22 May - Chateauneuf du Pape

That last post was the last one written on the trip...now I'm reconstructing.... The ride on May 22 was longer than expected. I planned to ride up to Chateauneuf du Pape (i.e. the new chateau of the Pope, a terroir that has been growing wine since the Popes were in Avignon).

I thought I could cut across this little island in the Rhone to the north of Avignon. The map showed bridges connecting it to another island and thence to the E side of the Rhone but the 1st of the bridges was inside a fenced off area--it turned out to be a hydroelectric dam. It's too bad b/c it would make for a great, traffic-free cycling route. The island itself is all agricultural & woodlands (probably the private gardens and hunting grounds of the Popes back in the day...).


Another corridor of sycamores.


Around the corner is where the PYTs of Avignon go to take their riding lessons.


And more of the ubiquitous poppies.


After spinning around the island for a while, and realizing that the only way off was the way I got on, I headed up the W side of the Rhone, past this vineyard.



I took a detour here, up a short climb to the town of Pujaut. There's a bit about the town here, with a map -- I was riding up the D980 and took the 2nd left into Pujaut from Sauveterre. What that link doesn't tell is the etymology of the name...it's not just a really bad misspelling of Peugeot -- it comes from the Latin "Podium Altum" meaning a high hill...the spelling changed sometime in the 14th century, according to this site.

After getting back on the D980 I passed a trio of cyclists whom I'd later discover were from North America, and made my way through a series of roundabouts/rotaries/traffice circles to the bridge across the Rhone. Then I headed back south towards Chateauneuf du Pape. The ride would wind up being the shape of the letter C, b/c the roads north of Avignon are all industrial and unsuitable for cycling.

Heading south towards CDP Mont Ventoux was visible again beyond the vineyards.


I didn't stop at any of the wineries in CDP but did stop off at this one, Domaine Tour St Michel, about 1/2 an hour's ride south of the town.




The wine was a typical Cote du Rhone...a Syrah/Grenache blend. After the tasting here and another at the wine store in the Palace of the Popes, I confirmed that Syrah/Grenache is just not a style of wine I'm crazy about, at least not in a tasting room. Leathery, musty, the kind of wine that really demands red meat, olives, tomato sauce etc. The ones I drank at meals were delicious but I think they're hard to evaluate without the context of a meal to work with the flavors of the wine.

After that I rode about 20 minutes more south and realized that the roads into Avignon were traffic-filled and industrial, and decided to go back the way I came. I stopped for lunch (back) in CDP, which was where I chatted with the trio of cyclists I had passed, & the guy confirmed for me that there was no other good route back to Avignon other than the way I had come. Ended the ride with 107 km on the odometer. That was the last ride I got in on the trip -- I averaged about 97 km (or just over 60 miles)/ day, which I can't complain about since my longest ride of 2006 prior to the trip was 95 km. I also wound up with a distinctive cyclist's tan line:


The next morning I took a photo of this storefront before getting the train to Paris:

May 21 - to Pont du Gard, west of Avignon

I headed out today to the W of Avignon, but the start of the ride was the same since there seems to be only one bike-friendly way to get in or out of town. Once I got off the river, the ride seemed to leave the floodplain of the Rhone more quickly. Here and there are these small hills.

Just around the corner was this 12th century church -- this is approaching Theziers from Aramon on the D19.

Theziers was kind of interesting -- it is an old walled medieval town but it doesn't seem to have been restored / affected much by tourism. I spiraled up the road to the center of town next to an old church. Here's a view downhill.


And one looking up to the church tower.


Here's a shot looking back at the church over the town, with some newer houses outside the city walls in the foreground.


This is the famous Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard--there weren't a lot of tourists right now but I can imagine this must be a mess in the summer. There are visitors' centers with tons of bus parking on either side of the bridge. Add that to 100+ F temperatures etc.


In the old town of Castillon du Gard. There was a little flea market going on here out in the streets, & somewhere there is a bicycle museum but I couldn't find it & decided to head on.


A view from Castillon of the landscape, and the road I'd be riding on a few minutes later.


Pont du Gard, viewed from the same spot.


Another view of the landscape--mixtures of vineyards & olive trees.


Looking back up to the spot (on the far R of the hill) where the previous pictures were taken.


I headed south from Castillon du Gard towards Cabrieres. Just after Collias there was another bridge over the Gard, from which I took this picture of the cliffs--there was a canoe rental place right across, and a lot of people swimming further downstream. It was a really hot day--staying moving on the back, especially given how flat it was, kept me cool but I was a little worried about sunburn and dehydration.


A field of poppies south of Cabrieres.


There was a long stretch here where I didn't take pictures but which was actually one of the most interesting parts of the ride. The ride climbed up the gorge of a S-N flowing stream, for maybe half an hour, not climbing much (maybe 250m elevation altogether) but steadily, first through rocky scrub then a dry forest. All the way along the sides of the (deserted) road there were glimpses of trails and occasional trailheads with signs. It could be a really good place for a mt. bike (aka a VTT).

These two signs were from the Redessant Cave Cooperative i.e. winemaking cooperative. There were lots of wineries all along here but they all seemed to be closed--Sunday afternoon before the tourist high season. (blogger isn't formatting this quite right...)

Rather than going straight into Avignon, I went passed the bridge a bit into Villeneuve. There's a tower here that used to be the west side of the old Pont d'Avignon before it got taken out by floods in the 17th C.

A view down the stairs...these steep, winding stone stairs will look familiar to anyone who has travelled in Europe...but they are even less pleasant to negotiate with cleated cycling shoes. I sounded like a horse...click...click...click....


But there were great views at the top -- this is to the north, the Chartreuse fort / monestary, now a school / writing center for playwrights.


To the northeast...Mont Ventoux in the distance. You can see why recreational cyclists generally ride up the east side.


And to the east...the Palace of the Popes and Avignon. There were a couple of American ladies here who offered to take my picture after I took theirs for them.

To the south, the Rhone. The first bridge on the R. is the main cycling route out of Avignon.


Back across the Rhone. The Palace of the Popes is built on this huge chunk of rock, which was previously at the center of a Roman fortification and before that an Iron Age settlement.


The Pont d'Avignon.


The ride ended just after this, with 119km (74 miles) on the odometer. To give an idea of how much flatter the cycling is, my max HR for this ride was 166 BPM, which I was probably only at for a few short climbs, whereas I was probably around there most of the hour plus up Alpe d'Huez, with stretches well over 170 & up to around 182 or so.

May 20 - south of Avignon

May 20

First thing--I e-mailed Union today and accepted the job there (2-year job in Schenectady, NY), which means I need to start thinking about another x-country move. A bit of a distraction.

I got into Avignon around 1:45 or so, after a routine train ride from Montpellier. I managed to get unpacked & riding by 3 or so. The first part of the ride was the unexciting D2--across the bridge to Villeneuve Les Avignon (i.e. the new city...built in the 15th C or so but new by comparison to Avignon itself) then S. along the Rhone. That could be really pretty but the river itself is hidden by the road by a huge levee. A lot of the riding here makes me wonder what it must be like to live in Iowa or someplace like that--it's dead flat, with only the prevailing winds making for any change in the resistance. I find hills much more interesting...

Eventually the ride crosses the Rhone and doubles back NE a bit through Barbentane where there's this small but attractive chateau:


In the parking lot was this sealed house with a sign in the lower L: "A Travers La Montagnette" -- i.e. the little mountain. It was really little.


This is coming down the back of the Montagnette. The scenery is very different from the Alps, both because it's flat & because of the Mediterranean climate. Before this was a short climb through a low, dry forest. Needless to say a lot of it reminded me of parts of southern Africa and California.


This shot is a little further along, going W from Maillane where I started closing the loop of the ride. The trees on the right are a wind break.


Here's one of these corridors of trees like I was describing on the ride back from l'Alpe d'Huez. They're not oaks--I asked someone at the conference about them--they're related to sycamores, but the French prune them into lots of various forms. Especially here, where the sun is intense in May, coming into one of these corridors as you enter a town is very cool and refreshing.


This is why they need windbreaks--these trees are apparently in a very windy spot.


You'd think the tourism dept. planted this old deux cheveux (2CV) on this backroad, but a second later a guy stepped out who was fishing in the stream here. Cycling on these tiny backroads was nice, but each stretch was only 1-3 km or so long, so it made for a lot of navigation stops.


Some haystacks. Van Gogh lived in Arles, about 20 km south of here, when he cut off his ear and was hospitalized.


At the end of this road I passed this old guy on a bike.


This is now in Tarascon. Colorful shutters are one of the trademarks of Provence.


This tower was also next to the bridge over the Rhone at Tarascon--it needs two pictures to convey the mass & size when you're up next to it.



La Tarasque -- presumably this is the creature for which Tarascon is named (?)


A view of a rowing club with some fortifications in the background, across the Rhone from Tarascon.


Looking back--this is the structure with the tower in the two pictures above.


And on the way back--on the bridge leading back into Avignon--some people bowling. I passed several of these bowling grounds, all packed with people of all ages.


After the ride (81 km total, or a little over 50 miles) I got back into Avignon and started wandering around in search of dinner. In the main square there is this interesting two-story carousel.


It was also "La Nuit des Musees" so a bunch of the museums were free & open until 11 PM, which would make for a very long day. First stop was the Palace of the Popes from back in the day when the papacy was based in Avignon rather than the Vatican.







Here's an interior shot. I didn't realize this, but Avignon was ruled from Rome until the 1790s, when it joined with some neighboring areas and became part of France. At this point the palace was used as a military barracks although the picture actually is of a 17th (I think) century ceiling, when the room where the Popes used to hear indulgences was converted into an armory.


Interesting gargoyle of a boy and his dog.


A replica of a papal indulgence. You, too, can be freed of sin if the price is right.


One of the courtyards. Unfortunately most of the spaces were too vast & dark to shoot much here.


This is a window on the courtyard where the popes used to make some of their public appearances--the rose and bars are early 20th century reconstructions.