Day 15 - Bourge Saint Andéol to Vaison la Romaine - Gorging Ourselves in France ...Then Basquing in the Pyrenees - 2023

May 2, 2023

Day 15 - Bourge Saint Andéol to Vaison la Romaine

We Really Tried to Camp

Today was one of two half’s, both of them relatively short. The first half’s an extension of yesterday’s ‘travel and domestic’ day while the second half was ‘new exploration’ touring, at least for us.

We were pleased with our decision yesterday to keep biking south using the ‘hand of god’ tailwind we had as that made today’s journey that much shorter. This was a blessing as the wind was considerably stronger today, straight from the north again, and most of our day would be travelling east into the Côtes du Rhone. While we would not have a headwind, we would have a full on sidewind for most of the day, adding a sporty element to bridge crossings and generally just trying to stay on the road!

Although the wind was blowing strong with gusts over 60 kms, the sky was brilliant blue and the temperatures were in the high teens and would rise throughout the day to the mid 20’s, perfect for biking.

Departure from our hotel was shortly after 9, respectable for us, and we had the benefit of the tailwind for the first 9 Kms as we headed south along the Rhone before making a sharp left to head to Bolléne. This section was the least delightful part of the day as most of it was along busier main roads with a reasonable amount of traffic, several elevated overpasses, and the 60 km/hr sidewind! We actually walked a couple of the overpasses as it was difficult to keep the bikes on a narrow straight line with the wind.

As we approached Bolléne, its raison d’être became apparent. There is a large dam/generation plant along the Rhone right beside the town, and immediately adjacent to this is multi reactor nuclear power generation facility. Bolléne is a major power generation hub for the region.

So why were we here instead of riding through the bucolic pastures and vineyards in the surrounding area? LPG canisters! After being skunked yesterday K had sourced another Decathlon store on the outskirts of Bolléne, and we were determined to source the heretofore elusive LPG canisters for our camp stove.

As we pulled up to the store in a collection of strip malls on the northern outskirts of Bolléne we saw a couple of other bike tourers doing some work on their bikes outside of the store. We parked our bikes, K ventured into the store and I had a chat with the bike guys. They were Swiss and headed back home after starting out on the coast near Marsailles. They had some tyre issues as one guy was fitting a new set on his bike. While we were chatting, K emerged from the store triumphantly holding two LPG canisters aloft! We were now set. Our camping days would commence!

Cycling south east of Bolléne quickly got us back onto one of the many Côtes du Rhône cycle routes and on our way to Vaison la Romaine, our destination for the day. We could see what this area is so popular for cyclists. Quiet D roads, gently rolling terrain with a mixture of crops, vineyards and olive groves with the Alp foreland rising to the east. The heavy sidewinds continued, but we were often riding along hedge or tree lined roads which gave us some protection. It was pretty idyllic riding.

Our now standard lunch picnic was beside the Les river at Suze la Rousse, in the shade and sheltered from the wind. We then had an easy 25 km rolling ride to Vaison la Romaine. There are multiple well marked cycle route throughout this area, and you really don’t need a GPS if you re competent with a map and following signs, but this is the 21t century so we were following a course that RWGPS had mapped out (by following he course on our ‘electronic map’, we don’t venture into the territory of having our devices tell us where to turn …. That takes all the fun out of having several spousal debates during the day of whether we’re on the right road). Overall RWGPS did a great job. There were a few deviations from the signposted official bike routes that were on equally quiet roads and that usually cut off a little distance or avoided a small climb. However, about 5 km’s before Vaison la Romaine, RWGPS decided to play hardball. After luring us down a single lane paved farm road, I was just about to remark how great this little road was when we turned a corner and saw the pavement transform into a rutted boulder filled farm track … heading up a steep hill.

Well, on every tour you have to get off and push your bike at some point, and that was now.

It was only about 150 m before we were back on the paved and nicely contoured official bike route, the D94, for the final cruise down into Vaison la Romaine, a very beautiful town in the heart of Côtes du Rhône.

The town is one of the largest Gallo-Roman archeological sites in France and is a very popular tourist destination. Although it was busy with all number of people in shorts and flip flops (a dead give away that you’re on holiday) it didn’t feel crowded.

It was about 3 pm so we decided we’d head to the one campsite in town, Camping Théâtre du Romaine, and check in. The campsite is very conveniently located only a few hundred meters outside the main town centre and adjacent to some of the Roman theatre ruins, hence its name.

As we rolled through the gates we had our first pang of concern when we saw the sign ‘Complete’. Ah well, this is like all the ‘Route Barre’ signs we see all the time, they don’t really apply to cyclists.

Undaunted we parked our bikes and K went into the reception office to get a site. That when she was informed, nicely but firmly, that yes, that sign did indeed apply to cyclists, even ones with just a tiny tent.

Hmmm, the only other campsite in the area was a few km’s out of town, and its website was pretty clear that they did not take tents (makes you wonder what ‘camping’ has evolved into) so it looked like our triumphant return to tenting and the debut of the LPG canisters would have to wait for another day.

So, grab a table in the shade in the nice little patio area outside the campground office and spark up booking dot com. We quickly found a very nice looking Chambre d‘Hotel about 500 m away and while k was taking care of all the details, I started chatting to the two other folks sitting nearby. Serge and Stefan, a father and son combo who did have a site here, were quite interested in our bikes and what we were up to. With my very fractured French and their slightly better English, I managed to fill them in on the basics of our trip, for which we received a ‘chapeau!’, and they truly meant it. K was now done with the gîtes booking and joined in the conversation, with her much better French! We spent the next 20 minutes or so having a great conversation with them … and they offered their site to pitch our tent … however we had already paid for our gîte. After that, we bid adieu and set off for the short ride to our gîte.

Jade en Provance is sensational, and the proprietor Sabrina is even more amazing. That takes some of the sting out of not being able to sleep in our tiny tent tonight …. But we really did try!

Sabrina supplied us with our post ride bevies, merci beaucoup!, and gave us recommendations for dinner.

We’re spending another ‘off day’ here, always in the plan, to check out this very interesting town, and then its off to the south side of Ventoux and the Nesque gorge tomorrow.

The near vertical spike near the end was our ‘off road’ excursion. Every tour needs some of these.

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SOTD - Everything by Jehro, a French singer/songwriter from Marsailles. The chorus line of ‘I want everthing’ pretty much sums up what we’re trying to fit into this tour. Also a nice mellow tune that just fits the day (sorry Judy B, no Gordon Lighfoot today. We all mourn the passing of this Canadian music legend who just passed away, but there’s nothing in his extensive catalogue that fits today. His time will come though … there are always rainy days and Mondays 😏)

New model for the ‘start of the day’ picture. Our room was the first balcony above the restaurant.

Old storage cellar where the Tout’s spent the night

Super easy pedalling heading south along the Rhone to start the day. A 40-60 km/h wind coming from the north helped a little

Not a very scenic picture … but the point of this is that on the 2nd May it appears that this is probably the second crop of the year that’s being planted and irrigated. They probably get 3 crops a year in here vs the single crop in the Canadian prairies. That made me consider the scale of the Canadian prairies as most of the mustard, and and a good portion of the lentils consumed in Europe, come from Canada (where they are a relatively minor crop). There’s just so much diversity crammed into a relatively small area here.

Maremma number 1. As we were riding by a small flock of sheep, there was a particularly large one standing off on it own. Closer inspection revealed it was this guy, a huge Maremma sheep dog. This is a zoomed in shot. Although they look cuddly, they are not and it’s best if you keep your distance.

Now riding east of Bolléne into the Côtes du Rhône. Beautiful cycling with some shelter from the very strong cross winds

Very old vines! This is the first time we’ve toured in Europe in the spring and it’s great to see the ‘beginning’ of things instead of their harvest

The old and the new. The old place was for sale, definitely in the fixer upper category. I’m sure there’s another Peter Mayle out there somewhere.

Imposing castle overlooking Suze la Rousse and our lunch spot

Lovely old street in Suze la Rousse. Got the pic and then realized that it was the wrong road!. Only added a few hundred meters to the day but gained a photo opportunity

Ahhh, one of my favourite scenes! And no it’s not Ventoux. Sorry, not really a TDF or road biking fan (sacrilege to many I know), but I do like wine!

Vines are supposed to make more concentrated grapes in stony soil, but can this even be classified as ‘soil’?

Just another beautiful scene as we ride through the vineyards towards Vaison la Romaine. You can make out the strong cross wind from the grass and the large tree in front

Maremma number 2, again shot from a long distance.

Great roads on our RWPS generated route ….

… until this rough 150 m stretch. Every good tour involves a little push!

And after the push, a great view of the north side of Ventoux. The winds were probably over 80 km/h up there today!

At the ‘complete’ campsite in Vaison la Romain with Serge and Stephan.Thanks for the offer to share your campsite with us, but we just booked and paid for a gîtes.

Nature’s triptych, moon clouds and mountain on a beautiful spring evening.

Looking towards the ‘new’ medieval era part of V la R

Great casual dinner at Brasserie Chez Fred. We shared a Salade Périgourdine (a Provençal classic) to start.

Beautiful twilight on the walk back to our gîtes

Even more street scenes on the walk back. Love the contrast of these heavily pruned plane trees against the evening sky

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 599 km (372 miles)

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