Based on the forecast (below) we had the idea that the weather was slowly getting the right idea. Yes, it may have included 100% heavy rain, but that would be sort of warm rain, at 18°C.
Saint Andeol had some of the oldest buildings around, and at least in the part where we mainly were, it was easy to imagine that the year was many hundreds of years ago. It was super cool.
We took to the Via Rhona, and it continued its amazing performance. With great path surface, direction signage, and general information signage, this route is really unbeatable!
After the last two weeks of cold, rain, and wind we were thinking that it's been altogether too much Type II fun, and that we need some real fun. But no. That 18 degree figure turned out to be 15 degrees, and we had to search out an underpass to put on more and more warm clothes.
There were some interesting things to see, despite the rain. For example, this cliff, with the fort on top. We could only take a few photos, since the camera needed to be protected from rain.
Eventually the rain eased off and the temperature rose. In fact we can draw a line right here, I hope, to mark a time when real fun began. The source of this, aside from the rain stopping, was the appearance of indicators that told us we were really in Provence. And to us, Provence is not only real fun, it's magical fun!
The first indicator was the appearance of these reeds, which we know will be around all through the Camargue and down to the Mediterranean.
And then there are the Pink Ladies. Pink Lady is an apple variety originally bred in Australia in 1973, as a cross between Golden Delicious and the red Lady Williams. It is the apple that takes longest to mature, but has a super crispness and flavour. In France, we see it only in the late Fall, in Provence.
These Pink Ladies are wearing dresses or skirts. You would have to lift those to get to them. That could be a bit of a faux pas!
We rolled beside the Rhone at Caderousse, which turns out to be a walled town, to protect it seems not from invaders but from the river. There are only two gates.
These are hard to see, but they indicate the flood heights in several years. Though admittedly the lowest one, there is a market there from December 2003. This is all way up from the river and across the road!
From this point, about 20 km out of Avignon, it began to dawn on us that the Via Rhona, which had been great all along had taken it up a notch. Just look at the track in the photo below! We seem to recall that from about this distance out the way into Avignon had been on road, and while not bad, was not great. But now! Ooo, la, la!
Two small points of interest. The Tour de l'Hers was something that "popped up", being a tower that began in the 10th century, as a control point on river traffic. And the tower is near Chateauneuf du Pape, the super famous town with the really rocky soil producing great wine.
Now we come to a suspension passerelle. There were two of these yesterday, one of which was the dramatic and quite bouncy Himalayan one at Rochemaure. Dodie hates this kind of bridge, and the Rochemaure one was really something. Here is one photo of it from the cell phone. This shot was really centred on all the warnings.
The very last bit before Avignon was a bit confusing on the bike path, and there was little room for confusion because traffic around Avignon is very heavy.
The bridge to Avignon does have a wide and protected bike lane.
Here it is, from the new bridge, the famous Pont d'Avignon. According to legend, the bridge was built in the 12th century by a young shepherd from Vivarais, Bénézet , on heavenly orders. It originally had 12 arches, but only 4 remain. The arches collapsed one after the other in time. The bridge was opened and closed again and again for repairs until 1669, when a new flood of the Rhône caused most of the arches to fall down.
Avignon downtown feels extremely old. The buildings feel old, as does the castle, specially because of being built on rock, and protected behind partly rock walls. It's hard to describe the unique feel of the place.
Almost all the streets are either car free, or so narrow and clogged with tourists that a car would not want to be there anyway. Even on the bikes, we ended by mainly walking.
Tricia GrahamThis is the same hotel we stayed at on Avignon. They took one look at my walking and gave us a downstairs room. It was at this hotel we got rid of the bikes Reply to this comment 2 months ago
Despite battling the rain and cold and distance, we still had strength and time to launch a stroll round Avignon. We did at least a 5 K. Here is what we saw, and what we failed to see, because things were closed:
Our walk, on the say to the old bridge, now took us past numerous souvenir shops. These featured the lavender colours of Provence, and were really pleasant to look at.
We arrived at the old (Saint Benezet) bridge. Dodie had been anticipating dancing on the bridge (because of the song) as we had once done before. But now they were charging 5 or more euros each just to walk on the bridge, and Mr. Spoilsport balked at that. It wasn't our first beef at this bridge - last time they refused to let us take our bikes with us.
An attempt to develop 10 points of interest for this now pricey bridge walk.
As we walked away from the bridge, I could be heard (apparently) to remark that it was unreasonable to be charged just to walk on a bridge. A fellow nearby chipped in "Well we pay for national parks at home, and that helps with maintenance". This turned out to be Walter, who with his wife Denise was visiting from Calgary. I replied, rather cleverly I thought, that it was to late for maintenance fees on this bridge because the thing had already mostly fallen down. This then evolved into a fun discussion of national parks in Canada, the Kettle Valley trail in British Columbia, advantages of adventuring into older age, and so forth. We promised to put Walter and Denise in the blog, and here they are:
Karen PoretWalter must be a ok guy because it looks like he has the wonderful Tilley hat :) You DO know where that is from, correct ;) Reply to this comment 2 months ago
In the square in front of the palace, there were many stalls set up to display Italian regional foods. They put us to thinking that a tour in Italy could be fun.
Back at the hotel, we are looking to tomorrow. It is supposed to be sunny and could be fairly warm. And we will be delving even deeper into Provence. We will hit Arles, where I am hoping we will be able to pass through the market, maybe finding that tagine, or at least looking at the sea creatures in the paella. But then we will head for the Camargue, magical land of unicorns masquerading as white horses, of black bulls, and of flamingoes. We so love it here!
Today's ride: 77 km (48 miles) Total: 3,075 km (1,910 miles)
