September 14, 2013
Day 58: Viviers to Chateauneuf de Pape
We crossed back on the bridge at Viviers, looking for a quieter way south than on the D86. Down about 10 km to Donziere, and this being Saturday we ran into our first market. This being the left side of the Rhone, this would also likely qualify as our first Provencal market. The town is small and the market was just getting into gear, but it was still a thrill.
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My rear tire, which has been wobbling for a while, got a lot worse yesterday. A close look this morning revealed that good old Schwalbe Greenguard was bulging and delaminating, a bit like what the front did in Germany. The bulge had also moved the tire out enough to rub on the brake pad retaining pin, the bit that holds the rubber in on our replaceable pad Jagwire shoes.
So that put us back on the hunt for a bike shop with quality 20 inch tires. Hah!
Anyway, Pierrelatte has a bike shop, so we headed there. Only, we ended up on the N7 to Pierrelatte. We have slowly come to realize that the N7 is the Route 66 of this region. That is, it transcends the whole region and passes through town centres. Although N7 involved white line cylcling at first, it soon gave us a shoulder, and we were cruising!
The bike shop in Pierrelatte had only one 20 inch tire, and it was a low pressure knobbly "toy" one. We gave it a miss, gambling heavily that we would not end up walking to the next bike shop town, Pont St Esprit. We had to say goodbye to N7, which has other things on its mind, like probably getting to Marseilles. However we arived in Pont St Esprit quite handily. Almost right off the bridge into town, a girl crossing the street noticed our flags. It was Madelaine, from Mississagua, which of course is in Canada, near Toronto. How strange to hear again the Canadian accent.
Madelaine is staying and was walking with some local people, and they directed us to the bike shop. One the way, they casually remarked, you will see the Saturday market. The bike shop was nearby, where they had said, and they too had one tire, but this one has a chance of being OK. When I pulled off the old tire, I found the rubber peeled back from the sidewall fabric, and that I could see my finger through that fabric! C'mon Schwalbe, let's get serious here!
And about that casually mentioned market... my oh my, the largest number of vendors we have seen, anywhere, any time! The whole thing was packed, end to end, with shoppers. That assumes you could find an end, for it seemed to go on for ever, and round and round. There were cheeses and more cheeses, sausage and more sausage, bread, olives, and though Provence was technically over the bridge, lavender products of all types. Have a look at the photos - we had probably seen this all before in food or travel magazines, but this is real, and we are really here. Waaah!
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One strange interlude was when we came to a fence that was very very serious. This had 12 foot high concrete posts, rolls of barbed wire, was electrified, and had a no man's land followed by further electric fence. We were thinking, now that oughta keep the deer off the flowers, but this thing went on for kms, and it enclosed dozens of huge buildings. The only clue was the name Melox on one of the buildings. Internet now tells us that this is a plant that enriches uranium, making MOX fuel. We found studies about the environmental impact on the river. Hmmm. Dodie had already guessed it right as we cycled by, surmising that people in nearby towns must glow in the dark.
Eventually we came to vines that were on the flat, not up hills, and that were individually staked, not on wires, and that generally looked very bushy. Finally we noticed that these vines were planted in incredibly rocky soil. We had arrived: Chateauneuf du Pape, with (we soon learned) its famous rocky soil. p.s. to be perfectly fair, Dodie is the one who noticed the rocks, at the distance, I thought it was mulch. Duh!
The town of Chateauneuf du Pape is pretty, like most towns in this area. What distinguishes it are the large number of Domains, and Caves. They are everywhere. Since wine tasting is not our thing, we just cycled through town marvelling at it all, and carried on to the camping by the river.
It had reached 35 degrees today, so we were quite tired from heat, if not distance or hills. Showers pretty much fixed that, and we will be very ready to see Avignon tomorrow. Actually, sitting here typing this in the laundry room, I am almost already there, because they have this big picture over the washing machine:
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 3,944 km (2,449 miles)
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