June 7, 2025
Day 6 - Saint-Ferréole-Trente-Pas to Montélimar
One more Beau Village and some really Beaux Paysages
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An exceptionally quiet night in the lovely Auberge de Trente Pas. We’ve been sleeping really well, probably due to the level of effort we’ve been putting in each day. But this place is really nice - quiet, well-furnished, and well-maintained. A pleasure to stay here!
We had breakfast downstairs, which is the only negative thing to report. Cereal, yoghurt, bread, butter, and jam was offered, but no extra protein for hard-working cyclists. After spending some time chatting with the owner, we rolled off shortly after 0930h.
The job for the first 8 kilometers was clear. We had a climb to do to get to the Col de la Sausse. The climb was within our capabilities, never really getting above 6% for very long. The bottom of the climb runs through the beautiful “Defile de Trente Pas”, where the canyon narrows and the limestone cliffs loom over the road and the creek below. So we had lots to look at for distraction.
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As we approached the col, the landscape opened up and we had beautiful views over the hills and lavender fields. There was just a fine mist of purple over the tops of the lavender plants - beautiful! We stopped a few times for pictures before rolling up to the col sign. Some friendly local roadies took our picture as we celebrated our first big climb of the trip.
The incredible views over the hills and villages continued after the col. We had 10km of beautiful descent on a pristine road to Crupies, where we turned left and started our second climb of the day - the Col de l’Homme. It was a pleasant ascent through stunning countryside, and again the gradients were well within our (limited) abilities.
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From the Col de l’Homme, we started what was effectively a long downhill coast for the 44km remaining into Montélimar. The only uphill was due to the presence of the Beau Village of Le Poët-Laval, which (of course) is up on top of a hill. We climbed up very poor pavement to approach the village from the back. The main car road to Le Poët-Laval (which we descended) has grades that exceed 17%. We were not going to ride up that!
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We were ready for lunch, so took advantage of what appeared to be the only business in Le Poët-Laval - the restaurant Chez So. Confronted with a daily menu with no a la carte ordering, we opted for our normal strategy. One of us orders entree+main and the other main+desert, and then we split the entree and desert. This resulted in a lovely meal, washed down with an IPA brewed just outside the village.
After eating, we poked around the village. It’s REALLY small! And has lots of stairs, which made moving the tandem around pretty difficult. After a bit of this, we were ready to get back on the road. A hair-raising descent down the steep access road brought us back to the D540, where we hung a right for points west.
We were riding on Saturday of the Pentecost weekend, so when planning Rich was concerned about traffic. We were pleased with the traffic volume (low) and shoulders (wide and well-surfaced), so we shortened our planned route by staying on the D540 for about 14km, finally abandoning it as it approached Montélimar and got busier and narrower. The abominable surface of the road through the village of La Bâtie-Rolland was the last straw. We headed north about 300 meters to our original route on quiet back roads.
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We had a couple of small climbs as we approached Montélimar from the east, and 2.5km from our hotel, the sky began to spit rain at us. In full sunshine! But we persevered and rolled up to our hotel - the Cit’Hotel Sphinx, where the helpful staff loaded Schnooks into the bike closet and us into a really nice room.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 2 | Link |
1 week ago
1 week ago
This was a beautiful, challenging, incredible day of cycling! Amazing views and (mostly) great roads. Minimal traffic and great weather. Who could ask for more?
We’ll be here 2 nights. We’re taking a rest day tomorrow.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 322 km (200 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 10 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 2 |