June 1, 2023
Aiguillon to Tarascon
Losing the Lot, Finding Provence.
Today was mostly trains. It starts well with breakfast at our hotel and two excellent cups of coffee. Our train journey is to Tarascon but it involves a couple of changes - one at Agen and a second at Nimes.
The ride to Agen is brief and boarding this train with bikes is easy- just wheel on. We have more than an hour’s wait there, so we use the lifts to get off the quai and go for a ride. Agen seems quite a go-ahead place - busy with plenty of people about and some beautiful old buildings in good repair. We actually rode through Agen along the long canal running over the river in 2018 but missed out the town.
The dramatic change in scenery in one day, is remarkable. Aiguillon is intensely farmed - strawberries, vegetables and plum trees. Then to the wide river valley of the canal du midi and Garonne and then Toulouse, before the scent of the sea at Beziers, Montpellier and Sēte. On then to the drier terrain and orange colours of Provence with its Cypress trees, small pines and scrubby bushes as we come to Nimes. Nimes is greener with more agricultural activity.
We enjoy some diverting conversations with other travellers, and we all pitch in to get bikes on and off the old “high off the platform” train. We have the usual conversation with the guard when there were too many bikes and we block the entranceways, but all in good humour ( I tell her France is too attractive for cyclists) and she waves goodbye to us when we get off in Tarrascon.
We find our gite down a small narrow street and are welcomed by the host into a beautifully comfortable room with a pretty courtyard .
Later, on a walk to the Super U we come across buildings of historical importance like the monstrous castle and the church to St Martha.
Then it’s back to our place for risotto and a good night’s sleep in preparation for venturing into the interior of Provence.
Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 1,474 km (915 miles)
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