May 13, 2023
St Martin d’ Ardeche to Monteux
The start of today’s ride was a 10km cycle back to Pont-Saint-Esprit where we had trained to, two days ago. It was a beautiful morning and other than two early killer climbs, it was a fun run through the countryside down to the Rhône.
Once over the bridge and heading south along the river, we were impressed by the perfect riding conditions of the Eurovelo 17. We cruised along happy to delay our lunch break as we made some quick mileage on the new pavement.
At the 30km mark we decided to change plans slightly and detour into Orange. Black clouds had appeared in the direction we were headed and we began to think that a break in a coffee shop might be more prudent than continuing along the deserted riverside.
It was Family Day in Orange and the parks and pedestrian areas were full. We spied a park set up with children’s booths and a fantastic wooden ferris wheel turned by manpower. There were lots of tables covered in red checkered table cloths and mostly empty at this time as it was well past lunch. Famished, we set out our food on one of the tables and had no more than finished assembling them when it did start to rain. People in the park scattered, some to cars and home, or to the open-sided shelter in the park. After we finished our sandwiches, the rain was just misting so we exchanged a few pleasantries with our shelter companions and headed off. (We were starving when we arrived so thought we would eat first and then take some pics of the lively scene but alas the rain scuttled our plans.)
Out of Orange the black clouds were still hovering but thankfully we were spared as we rode another recently paved rail trail to our campsite in Monteux. The campground had a great covered picnic table area where we wrote the blog and make supper. It’s always more interesting when meeting fellow travellers and so it was when two young German ladies, backpacking and training through France for a month, shared the space with us.
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Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 807 km (501 miles)
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