Day 61: Baix to Lapalud

November 6, 2022

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The days are starting quite chilly, with 5 degrees today, but we are not much bothered by this, and it does warm up (to around 16) quite quickly. Our gite had a nice balcony fronting on the river, and this gave a great sunrise view this morning:

The town of Baix is like many in this region, but still special for folks from our part of the world.

Through this little alley was the bike way, but we took a long way around.

We had only been cycling a short while when out of a "hole" popped Yannick and Nicolas. They had passed the night under the shelter, and were now ready to go. Of course this produced lots more greetings, and one more requisite photo.

The "hole" - good choice, except for any possible flooding!

They are off - chances are we will meet again!

Next up for us, in the vicinity of Cruas, were two industrial sites. One was a quarry, the Saint Bauzile quarry, we think, which extracts the volcanic-sedimentary rock Diatomite. It produces dramatic eaten away cliff views by the river.

The second site is the huge nuclear electric plant, with four reactors, each of 900 MW. This accounts for 5% of the electricity production of France. We once opposed a gas fired plant in our region, which would have been 240 MW, so Cruas is 15 times bigger than that!

The plane is surrounded by razor wire, but we were still surprised that we could come as close as we did. In 2011 two protesters entered the site and posted their adventures on the internet for 14 hours.

We spotted what turned out to be Rochemaure in the distance, and as we drew closer we got increasingly detailed views of the incredible structures perched high in the cliffs. Hi

Quite aside from the castle on the hill, we were attracted to Rochemaure by having spotted what we call an "ant" on the trail. Since French necessarily carry their baguettes in a very visible way, if you need a bakery you need only follow the trail of baguette carrying people back to where they are thickest.

Rochemaure turned out to have two open bakeries this Sunday, which was great. As I waited with the bikes for Dodie to return with the treasures, I listened to two men sitting outside. They did not seem to be quite speaking French, and I soon asked Dodie's opinion about it. She certified it as French, based on the rhythms, but like me could not make out what they were saying. So I went over (of course) and asked them about their strange accent. Of course, they did not acknowledge having an accent, and when asked if they were "from here", they assured me they were. Given their slightly darker skin tone, I believe I had encountered our first genuine Provençals.

In the distance at Rochemaure, Dodie spotted a small market. In accordance with our market policy, we went over to check it out.

One of the iconic categories of things on offer were market baskets, or panniers. We usually call our bicycle saccoches panniers, but these are real panniers.

Mainly the market comprised two fruit and vegetable sellers. Some of their stuff caught my attention. One was kiwis, obviously local and not sorted to look perfect. In fact, I have never seen them in weird shapes like this.

The other item was grapes. We have been seeing not a single grape left on the vines locally, not even a raisin! So feeling slightly grape deprived, these looked really good!

Another Rochemaure "treat" was the Himalayan suspension bridge. Dodie is fine with sturdy high bridges, but she hates bridges that wobble. She crossed this one very hesitantly.

The bridge has an amusing set of cautions, warning us off stuff we would be very unlikely to try out - like climbing over the guard rails or swinging from the structure! However, riding the bike is also forbidden, and everyone ignored that!

OK, but don't climb over and swing from the cables!

Montelimar was planned as the highlight of our day. The reason for this is exclusively the G. Savin nougat factory, known as SupremNougat. We come here every time we are in the region, which ok, is not that many times, but we love it. Naturally we love it because we love nougat, which is a concoction of egg whites, usually chewy, and filled with nuts or fruits. But also Savin is bound up with the history of the National 7, and they have a series of cartoon like graphics depicting the idealized time in the 50's and 60's when vacationers coming down from Paris on the National 7 would pass their door, and they were the first nougat place that visitors from the north side would encounter.

It is also the case that every time we have been in the shop, we have had a very friendly greeting, and last time, in the factory tour, they answered our incessant questions and let us get right up close to the processes.

One disadvantage of going to Savin is that it is a 5 km detour off the Via Rhona. But that is no impediment for nougat lovers. It is a bit tricky, as you have to follow the river Roubion in from the Rhone, and last time it mystified us about how to get off it and into the town. This time we or the GPS were smarter and we popped up at just the right and easy place.

Once in town, there is a bike lane all the way to Nougat heaven.

The pamphlet from Tourist Information claims 12 nougat factories in the region. While this may be true, all that we passed on the way to Savin seemed out of business.

We love the graphics on the exterior walls, repeated in some of the product packaging.

We parked our bikes around back, near an olive tree. An olive tree is a big thing to someone from our region! And this one had ripe (black) olives! Despite the warning from Dodie I bit one. It's amazing how necessary whatever darn processing is done to olives, green or black, is!

The Savin boutique is a wonderland of not only all their nougat products, including the non-nougat treat Calisson, but also lots of Provence oriented tourist stuff. Aside from the possible Occitan speakers at the bakery, this is our first indication that we really are in Provence.

These metal boxes of soap feature standard Provence themes

There are also large tiles like this, with Provence themes

The images in the products juxtapose Provence icons in an unlikely way, but we like them alot anyway.

More of the Provence knick knack section

This is our "small" haul from the boutique. We avoided the big heavy bags of bulk nougat. Pretty smart, eh!

The is only one calisson in our stash. "Calissons are a traditional French candy consisting of a smooth, pale yellow, homogeneous paste of candied fruit and ground almonds topped with a thin layer of royal icing. They have a texture similar to that of marzipan, but with a fruitier, distinctly melon-like flavour"

Ok, like these people we are back toward the N7. Actually the N7 now swings around to bypass Montelimar on the east, between the town and the river.

Just for fun we cut directly through the old town on our way back to the canal and the Via Rhona

Near the Rubion we watched some fellows practising boules, and then it was back up on the bridge, back to Ardeche, where we came from before the crazy Nougat detour.

On the Ardeche side, lots of impressive cliffs.

And then suddenly, who should we meet but our German cycling friends again. This time, Nicolas asked us to "sign" his bike. Using a white marker, he has already collected quite a few autographs, with a lot from friends and family. We noticed "Oma" on there, for example.

So here we have it. The Grampies will travel to Africa on a bike, and never have to pedal!

By the way, further to sort of markings and souvenirs, we have naturally been seeing many St Jacques Compostella direction signs, but there is also a very common one that looks like an E. Google Lens has no idea what this is. Does anyone know?

We also spotted this one sticker, but have not had time to follow it up:

Further also to being now in Provence, here below is our first field of lavender.

Also, we think this could be Mont Ventoux in the distance, yes?

Our stop for the night is in the little village of Lapalud. Below is our street. We are in a very old and beautiful house, and were warmly greeted by the owner, Gerard. He calls his place Maison en Provence. We were offered some quality apple juice, and later warm chocolate cake. Gerard invited us to use his kitchen to prepare breakfast, and handed us the control for the garage door opener to get to our bikes. Every day of the tour now seems to be getting better and better. Tomorrow, Avignon!

FLASH! Tomorrow is Montreal granddaughter Evee's 10th birthday. First in the double digits! Happy Birthday Evee!

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,736 km (1,699 miles)

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