Gordes Loop

May 14, 2023

Over breakfast we hatched a plan that had a few parts in it that could go wrong but if we broke camp in a hurry, then the morning and hopefully the rest of the afternoon might just go accordingly. We decided to cycle 10km to Pernes-les-Fontaines to a campground there and leave our stuff so we would do our hilly loop, pannier free for the afternoon. We were racing to get to Pernes on a Sunday morning before the noon closure of the grocery store in town and before the campsite manager went off for his lunch break. We succeeded on all accounts by splitting up duties, Ann did the grocery run for lunch and dinner and Steve was able to check in to the campsite and set up the tent. After a quick bite we were on our way by 1:30 and heading for the village of Gordes. Our morning planning went flawlessly and it was a fabulous afternoon save for one thing that was out of our control; most of you probably know what I am referring to but I will save that until later.

From the campground we turned left and immediately started climbing. The roads were quiet and we spun slowly upwards through the lovely small villages of La Roque-sur-Pernes and Le Beaucet continuously going down and up over the first hilly lump before reaching the Plateau de Vaucluse. From there, I had thought we would level out, but instead the route led us down, deep into the Nesque valley which was cool and damp before climbing once more to Venasque a beautiful village classed as one of the 126 "plus beaux villages en France". We meandered into the village centre and with it being perched on a rocky summit, we had terrific views out over the Carpentras plain. From there it was another 15km to the Col des Trois Termes. These km were breathtakingly beautiful, sheer rock walls, winding road, bits of pastures, pine trees and few cars. We did notice the Backroads van cruise by, I guess we are officially in "led" cycling turf now if we didn't know it already.

After the col it was a 4km coast down to what has to be ONE of the most beautiful of "Les plus beaux villages en France", the village of Gordes. It is described as a "beautiful hilltop village crowned by its Renaissance castle." Houses of stone along with identical stone walls are built on several levels with narrow cobblestone streets which wind through the town. All the buildings and walls are made of the same stone as the rocky outcrop it is built on which makes it look somehow like it must have always been this way. Man made yet natural too. It is so harmonious it has an almost surreal look, is it real or just a picture?

It was sunny yet windy in the village in the late afternoon sun and we knew that if we hung about too long, it would be a cold descent and last 30km. As we came off this side of the Vaucluse Mountains, we were on still great roads but definitely more traffic as people had finished their long Sunday lunches and were heading home. We were descending rapidly so kept up with the traffic until just after Lagres where we met face on, the full strength of 40+ km/h Mistral winds. We hadn't planned for this! With 20km left to go we opted for the busier D901 and after L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue the D938 and slogged our way home. We were shattered but elated by our day; 74km and 1056 meters of climbing and a reckoning with the famous winds of the Mistral. It was a quick supper and bed but not before making the call to take tomorrow off to do laundry, relax and catch up on the blog.