October 1, 2015
A great route out of Avignon to Mallemort: Using Komoot for the first time
We had been rather worried about the ride out of Avignon - all the roads seemed to be coloured a threatening shade of red. We had given ourselves a very short day because of this and also because we have a long time to get to Nice to catch our plane. On the iPad I have the Komoot Ap but have only used it to get a general idea of routes and distances but have never really followed it. We decided that today was the day and I downloaded a route between Avignon and Mallemort and we followed it. These routes can be stored off line and much as a car GPS give you turn by turn instructions (in a GPS voice) and show your position at any time. Much to our delight it was a great success and for almost all the time it kept us off busy roads.
Staring in Avignon we off course started in the melee of morning traffic but were soon diverted on to small city roads, from there it was onto tiny roads beside irrigation channels with no traffic at all, roads that certainly don't show up on any maps . It was not very scenic but such a relaxing safe route. After that there was a time that we were riding on a busy road but we felt safe as there as a good hard shoulder, at time small roads gave us some relief from the awful traffic noise and coming into Cavaillon there were well marked cycle ways. We stopped here for a coffee and realised it was the town where we started a walking tour of Provence with Anne and Colin Pope about 15 years ago - it is not a particularly old town but I found it charming then and again today.
We had suspected that coming out of Cavaillon we would be on a moderately busy road for the rest of the way but it was much better than that. We were directed onto a cycle route which is 'The Tour of the Luberon', it was fantastic taking us into the Luberon National Park with its towering cliffs, its stunted pines, old olives and what I felt was a real feeling of Provence. We sat under the cliffs and ate our lunch soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the beautiful weather, no Mistral today. It was over the Durance then into Mallemort
Coming into Mallemort the wheels began to fall off a bit. First I took the wrong road up the hill in this ancient defensive village, the road was so steep we had to have both of us pushing one bike to get it up the steep hill. The hunt for our accommodation was not easy but we did find it about 2.30 only to find a note attached to the door that said we couldn't check in till 5 o,clock. This was in a village that appeared to have no services at all - we couldn't go on as we couldn't cancel the booking so thought we would be standing there for two and a half hours. But then we decided to walk down the hill the other way and what should we find but the shopping area of the town with a cafe where I am now sitting writing this off line
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 3,086 km (1,916 miles)
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