Most participants from San Diego flew to Paris and took the French TGV (bullet train) to Avignon. There was a brief strike by French air traffic controllers just before the tour; fortunately, it did not prevent anyone from reaching Avignon in time for the tour.
The tour began on Monday, June 26 at the Hotel D'Angleterre in Avignon, conveniently located within walking distance of the railroad station. Most participants arrived early and were able to try out the bicycles rented from Alyson Adventures for the tour. Only two or three participants went to the trouble and expense of bringing their own bicycles. Some brought their own seats, pedals or other accessories. I brought an odometer.
One of the guides led a brief walking tour of downtown Avignon, pointing out buildings of various ages and architectural styles, including the crown jewel of Avignon, the papal palace, a fortress-like structure used by a series of popes who lived there in the late Middle Ages.
At an informal reception, tour participants were introduced to each other and to our three guides: Ed (who led the walking tour), Amy and Matthew. Amy and Matthew are Americans who also speak French. Ed is a Frenchman who also speaks English (and he speaks it very well).
Bicycle travel began every morning at 9:30 AM, at least for those who elected to follow the guide. Daily distances varied from 43 to 74 kilometers, or somewhat more for those who made side trips. (One kilometer is approximately 0.6 miles.) Most participants finished each day's ride in the afternoon. At this time of year in this part of the world, nightfall does not come until about 9:30 PM.
On some days, supper at 8:00 PM was included as part of the tour, usually preceded by a reception of some kind, such as a wine or mineral water tasting. There was always plenty of time to bathe and change.
Two of the guides rode with us; the third drove the support van. They rotated their duties, so we got to ride with all of them.
The weather was usually quite good - warm and partly sunny. There was no rain during the tour, except for some barely perceptible sprinkles on Saturday morning. We didn't have to ride any appreciable distance against heavy headwinds. Heat was a problem only on the afternoon of the last day.
Only one of the riders really spoke French. I and some others had a rather limited knowledge of the language, in my case derived from a college course taken 36 years earlier. I think everybody learned a few French words, such as "pont", which means bridge. We saw and crossed quite a few of them. Although it didn't rain while we were there, Provence must get a lot more rain than Southern California. The area has bigger rivers and bridges and more of them.
Alyson Adventures provided each of us with a detailed itinerary and a road map of Provence. The directions were generally quite good, especially for unmarked or poorly marked turns, but the distances stated on the directions sometimes differed from my odometer readings by a kilometer or two.
Participating Rainbow Cyclists members were: Jeff Alexander, Jim Bishop, Scott Borden, Patti Brown, Daniel Buker, Elana Cooper, Philip Erdelsky, Chuck Petersen, Chuck Van Beveren and Michael Madison. Joan Fitzgerald had also planned to participate but had to cancel because she broke a finger in a bicycle accident only two weeks before the tour.
Day 1 - Avignon to Uzès, 43 Kilometers
We rode out of Avignon on Tuesday at 9:30 AM, following Ed. The most interesting part of the day was the lunch stop at the Pont du Gard, a famous three-level stone arch bridge built in antiquity to carry an aqueduct supplying water to Nîmes. We rode across the lower level, which is currently open only to pedestrians and bicyclists.
Some participants rode an extra 19 kilometers to see some local gorges. Others, including me, opted for a more direct route, detouring only a short distance to see the medieval Pont St. Nicholas.
The hotel St. Genies on the outskirts of Uzès, where we spent the second night of the tour, was the only one with a swimming pool, which most of us were happy to use. Unfortunately, it also had mosquitoes, and most of us were bitten that night.
Day 2 - Uzès to Vallon-Pont d'Arc, 74 Kilometers
This was the longest day of the tour, although it didn't feel like it. Morning overcast something like San Diego's "June gloom" and partial cloudiness in the afternoon made a warm day seem cooler.
I checked my newly installed bicycle odometer against kilometer markers on one road and found it to be reasonably accurate.
Lunch was a picnic in a sort of plaza in downtown Goudargues. Normally, this area is relatively quiet, but this time we happened to arrive on market day. Some riders took the opportunity to go shopping.
At the end of the day, we rode down the first few kilometers of the famous gorge of the Ardèch River to reach the Hotel Chames, which is right on the banks of the river. A particularly interesting sight along the way was the Pont d'Arc, where the river long ago took a shortcut and punched out a new course, leaving a natural arch over the river.
The Ardèch River is better suited for canoeing than swimming, but some participants took a late-night swim anyway.
Day 3 - Vallon-Pont d'Arc to Pont-St-Esprit, 43 Kilometers
The ride began with the only killer hill of the entire tour -- a four-kilometer climb out of the gorge to the east rim. It was a fairly challenging ascent, with grades of about 8-12 percent, but the views were worth it.
Along the way, we took a group tour of a cave that running water had carved into the limestone of the east bank. Most of the formations look just like those in similar caves in the United States, but there were a few that were new to me.
We were on our own for lunch; most of us had lunch in one of two restaurants in St. Martin, a town on the Ardèch River just south of the gorge. Then we crossed the river on a one-lane suspension bridge. High places normally make me nervous, but I had no difficulty riding across this bridge because it is actually quite solid and gives very little sense of height to a bicyclist riding along the middle of it.
Upon arrival at the Hotel del la Bourse in Pont-St-Esprit, we had to store our bikes in a small area just inside the front door, right in front of the elevator (which was out of order). It seems that the garage formerly used to store bikes had been sold then the hotel was taken over by a new management.
The hotel did have one feature that we all appreciated and that none of the other hotels had -- air conditioning.
Day 4 - Pont-St-Esprit to Vaison-La-Romaine, 43 Kilometers
We started this day out by crossing another bridge - a medieval bridge over the Rhône River from which Pont-St-Esprit took its name.
Along the way we stopped to photograph some sunflowers. We saw lots of sunflower fields, but this one was especially impressive.
Again we were on our own for lunch. A number of us stopped in Ste-Cecile-les-Vignes to get something to eat. This time, instead of eating at a restaurant, we bought food at a bakery and a little grocery store. Some of us stayed in town to eat; the rest of us rode out of town and stopped to eat at a roadside picnic table.
The Hotel Burrhus in Vaison-la-Romaine, where we stayed for the next two nights, is right in the center of town, on the Place Montfort.
Day 5 - Vaison-la-Romaine
We stayed in Vaison-la-Romaine for two days. Some of us took this opportunity to rest our pedaling muscles. Others took short bike trips to nearby villages.
Three Rainbow Cyclists members -- Daniel Buker, Patti Brown and Elana Cooper -- rode to the top of Mont Ventoux and back. Mont Ventoux is the highest peak between the Alps and the Pyrenees. According to the tour guides, that's a suggested side trip that no participant in the Mistral tour had ever taken before. The ascent of this mountain is one of the more grueling parts of this year's Tour de France. Click here for Elana's Report on the conquest of Mont Ventoux.
I and some others used the day to visit some interesting places within walking distance of the hotel. Just north of the downtown area are two places where the ruins of the old Roman city of Vaison are being excavated. Just south of the downtown area, on the other side of the river, is the Haute Ville, a medieval hilltop town which is still inhabited. At the top of the hill are the remains of a castle. We visited several hilltop castles on this trip, but this was the highest and had the best views.
The Haute Ville is connected to the downtown area by the Pont Romaine, an arch bridge in continual use since Roman times. Only a few years ago, it survived a flood that washed out other, newer bridges in the area.
Several of us went to lunch at a little outdoor restaurant in the Haute Ville with a magnificent view. We asked the waitress, "Parlez vous anglais [Do you speak English]?", and she answered, "Yes, I'm Irish!"
Day 6 - Vaison-la-Romaine to Avignon, 62 Kilometers
We started the day by crossing the Pont Romaine and then heading southwest.
Only a few kilometers out of town, Chuck Van Beveren took a spill in one of southern France's many traffic circles. He wasn't seriously injured, but he did get some significant road rash in several places. He was picked up by our support van and did not ride the rest of the way. Fortunately, this was the most serious injury of the trip.
We stopped for lunch in the city of Orange, noted for its Roman amphitheater, which has been partially restored and is in use as an amphitheater. While the remains of Roman amphitheaters can be seen in many places around the Mediterranean, most of the stages and backdrops have been torn down for use as building materials, and only the seats remain. The one in Orange escaped that fate because it was used as a fortress.
Provence is wine country, and no tour would be complete without a wine tasting. We stopped in the town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape for wine tasting. Most of us bought a bottle or two. Fortunately, we didn't have to carry the precious cargo to Avignon on our bicycles; it went in the support van.
The ride back to Avignon on Sunday afternoon was the only time the weather turned unpleasant. It was quite hot and humid, and I was exhausted by the time I reached the hotel.
That evening, the entire country went a little bit crazy after France won a European soccer championship. We walked back to the hotel through crowds of Frenchmen cheering, honking and embracing strangers.
Home Again
Rail and air connections for the return to San Diego weren't ideal, so most of us had to stay overnight in Paris in a hotel near the airport. But Scott had that all arranged, and he was there to show us the way to the hotel and back.
Miscellaneous Pictures
Credits
Photograph of sunflower field courtesy of Philip Erdelsky.
All other photographs courtesy of Daniel Buker and Jack Mulder.