It was a joy to get on the bicycle again in the morning and head out for more exploration. First stop was the old town of Crestet and a climb through the village to yet another ruined castle with a great view of the surrounding area. As you can see, these perched villages are best explored in something besides cycling shoes.
After the scenic tour of the very quiet village, we saddled up again and headed a few kilometers down the road to Vaison-La-Romaine, which was absolutely crawling with tourists on market day. This town featured a Roman bridge, several interesting art galleries, and a maze of cobbled streets on which one could climb up to yet more ruins. It definitely had the feel of a stop on the tourist trail. I was happy to head out again onto a back road through scrub oak and past a quarry. The marked cycling route was quite pleasant and completely free of traffic.
We rode around one small town looking for a picnic spot and saw these children cycling on a path in their schoolyard.
I don't know what people in these small towns think of cycling tourists. A young boy popped his head out of a passing vehicle to greet us with a "cheery bon appetite" while we enjoyed our picnic. After lunch, we pedaled on to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, wine country. Anna wanted to buy a bottle for her parents, so we had a stop at a vineyard for that, I can't imagine picking up a bottle of wine to haul for four more days, but I saw the bottle go in her bag, so I assume it was hauled.
Maybe Anna, Sasha, and I were feeling heavy legs from our wanders in the perched villages, maybe the wine was slowing Anna down. In any case, Patrick seemed more motivated on forward progress than any of us and as a result pulled about 50 miles today. This is notable. I saw a cycling enthusiast side to Patrick which I had never before seen in our nearly ten year relationship. On this note (and sorry for the spoiler), Patrick signed up without any prodding or suggestion whatsoever for a 110 mile ride the weekend we got back from this trip. I have to say that for building fitness and confidence, sightseeing by bicycle cannot be beat.
Patrick's pull took us past a real cool hilltop fort. Sorry to say we have no pictures of it as he was on a mission to reach the hotel and I had a only a brief jaw-dropping view of it from the saddle before plunging into traffic. I thought that the fort was Avignon but it is actually across the river from the city. You can see how cool it is on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Saint-Andr%C3%A9_%28Villeneuve-l%C3%A8s-Avignon%29
We crossed the Rhone into Avignon on a highway bridge with a nice view of the famous bridge of Avignon. Once across the bridge we entered the walled city of Avignon, a mainly pedestrian area with cobbled streets and bustling business. After the afternoon of countryside riding, I found the city to be disorienting. Fortunately, Patrick was focused and got us to the tourist office, to the bike shop, and then the hotel on the other side of town. Our hotel was outside of the walled city, past the train station. At first the neighborhood seemed a bit sketchy to me, but I came to really like the place. The man at the front desk was incredibly gracious and gave us good advice on the sights of the town. After a rest, we washed up and headed into town on foot. I found the city absolutely enchanting. We first wandered down an old street which appeared over the course of perhaps a quarter mile to be all at once in decay, in renewal, colorless, pocketed with secret theaters and clubs, and sprayed with paint and hidden portraits. This interesting area was vacant, and had a few signs with information on historic sights. From there we passed high end shops and meandered to a plaza with hundreds of tables and signs of tourist food. Patrick laughed to see that one restaurant had arranged chairs facing outwards to allow patrons to shamelessly people watch while enjoying a drink. We continued past the tourists, on to the Papal palace. This building is spectacularly large, and stone. The extensive plaza in front of it was empty, and drenched in evening light.
We enjoyed the scene, then headed to this overlook near the palace and up to a lovely garden park above the palace for a view of the river and the Fort Saint Andre. Sunset was wonderful there and I'm glad we had some time to savor it.
Nice view of Mont Ventoux from the park.
Quiet weeknight street in Avignon.
After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel following the previously mentioned path in reverse. I was really impressed by this elegant ice cream shop on the corner of a main plaza. The storefront is very simple. It's shiny black with the name Glacier Royal printed in silver. The shop has doors on two walls and my memory is that the doors are either very wide or framed by glass as the shop has the appearance of open to the street. At each door is a black sign with silver lettering which lists the 52 flavors of homemade ice cream in French and English and the price for one, two, or three scoops - illustrated by drawings in white print of ice cream cones. This is the view of the shop interior. One clerk, no tables, a lot of visually appealing ice cream.
Top food of the day: picnic sandwiches (baguette, cheese, tomato, ham)
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