
Frankfurt train station from the lounge
Once on the train we had 7 hours of relaxation time before getting to Avignon. Eventually, we made it to the Avignon train station where we located Jean-Claude. Fortunately his English is very good. While Nancy surprised me with how much French she remembered from her school days, I was pretty much hopeless. After getting to Jean-Claude's charming abode (looks old on the outside, but is actually fairly new - not much vinyl siding in France) we chilled for a while and crashed.
Home for a couple of days
Prepping the bikes
Day 1
Next morning we did a little VTT (Velo Tous Terrain - mountain bike for you yanks) ride on the local trails. Jean-Claude has some pretty good stuff right out his door.
obligatory tire repair
Come on you slow pokes
Can you spot the village integrated into the cliff?
VTT!
View from above
Random historical building
After the ride, we took a drive up to Beaumes-de-Venise to pick up the bikes we'd be using for our trip. Nancy had found an individual who would rent them to us for 15 days for a reasonable price. Turns out the guy is a local champ VTT racer. Nice.
While in Beaumes-de-Venise we visited a bike shop. Saw that they had e-bikes for rent. Apparently this is a big thing in France. They have these for rent all over the place so that out of shape tourists can ride the hills. I actually got passed by a lady on one of these near the top of one of the big cols we did in the Alps. On one hand I guess it is good to get more people on bikes. On the other hand - yeesh.
Jean-Claude had invited some friends of his (Olivier, Phillipe, Corine and Delphine) for dinner that night, so we ended up meeting some more people and had a feast in his back yard with lots of food and cold rosé wine. We learned that rosé is what one drinks in France in the summer. Anyhow, this dinner was really great and Jean-Claude's friends were a lot of fun. This was the kind of non-tourist experience that we love to have when traveling.
Day 2
After sleeping off (OK, more like not sleeping...can you say jet-lag?) the previous night's party, Jean-Claude took us up near Buoux for a pretty big ride. We ended up spending most of the day going up and down the mountains there. Some amazing views, lots of lavande (lavender), and the inescapable historic churches and villages were all in there. The terrain was a bit on the gnarly side. I enjoyed shredding it with the full suspension rig that Jean-Claude had loaned me. Nancy and I were beat after this ride.
This is a pretty popular rock climbing area - for obvious reasons
Reminded me of some bridges in Breckinridge
Public water and WC in Buoux
Cool vistas
We ended the ride near that swimming pool - much later
We aren't used to this much green
So much lavande
Apparently these huts were used by shepherds - and constructed without mortar
DAY 3
After recovering from the previous day's adventure, Jean-Claude drove us up to our next destination - in La Roque Alric - not far from the base of Mont Ventoux. This is where we would start the self supported, road riding part of the trip. Just us, our bikes(loaded with gear), and gpx tracks to follow to each new location.
Our first abode was tucked up off a very narrow alley near the top of a hill. Like most places we stayed, it was nicer than we expected and quite charming. Breakfast was included.
Our transportation for the next 15 days
The views from here were not bad
The ride started with a nice downhill and then a grunt of an uphill to Col de Suzette - which Nancy says has been in the Tour de France. It wasn't big, but it was really steep - just a glimpse of what was to come. Anyhow we rolled up and down through farmland - mostly vineyards.
And we're off
Lots of small vineyards in this area
Glad we have that granny gear
Col de Suzette
Fountains are a thing in French villages. From one sign I read, they were an important part of the water supply for most villages, back in the day. Everyone didn't necessarily have running water in their houses, so they relied on these public sources around town. Today they are mostly still running, but not all of them have water that was safe to drink. Usually there was a sign indicating whether the water was potable, non-potable, or just not tested. Those without signs - you could take your chances. Anyhow, this was a super cool thing since we knew we could get water in just about any town and often in the middle of nowhere - quite a change from our backcountry rides in AZ, where water is like gold.
Eau Potable - the magic words (potable water)
Wine in the making
Finally we came over a hill and saw that our next climb was the beast - Mont Ventoux. After a stop in Malaucene to purchase some water bottles and get water from the local fountain, we were off.
Ventoux looms in the distance
Topping up for the climb
Mont Ventoux is a super popular route so there is a sign at the bottom with a timer so you can get your precise time for climbing - to compare to the TDF riders. With our fully loaded bikes, this was a really tough climb. I had to stop a number of times. Not sure if it was the fact that this was the first big climb of the trip but this seemed harder than anything else we did for the rest of the trip.
Start your timer
7.5 % AVERAGE grade. Some parts were steeper and some not.
Nowhere to go but up
On the more popular climbs they had these nice markers on the side of the road every kilometer that told you the average grade for the next kilometer and how many to the top. We couldn't decide if it was better to know or not.
This was the ouchiest section at 12% average grade over the kilometer
The end is in sight
Long way down
almost there...
Victory!
Up at the top of the mountain there were tons of bikers and food stands focused on candy and meat. I just wanted a coke and a snickers.
Plenty of sugar options
Who doesn't want a chunk of meat after a tough ascent
There were people hang gliding off the top
A zoo of roadies
Looking forward to the trip down
Needless to say, the trip down went by pretty quickly. Very steep at the top, but then it mellowed out. Traffic thinned out after we took an alternate route - which would eventually lead us to the town we were staying that night - Sault. This was a relatively short day at 38 miles, but it was a tough way to start.
Prudence indeed
zoom zoom
Back down in the trees
Like just about every village we rode through, Sault was all old buildings and was located up on a hill. So, every day we stayed in a village ended with climbing up (often on very steep streets) to the village.
Of course our village was up a hill
Sault was fairly small, but we had one of our best meals there. The pizza and salad were really good. When we got our bikes in Beaumes-de-Venise, we also picked up a local Muscat. Apparently they are know for their Muscat. Never got around to drinking it, so I hauled it up and over Mont Ventoux. We enjoyed it in Sault - reward for the hard work of the day. Sault is in lavande country. Anything you can imagine that you can make with lavande is for sale in that area. Of course our room that night was all in lavande purple.
We worked for this and greatly enjoyed it
View of town out our window
Lavendar - of course
Day 4
From Sault we headed to the Gorges de la Nesque. This meant a whole lot of downhill on winding roads along the edge of the gorge. We saw one car and one motorcycle on this road - and tons of bikes. That was really nice.
Nice little piece of land
You can kind of see the road as it snakes along the side of the gorge
No big trucks here
We are heading down there.
The road through the gorge eventually dumped us out into another village. That meant time to top off the water supply.
Nancy making new friends by the fountain - one cyclist shared a special pastry snack with her.
The roads.
Our experience with the roads in France were that they were very narrow almost everywhere outside of big cities. This meant a lot of challenges for cars as they tried to get around slower cars and cyclists. My observation is that regardless of the fact that they often had to slow down and wait behind us to pass, they were generally courteous. I never felt the kind of anger you get from many drivers in the US - who have MUCH wider roads to drive on. Obviously cycling is way more respected/tolerated in France. That was nice. Also, even in totally out of the way places we often had smooth, well maintained roads. Apparently they stay on top of keeping the roads in good shape.
No option to widen this road
As we rolled out of this village we saw the sign below. We'd see similar signs along the way later. Apparently the TDF would be going through here on the day they went up Mont Ventoux. Kind of cool to be riding on the same roads they would ride on. I was surprised that they peleton would even fit on some of these narrow roads.
Another village along the way
Our path would often take us right through the middle of these small villages - with the main road running right by people's front doors. Seems like that would be rather dangerous.
Murs castle
Interesting place for a house
Lots of fields and farms along the way. I suppose you need to grow a lot of wheat to make all of those baguettes and croissants.
Yeah, we went over Col de Murs
Eventually we got to our first HUGE tourist attraction the Senanque Abbey. There were tons of cars and hordes of tourists. Being on bikes we were able to get through the traffic jam to the abbey. Nancy went and poked around while I chilled.
Next we had another stout climb to get the the village near the abbey - Gordes. Again, mobbed with people and cars. This is not the kind of scene I was looking for so, we got some food and got out of there pretty quickly.
On the way out of town we took an alternate route that I had sketched in on the GPX track, using Topofusion, before the trip. When I made that track I just knew that it appeared to be the most direct way to get to our stopping point - about 2 miles outside of Gordes. As we rolled down a back road and then into an alley, I wasn't sure this was actually going to work out. But it ended up being awesome. We got to see a view of the city that the tourists did not see.
At this point Nancy is wondering if I'm leading her astray
We got to see the "roots" of Gordes
It looks so peaceful from this view
After we got out of Gordes it was mostly downhill to our end point for the night. We stopped at a fruit stand and bought some cerises (cherries) since we were in cherry country. They turned out to be the best cherries I've ever had. As we consulted the GPX track to see where our hotel was, looked down the road and realized it was right next door - that was convenient.
This place had a nice pool and brought us some iced down rose to enjoy by the pool. A nice way to wash off the dust from the day.
Day 5
We headed out the next morning without getting breakfast. We figured that there would be a boulangerie in one of the villages we were sure to roll through - there always is. Again we rolled through lots of farmland on small roads with no traffic for the most part. Every once in a while we get onto a more busy road, but tried to minimize that.
Collecting Cols
Eventually we ended up back in the area where Jean-Claude had taken us mountain biking. We actually rolled through the same little village (Buoux) where we had gotten water on that ride.
Buoux is lavande country
Onward through more villages
About lunchtime we rolled into a little village which appeared to have only one cafe. So, we sat down and tried to order lunch. Not sure what the deal was, but Nancy just could not understand the waitress's French. And she couldn't understand Nancy. After some pantomime and failed efforts, the waitress brought over a chalkboard with the offerings for the day. Nancy did her best to interpret and google translate essentially failed me. But we ordered something - not quite sure what.
What we got were big slabs of steak with salad and french fries - and bread, of course. Not what we expected to get in France - maybe Texas. Anyhow, we found out later that this is not an unusual type of meal in that part of France. Who knew?
Refueled, we rolled on and found another village with more selections in less than an hour. We could have held out, but would have missed that experience.
On we went though idyllic green farmland until we finally got near the day's destination - Banon. Of course that meant a nice long stretch of climbing
Yeah, we'll have to go up there
Banon turned out to be pretty great. The place we stayed was really nice. We had our little room, but also access to a full kitchen and den and patio. Also, the town was less touristy - more of a real village.
Interesting sculpture
Great kitchen that we were free to use.
We walked up to the top of town to see the church.
They always seem to put the church at the top of the hill
Interesting streets
Before we went to dinner that night we met another couple who was staying there - Jack and Marion. They are Brits who are currently living in Nice. They were vacationing in the area to see the lavande. Anyhow, we got to chatting and drinking and almost didn't make it to dinner. First, I could actually communicate with them since they were English, but mostly they were just a whole lot of fun.
Anyhow, we did get to dinner and it was a good thing. We had one of our most enjoyable meals of our trip. The owner/chef took our order and served us some fairly simple food - prepared thoughtfully. Perfect.
After dinner we headed back to the B&B. Jack and Marion were out on the patio having some rose and fruit. We stopped and chatted a while. We would have spent the bulk of the night there but we had to get to bed. The next day we had 65 miles to cover and wanted to get started early as possible.
Day 6 and 7
Today we headed out of the hills to a river valley,
Don't see that every day
On the way down to the river we stopped at this little places that extracted "essential oils" from plants. Of course we had to get some lavande oil.
After going through a crazy busy little village and then crossing the river, we headed up to a plateau on the other side of the river. This was our big sustained climb for the day. Didn't seem so bad. Maybe we were gettting used to this.
This plateau was lousy with farming. Mostly lavande and wheat, with some olives and even sunflowers thrown in the mix.
Busses of tourists in the lavande fields
We stopped in Valensole along the way and had a bit of lunch sitting by a fountain. As it was pretty warm, this was also a good place to cool off and get water.
lunch break
Cool fountain
Big farm equipment on small roads = challenging
You can see the alps in the background
1.5 meters = almost 5 feet, Where I live we get 3 feet.
This day's ride ended off the other side of the plateau in Moustiers Sante-Marie which is located on the edge of the Alps. This town is know for being very beautiful and for the church located above town.
If you squint you can see the church in the middle - above the village
people were paragliding above town
a view of the village from the church
We would be in this town 2 nights - so we had our first rest day. Fortunately the place we were staying had a kitchenette and a clothes washer - score.
Home for a couple of days
Nancy had originally planned for us to do some floating or whatever in the local geological phenomenon the Gorges du Verdon on our rest day. For various reasons, that did not work out. Instead, we contracted with Auriane to drive us around the gorge and show us the sights. That was pretty cool. Auriane is originally from Mousteir, but had done some traveling and actually lived in China for a while. She knew all the ins and outs of the local scene, but still had a big view of the world. I think she was a little disappointed when I compared this gorge to the Grand Canyon. Make no mistake, this area was beautiful - but much smaller than our local big ditch.
The gorge and the lake it dumped out into had beautiful blue water.
We'd end up riding along the right side of that lake the next day
Being a gorge, it had all kinds of recreation opportunities. We saw these guys rock climbing. They had just reached the top and were headed back down.
Some excellent cliffs for rock climbing
Nancy had gather some ingredients from the farmers market that morning to prepare a feast for our dinner.
Day 8
Rest time was over so it was time to ride again. And what better way to kick start the ride than a road back up to the plateau that had a 16% grade in places. Ugh. Once up top there were the usual fields and some nice views of the big lake.
We'd end up riding along the side of the lake most of the day, going down the plateau and back up again - repeatedly.
cooling off
The water was soooo blue
another scenic village we'd descend to - only to climb back up to the top
One thing that fascinated me along the way was these concrete electrical poles. Instead of using wood poles - which are all I'd ever seen, they used concrete. I'd guess they are more durable over time,
This is why you don't see a lot of big vehicles out here. That camper is tying up traffic in both directions. Also, gasoline is over $5/gallon.
Obligatory castle
At one point during the ride we went by an area that many people come to swim. So, we dragged our bikes out to the swimming hole and cooled off in the blue water. It was pretty warm, so this was a welcome break.
The swimming hole from above
This was below the dam
quite the fancy traffic circle
This sign either means fun ahead (on descent) or time to grind (ascent)
We ended the day at a little place kind of in the middle of nowhere, outside of Manosque. Apparently is was an old residence (for someone very wealthy) that had been converted to a hotel/restaurant. It was very charming in a old fashioned way. However, it was not air conditioned and the day was pretty warm. While the people were great and dinner was very nice, we didn't get much sleep that night. Not my favorite place because of that.
Dinner on the patio
This was our last day in Provence. Next day we'd head to the Alps. The journey continues here.
