Vinsobres to Lyon

May 29, 2023

After two weeks of being mostly in small towns and villages, we're excited to be heading to the big city of Lyon today. From the intro to our blog you might remember that Steven was reading up on the gastronomic delights of Lyon along of course, with the sights of the city, so we are keen to check it out!

Getting to Lyon will involve taking the 2:40pm train from a suburb of Bollene to Lyon which will have us in Lyon in time to find our B&B, get cleaned up and ready for the restaurant scene by 8pm. No problem, right, well the day had slightly different plans for us.

We talked about routes over breakfast. It was only 38km to the train station and we could zoom along quickly by staying in the valley on the D94, but with loads of time before our 2:30pm train, we both agreed that taking the longer, high route on small roads would be more interesting and definitely car free. So up it was from the campground to the village and a most glorious 5km ride through the vineyards with magnificent views of the valleys, hills and in the distance Mount Ventoux. We congratulated ourselves for the route selection and exclaimed that this route is what cycle touring is all about. So, when we came to the gravel section, which we knew was coming, we briefly paused to consider dropping down to the easier D94, but agreed again that the the odd rough patch along the way just makes things interesting, and it was only about 1.5km. What started as smooth gravel morphed into loose stones too big to ride on which turned into the mother of all uphills. The incline and the rocks forced us to both push one bike at at time. We were in the middle of nowhere so we took off our jerseys and we sweated as we hauled and pushed our bikes that km. Post route, our GPS showed a 16.7% climb. It took almost an hour for the km.... But when we finally got to the top and put our shirts back on, we agreed once more that it was the right decision -as the views were possibly even more magnificent, we were on top of the world and now we could see down to the Rhone delta spread before us and still we could still Ventoux. What a wonderful world it was once again as we sailed 20km downhill before finally coming out to the D94 for the last furious pedal to the train station. All our looking and gawking at the views and pushing bikes uphill had cost us time and we were no longer sure we would make our train.

We did, the thunder storm held off, the train arrived... but we couldn't get on, we did not have reservations for our bicycles! It was a holiday Monday and the bike car was full. You would think we would have known better, as we had read Susan Carpenter's recent travel woes on a similar holiday Monday in May. See here: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/321tour/to-paris/
What were we thinking?

So there we were, locked out of an empty train station, in a thunderstorm, 5 km from Bollene and no tickets for our bikes. Steve got out his phone and after much typing got us bike tickets to Valence an hour later and then after a two hour layover, bike tickets for the final leg to Lyon. Standing under the edge of the eves of the station until the rain stopped, we reminded ourselves of our glorious morning ride. Standing up, holding our bikes, crammed on the bike car with other cyclists, we all reminded ourselves of the great riding we'd had on the weekend. Sitting on a sidewalk patio fast food resto in the sunshine in Valence, not quite the gourmet meal we had in mind, we reminded ourselves of our good luck of getting on the train at all in Bollene. And finally, we reminded ourselves how very grateful we felt for getting our bikes on the 8 pm train to Lyon and even seats for us! By 9:15 we were cruising terrific bicycle lanes through the city. It was a balmy evening, the terraces and restaurants were full, the quays were awash in people strolling, and we have a very cute apt in the old part of Lyon. The navigator has managed terrific accommodations once again. Tomorrow we discover Lyon!

These two men were so delightful yesterday on the Balade. They were pouring wines from the area including their own for the cheese course. Maybe it was the smiles but their’s was our favourite wine. We were each entitled to choose a bottle of wine at the end of the day but unfortunately there weren’t any of their wines left! Still all the wines were great and we now have two to carry to Lyon, there was no talk of the panniers being too heavy.

We drove by their Domaine by chance today. What a spot high on the hill. We recommend Serre Besson!

Olives and vines; the staples of Provence

Pushing our way up what turned out to be the easy part of this dirt road.

Coming down into Visan for a snack of an apple and nougat.

I think I see a feint tinge of purple finally coming out on the lavender flowers.

Tired but happy to have seats and a full tummy between Valence and Lyon.

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Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 1,473 km (915 miles)

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Lyle McLeodIt’s not a proper bike tour until you’ve pushed your loaded bike up a nasty gravel hill! Glad you made it to Lyon, it’s a wonderful place, enjoy your time there.
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1 year ago

Kirsten KaarsooThere must be an unwritten rule that gravel road entrance/exits start out nice then deteriorate just to keep us cyclists honest. Enjoy Lyon.
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1 year ago