Postcards from Provence and beyond

It’s hard to believe that over a week has passed, since our first attempt at this summer’s cycle adventure came to a grinding halt.

If I’m honest, we imagined that the week would drag, with us trying to find things to do, to pass the hours before we go again.

The original plan had been to cycle back home for today, to watch Provence Rugby in their Top14 Access Match, at Aix, but instead, we’ve spent the week at home, and actually it has hurtled past.

The mad dash, in the early hours of the morning, to watch the rugby in Toulouse was great fun ( even if it wasn’t quite how we had planned to do it)

In so many ways, we’ve found ourselves in the right place, being able to pick up a purchase From a local chateau auction

And enjoy the start of the lavender season too, both pootling about on the bikes (to keep our legs turning)…

And taking Fifi out for little drives too, just enjoying the roads and views around home, before summer temperatures spike and the colours are bleached by the sun… you can Watch a little video from one of the drives out through the lavender fields here

We’ve even heard the first cicadas starting to chatter, a soundtrack of summer that we love so much.

This morning though, we have repacked the panniers, having spent the last week really honing down the things we are taking, removing nearly 3kg from the total weight that we’ll be carrying.

It doesn’t sound much, but when you have to push the pedals round, to get it all up a hill, then every gram counts. Of course there are some things that can’t be changed; we have to carry the tent, the beds, clothes etc, but we have gone through everything else with a fine tooth comb.

We’ve been weighing everything, getting almost fixated on the weight of certain things. My walking sandals (650g) have been replaced by lightweight ones (275g) and our lovely Yeti mugs (500g) have been replaced by lightweight plastic cups ( 75g) too. Slowly but surely, the pile of things we have either taken out, or replaced has grown and the weight we will be carrying has reduced.

It still won’t mean that we will be able to fly along, without a care, but it may make it slightly easier.

Which brings me to the route.

With the changes, we now have a little less than 2 weeks to ride through France to Roscoff, and really don’t want to have to do huge numbers of kilometres each day, so have decided to chance our luck again, trying to catch a train.

We have spent the week looking at possible routes, and have decided to take one, which will see us ride through different areas, some that we last visited nearly 40 years ago, and others that we have never been to, at all.

The plan is to cycle to Nimes, and then take the stopper (TER) train to Clermont Ferrand, which is apparently a really beautiful trip, through the Massif. After a night in the city, we will start pedalling north, before starting to head west.

I recently bought a map of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, and have built a few of these into our trip across too.

We will stay in the Brenne National Park, which looks beautiful, before pedalling along the Loire and into Brittany, to make our way up towards the ferry port.

We have 13 days of riding ahead of us, and are really excited about visiting some new areas, along the way.

The maps are marked up, the majority of the routes have been planned, and we just want to get started now.

This afternoon will pass quickly, with a trip to Aix and the final rugby match of the year for Provence. And then we’ll be ready to go.

We hope you enjoy travelling with us again. Let’s just hope this time that the trip can actually start as planned.