It's still 2021, and here in France we're still emerging from the misery of COVID-19.  Like everywhere else, progress isn't linear.  The delta variant is causing cases to jump, especially here in southern France and along the coasts.  Basically everywhere where the French go on vacation.

We're sticking to our plan of staying within France for our 2021 travel.  This reduces the uncertainty to a level we're comfortable with, and honestly makes the whole process of pulling off a tour easier.  We remain amazed at the brave and hardy souls elsewhere on CycleBlaze that are roaming around the world.  We're not that adventurous!

After our successful trip along the Loire, this trip will follow France's other massive river, the Rhone.  The ViaRhona is the name for the cycle route that follows the Rhone from Geneva to the Mediterranean sea.   We won't be riding the entire length of the ViaRhona because it's too long a tour for us.  We'll start in Vienne, just south of Lyon, and finish in Arles.   Here's a map of the planned route.

Careful map readers may note a few points of divergence from the ViaRhona itself.  We will detour up into the hills to visit several interesting villages that are listed in the "Plus Beau Villages de France" guide.  We find that we enjoy these places, which are specially collected for their architectural/historic/visual interest.  These detours probably account for almost all of the climbing on this tour.  We also are making a slight detour for one night to stay in an interesting-looking chateau/domaine kind of place.  More on that later.

Equipment for this tour will remain unchanged from our previous tour, although we have a new wheel bearing super-glued into our rear wheel in an attempt to defeat a rattle that was driving Rich crazy on the previous tour.

We like touring in September, because hotels and restaurants are still open but most of the tourists have gone back to Paris.  Weather here in the south is generally pretty good that time of year, although this year it seems anything goes.  If the mistral does decide to blow, it will be on our backs for almost all the ride.  We'll try to be ready for just about anything!

At the moment we're hunkered down at home, trying to stay cool and tending the garden.   The weather is very warm and the vegetables are coming in daily.  We're having trouble keeping up!