Vaucluse Dreamer

Since arriving back without Fifi we’ve been out on the bikes every day, just settling in and getting back under the skin of the area.

It’s been a delight to be out on the quiet roads, just enjoying the peace that we find here. We both feel there is a simple and almost childlike joy of hopping on the bikes and heading off in whatever direction we fancy. Although I should add that we’re almost incapable of speech tonight after 7 days of riding culminating in today’s cycle across to Sault, covering over 100km and going up a considerable number of rather long hills on the way.

The Luberon, Vaucluse and Alpes De Haute Provence are wearing their best colours at the moment. The vines are bright green with their new growth and small grapes starting to show below the leaves; the stone of the houses in the hilltop villages looks almost bleached and they glow pale cream in the bright sun; the Sunflowers are starting to open and smile at the sun as it moves across the sky and the lavender, well I’ve never seen it so bright.

Sometimes we see paintings of Lavender fields that seem unrealistically purple, the colours seem too bright and contrived, but this year it’s different, this year it is that incredible colour that we have always felt to be so wrong and the fields are simply magnificent.

It goes without saying that we’ve been doing some of our favourite rides, but a couple of days ago headed out through Saint Saturnin then up towards Sault, before taking the long, sweeping downhill that runs back into the valley past the dramatic ‘Falaise de la Madeleine’ at Lioux.

The views on the way round are stunning and it never ceases to make us smile, so we recorded some of the route and have put together a short video with some of our favourite little bits.

If you fancy escaping for a few moments to The Luberon then please take a look….