June 6, 2025
Day 5 - Le Barroux to Saint-Ferréole-Trente-Pas
No Beaux Villages but a meetup with Beaux Ami’s!!
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We’ve done a good job so far picking accommodations. Les Geraniums in Le Barroux was a bit dated, and the toilet/bathroom setup was a bit funky, but it was super quiet. We slept well and woke to birds flitting around outside our rooftop window. It was so peaceful we almost went back to sleep. Nonetheless, we got ourselves downstairs for a decent (for France) breakfast.
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We rolled off shortly before 1000h through the surprisingly charming town of Le Barroux.
The first part of the ride was getting over the hills that separate Le Barroux from Malaucène. This proved to be more difficult than it had to be, since Rich had routed us onto back roads instead of over the higher-traffic main roads. The back roads are beautiful, but they twist and turn and go up and down. Mostly up. Steeply sometimes. We walked some 14 percent sections as unloaded road bikers and e-bikers flew by. The views, however, were wonderful.
We eventually joined up with the main departmental road and zoomed down into Malaucène. Definitely a city of bicycles. There were bike shops and riders all over the place! We didn’t stop, though, because we had a lunch date in Vaison-la-Romaine.
We climbed gently out of Malaucène, then coasted for what seemed forever down to Vaison-la-Romaine on a combination of bike paths and back roads. Cycleblazers and friends Chuck and Sanna Phinney were waiting for us on the Place Montfort. They were leaving today after spending a few days riding their tandem around Vaison. Their last ride yesterday was a trip up Le Mont Ventoux via Malaucène, which gave them the trifecta of ascending Ventoux from all 3 sides. Needless to say, we are in awe.
We had a great lunch and sat chatting long after the plates had been cleared. So much to catch up on! Lots of cycling and travel plans were discussed. It was great to see them. We left town very happy.
Vaison sits down along the river, so our first task after saying goodbye to Sanna and Chuck was to climb up the side of the river valley. The roads were again excellent, with small, short sections of steepness interspersed with a lot of flatter sections. All of them rideable, even by us.
We hit the top near Puymèras, and then turned northwest and generally downhill, first on a lovely back road and then on the main road. We shot downhill through Mirabel-aux-Barronies, outrunning the cars trailing us, and turned northeast to ride along the river Eygues toward Nyons.
In Nyons, we stopped for ice cream in a sweet little square that was unfortunately polluted with parked cars, then walked the pedestrian/tourist streets up to the “Roman” bridge. There are tons of these so-called “Roman” bridges in France, most of which date to the 11th or 12th century. Notwithstanding the name, it’s an impressive and beautiful structure that has stood for a long time. It was great to see it.
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Finished with sightseeing, we rode out of town and continued upriver on a fairly busy but comfortable departmental road. Long sections had wide shoulders, and the drivers were uniformly courteous and careful with us. The big advantage of these roads is that the grades are much less severe than those of the back roads we’re often riding. Something for Rich to keep in mind for future route-making.
Eventually, we turned left away from the river to start the last 8km climb to Saint-Ferréole-Trente-Pas. The traffic died away and there was a cool breeze coming down the valley. We’d had a long and often hot day, but we quietly and calmly chugged along, and finally arrived in front of the Auberge de Trente Pas. We were over an hour early for the 1730h checkin, but a text message to the friendly and efficient hostess got us into a beautiful room and Schnooks into a lovely locked bike garage complete with workbench and tools.
Saint-Ferréole-Trente-Pas is a tiny village (the name is almost bigger than the village), but the Auberge serves dinner and breakfast. So after cleaning up (and almost falling asleep waiting), we stumbled downstairs for a lovely old-style French hotel dinner with 5 other patrons. Again, we’re going to sleep well tonight!
Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 257 km (160 miles)
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