May/June 2023 French Alps and Provence

Early summer in Provence, there is no better time to go! We started riding mid-May, which allowed us to avoid the summer heat and the tourists. We acclimatised our legs heading south along the river Rhone for a week. Then we stayed in an amazing villa in Roussillon, east of Avignon, that our friends Carley and Jim rented for a week. Finally, we rode back along the foothills of the French Alps, through the Vercors and Chartreuse massifs.

Summary: 3 weeks, 1,200km+ and 12,350m elevation

Via Rhona cycling trail: https://en.viarhona.com/

P'tites Routes du Soleil: https://en.routedesgrandesalpes.com/cycle-route/p-tites-routes-du-soleil

To avoid the traffic around Geneva, we took the train to Seyssel. The first impression of France? A community competition of the national sport: Pétanque!

Chanaz is a very cute town at the confluence of the Rhone and Canal de Savières.

Some impressions along the way: 

Les Grottes de La Balme are an amazing cave system with stalactites, stalagmites, lakes, terraced basins, underground mazes and two chapels. Unfortunately, they were closed when we were there - school kids only.

A glimpse of Lyon...

The view from our hotel room in Condrieu. The Rhone is a major shipping line for tourists and freight.

It was fun to watch them go through the locks with very little space on either side.

We loved the "plat du jour", which most small restaurants offered at lunch time (if it wasn't pigs ears or veal kidneys!). You can get a three course meal with bread, water and wine for under $20 each. Note the down jacket, it was still chilly when windy.

We had to stop to figure out what these rows of red sticks were. They seem to be grafted grape plants covered in red wax. 

We felt sorry for the residents of Mornas. The town is located between a 137m cliff (with a fortress on top), a railway line, a main road and a highway. It was a noisy night!

The walls of the fortress are visible on top of the cliff. The earliest records are from the 9th century.

The stone walls are beautiful. What a lot of work!

Another medieval town with a medieval castle and even the hotel was called medieval.

One of the beautifully restored bridges along the way.

Most towns and villages have a weekly market when farmers bring their produce to town. We happened to be at the right place at the right time on a few occasions. Gorgeous to look at and delicious to eat!

For days I have been craving a large salad, but the size of this one is ridiculous!

A glimpse of Avignon.

Try to put this on a business card or a form!

The biggest crepe I have ever seen! We shared one and could not finish it. Definitely a case of quantity over quality! Supersizing has started in France!

The villa in Rousillon was just amazing! It even had a swimming pool and a boulodrome (i.e. pétanque court). 

Carley, Jim and Kirsten relaxing with a glass of wine and ....

.... having a go at pétanque.

The famous Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque. It was too early for the lavender fields to bloom, so the photograph is not as spectacular as the ones in every Provence calendar.

Market day in Gordes and we went crazy! So much fun!

Not bad for 2 hours of shopping! The purple paste behind the "pains aux raisins" is cassis jelly made out of blackcurrants - such an intense flavour! 

Carley and Jim had a car, so we could do a day trip to Mont Ventoux. Ever since we left Switzerland it rained every day in the afternoon, which is unusual for early summer. No exception on Mont Ventoux! This was what it looked like while approaching, but as soon as we got there it was completely closed in and we got wet.

 

Not much of a view!

A typical "Provence" shot.

Another day trip to Fontaine-de-Vaucluse and ....

... a fabulous meal at Restaurant Philip.

When in France one finds roman structures: Kirsten riding over Pont Julien.

After a week of relaxing and eating, it was time to get back on the bikes: heading west and then turning north through beautiful rural valleys. Poppies are called "pavots rouges" or "coquelicots" in French.

Dinner in a dungeon in Forcalquier. So many crumbly walls and uneven steps! 

The town of Sisteron is called the "Gateway to Provence" because it is located in a narrow gap between two mountain ridges. It has been inhabited for 4,000 years and has a violent history of invasions and sieges. The citadel has been restored and is now a museum.

View from the citadel. Note the (daily) storm on the horizon and the rock climbers in the large crevice.

Looking north from the citadel with the main part of town.

The gorges de la Méouge is a famous swimming spot with turquoise river cascades. Due to the daily thunderstorms, it turned out to be a muddy torrent. We did the 65km circuit as a day ride from Laragne over the col Saint-Jean, our first mountain pass of the trip.

Refuelling before the climb.

What is happening to the French?! Baguettes out of a vending machine?

This was very handy - a washing machine outside the supermarket. Just add dirty laundry and a few coins, the rest is automatic.

Most of the ride is on sealed roads through rural valleys, .... 

... over many mountain passes, ...

... and through some very deserted small villages.

It was often hard to find accommodation, so in this case we had to descend to the next town (Serres below) and then climb back up to the trail the next morning. On the upside, we had an amazing Vietnamese meal!

What a fabulous spot for morning tea! Zoomed in...

... and zoomed out.

The long climb to Col de Rousset, which has a very comfortable incline of mostly between 3% and 6%.

The ClimbFinder website is fantastic! We found that anything over 7% is hard with luggage and at 12% we are definitely walking.

It's time to put the calories back in! Ravioli gratin with terrine for lunch in Vassieux-en-Vercors.

Breakfast is definitely more exciting in France! It is common practice to buy the bread in the bakery and consume it in a restaurant/bar were they serve coffee.

The area is famous for goat and sheep cheese - unfortunately not our favourites.

Another day and another Col (or two or three).

Traffic jam à la Chartreuse.

There was only one place to stay in Valdrôme. It turned out to be simple and cheap with amazing food from local farmers.

View before the long descent into Grenoble, our first city on our way north.

Grenoble seen from the "Fort de La Bastille". The cable car station was next to our accommodation, so not much exercise for the day.

We rented a studio for two nights to have a break, explore the city and enjoy the amazing food. In the remote villages it often happened that the only bakery or restaurant in town was closed for the day, so we ended up eating our emergency ration of bananas and peanuts for dinner or breakfast on several occasions. Even more so we enjoyed the feast in Grenoble!

Here is lunch.....

... and dinner. Note that the bottles are still the same ones.

While we were enjoying our studio, it started to get really busy on the street below. It turned out to be the Critérium du Dauphiné (an annual cycling road race over eight days finishing in Grenoble) and team Jumbo–Visma parked their trucks right underneath our balcony. We had an entire afternoon of entertainment!

In the Chartreuse valley we got rained on for the first time since Mont Ventoux. Usually we managed to be in a hotel by the time the afternoon thunderstorm arrived, but we completely mis-judged this one! We had a nice lunch sitting in the sun, while the storm appeared from behind and we had no idea until we got back on the bikes.

Lucky we carried rain gear all the way! Kirsten with her shower cap.

Chartreuse is a super alcoholic herbal liqueur, made in a local monastery. It was described to us as "tasting like cough syrup that burns your throat". Spot on!

Amazing landscapes everywhere.

Our hotel in Aiguebelette-le-Lac is in the middle of the photograph. We had a balcony onto the lake - our nicest hotel yet!

Are we getting a bit tired of the constant up and down every day (~1,000m)? Or is it just that the weather was getting hotter? Trying this on an e-bike instead has crossed my mind!

Another small town with all the shops closed. Lunch ended up being ice-cream! You have to either go to a supermarket before lunch (because they all close for a few hours over lunch time) or you have to hope that the one restaurant in town serves anything other than offal.

Back in Chanaz where we started our ride.

From Chanaz we took the train to Geneva and rode along the southern side of the Lake to the small medieval town of Yvoire. After the solitude of the mountain valleys, the groups of tourists were a bit of a shock. But it is a very cute town! I forgot how clean the water is in Lake Geneva.

On the ferry back to Switzerland.