October 14, 2022
Côtes du Rhône Village Ride
The siren calls of churches, castles, art, medieval ruins and 0ther alluring sights have cut into our saddle time on this trip. Tough choices. We get to balance the scales a bit today with a hilly ride through the Côtes du Rhône wine region.
Pedaling out from the Carpentras train station we find ourselves in the middle of Market Day. After an unsatisfying bagel this morning I’m hoping for second breakfast. We dismount and navigate the crowded cobblestone streets in a fruitless quest for a boulangerie stand. No luck. Ah, well, it’s a gorgeous day and time’s a wastin.’ Let's go....
A beautiful greenway takes us north past vineyards and olive groves, then we're on a country road that smells like flowers. I'm a fan of the rotaries in the little towns; they make the intersections a breeze.
In the village of Beaumes-de-Venise I find the pastry I've been craving. We stop to admire the Romanesque parish church while I wolf it down. We could probably make an afternoon of biking around the wineries here but have other plans, so we ride on through the narrow streets to the Route de Lafare and start up towards the village of Suzette.
There's a bit of work to do on the 7 mile climb, going up about 1200 feet to the Col de la Chaine. We have plenty of company with other cyclists enjoying the scenery. At least a dozen riders pass us coming the other way. At the top we are treated to sweeping views of wine country, Mont Ventoux and the Dentelles de Montmirail foothills. It's early but I'm already rating today as the pick bike ride of the trip.
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The descent is a blast, cruising through Malaucene to Vaison-la-Romaine, a town known for its Roman ruins and medieval history. The medieval town on the hill looks very cool but we're fixated on the idea of lunch after our morning's labors and pass on the extra climb up there.
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Crossing over the Ouveze river we continue on to the lower part of the town near the ancient ruins. A study of the restaurant menus leads us to Brasserie Chez Fred, which appears to have a number of things I understand. Barry orders the fish & chips which is quite good. I try the ravioli with morels for the experience. Pretty tasty, especially with a glass of local Côtes du Rhône.
After lunch we take a little time to stroll around the Gallo-Roman ruins of the Puymin site which is just one part of the largest archaeological dig in France. Several homes, shops, baths and a theater dating back to the first century have been excavated here. The town's name of Vaison became Vaison-la-Romaine in 1924 to celeberate this Roman heritage.
There's so much to see, we could occupy ourselves for days checking out the medieval and Roman sites here, not to mention the other charming villages in the region. But today is about the ride, time to get going.
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Leaving Vaison-la-Romaine, we have just about 7k left to get to Sablet and an hour and a half to get there. The plan is to catch a bus from Sablet to Orange and then take the train back to Avignon. On the way we'll pass by Seguret, which is billed as one of the most beautiful villages in France. We should have a bit of time to spin through there.
We get a bonus climb through the woods on the narrow twisty road to Seguret. When we get to the town the streets are all cobblestones so we park the bikes and hike up for a look. It is indeed a very pretty village. Wish we had time to sit, have a glass of wine and soak it in. Save that thought for later.
From Seguret it's a short ride to Sablet, which is deserted as we ride through town looking for the bus stop. At a convenience store I ask the clerk where to find l'arrêt de bus. She seems a little uncertain, but points us towards the rotary at a crossroads through the town. There we find City Hall and a bus sign for the Route d’Orange. Whew! We have 15 minutes to bag the bikes so we can put them in the hold and get on board. No sweat.
At 4:35 the bus rolls in right on time, and it's not slowing down. We wave to the driver, who smiles as she waves back and points down the road. I guess this is not the stop after all. It's probably not far from the real one, but with our bikes trussed up there's no way to get there in time. I'll add nailing down the bus stop location to my list of travel fails.
If we wait an hour-plus for the next bus it will be after 7 before we get to the Orange train station and then who knows when we'll be back in Avignon. Dinner hangs in the balance. Ah well, there's still plenty of daylight, let's just hammer out the 20k to Orange. We unfold the bikes, pull up a route and take off, passing the actual Sablet bus stop not more than 500 feet from our friendly but unsatisfying greeting with the bus driver.
Our hasty route choice isn't the best, possibly not even legal for bicycles judging from the traffic. We're deep into the compound error phase of today's adventure at this point. No pictures from this phase, just dealing. Still, the road is downhill, fast and pretty fun between breaks to let the platoons of cars pass. In less than an hour we're at the train station. All is well.
We make it back to Avignon in time for dinner and a show at the Irish pub near our hotel. Checking our distance I see that today's ride is the longest of the trip. I'm still rating it the best. Goofs and all, it's a worthy finale before we start the journey home tomorrow.
Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 643 km (399 miles)
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