Here’s our trip report from our bike trip through Provence. We were there from 9/21 thru 10/2. (Warning: very detailed)

Pre-Trip:
My husband and I would both celebrate our 40th birthday this year. We decided we needed to take a special trip to celebrate. Six years ago, we did a Backroads biking trip in the Dordogne and fell in love with that form of sightseeing. The luxury lodging--the gourmet food--the unbelievable biking! So we knew we had to return with Backroads to France. One of our previous leaders told us that the Dordogne trip was her second favorite with Provence being her most favorite. And since so many other people seemed to loved the region, we decided on Provence.

With two young kids, we lined my mom up as babysitter. It was hard to think about leaving them for 11 or 12 days, but how often do you turn 40?? We decided that September would be best since they’d both be in school most of the week, giving her a break, and the weather is supposed to be fabulous in Provence that time of year. We’d miss the lavender but also miss the high heat of summer. And discovered we would be there for the grape harvest, something I hadn’t even considered.

I had over 250,000 miles in my AA account which was enough to fly first class. Was it worth the extra 60,000 miles over business class? Of course, how often do you turn 40?? Trying to play the frequent flier game correctly, we wanted to make our reservations 330 days in advance. Therefore, we needed to find out the dates of the Backroads trip. In 2005, they offered a few different trips in the region. 6 day/5 night trips that focus more on one of the areas in Provence or a 7 day/6 night trip that covered the span of the region. We decided on the latter. I called them in September 2005 to see when their schedule would be available. I was told that they had just come out with their 2006 schedule and had changed that trip to 8 day/7 night and, of course, raised the price $500pp. Well, crap. Decisions, decisions. Hmmm, how often do you turn 40?? I signed us up for the 8 day/7night Classic Provence Premiere Inn trip in late September.

Now on to the flight scheduling. Well, to fly first class we needed to fly a 777. The OneWorld flight program that you can download to your computer was very helpful for this. We could easily check out every combination of flights to find the most timely itinerary. To get from BWI to France on a 777 on AA and its partners we would have to connect through Heathrow. Was it worth the little bit of extra time to truly fly in style? Of course, how often do you turn 40?? My husband has a friend who lives in London and his family has a house near Nice. He had offered to put us up at his family home in the Nice area for a night or two and in London if needed. So we settled on flying BWI to Boston to Heathrow to Nice. Spend a couple nights in Nice and then take the train to Avignon to meet up with Backroads. And then do the reverse on the way home with a night at Heathrow.

With the bike trip and flights confirmed, we put the trip planning on the back burner. At the start of the summer, my husband finally emails his friend to find out about meeting up in Nice. No response. A month later, he tries again. No response. I think his friend must have changed jobs and email but my husband doesn’t try to find out. So we now need to find hotels for the first 2 nights and also the last night at Heathrow. I used Priceline for the first time ever and was very pleased. I never would have had tried it if I hadn’t read about all of the success people on Fodors have had and if I hadn’t learned about www.betterbidding.com and www.biddingfortravel.com.

With two little ones at home, it was a must to have a cell phone in case of emergencies. Luckily, a colleague of my husband lent him an unlocked international phone and we just had to buy the SIM card for it when we arrived in France. He also gave him a calling card that my mom could use to call us. She called a number in Massachusetts and dialed in the PIN and then the international number. When calling a landline, the cost was 1 cent/min. When calling a cell phone, it was 35 cents/min. This system worked out really well for us.

And, lastly, bike training. While I had kept up with running, I hadn’t been on my bike since our trip six years ago in the Dordogne. And I had had two kids. And I had thyroid issues which resulted in thyroid surgery in July. So eight weeks prior to departure, I certainly wasn’t anywhere near the best shape of my life. Also, we live on a peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay which is flat as a pancake. Seriously, living here it isn’t surprising people once thought the earth was flat. I think the highest elevation is about 10 feet above sea level, ok, maybe 12 feet. So I was concerned about the pictures of these beautiful hilltop perched towns in Provence knowing full well I’d be climbing that hill to get there.

Day 1: 9/21/06

Finally! The day of departure had arrived. But not without some flight hassles. Between last October and now, AA decided to cancel most of their BWI to BOS and BOS to BWI flights. So, now, we were leaving 5 hours earlier and we had a 7 hour layover in Boston on our way to London. We could have rerouted through JFK and had a 3 hour layover but decided that it would be more fun to bum around Boston for an afternoon than sit in JFK airport. So we were off to BWI on Thursday morning. It was sad to say goodbye to the kids but they were great about it. The only tears were misting in my eyes.

The line at check-in was quite long for coach. But the 1st class line was wide open. We received all 3 boarding passes and checked our bags through to Nice hoping and praying we’d see them again upon arrival after 3 flights. We breezed through security and it was so liberating to only be carrying a small carryon bag. I took the opportunity to stack up on some serious reading material—People, Us, etc. While we were waiting at our gate, a couple planes came in. I always find it funny that people arriving seem to walk off the plane with a sense of importance. I don’t know if it is the red carpet feel one gets walking through all the people waiting to board or if it’s the sense that they’ve just accomplished something by moving from point A to point B. But it is something I always noticed and chuckled about. Our flight to Boston was easy, on-time, uneventful. But I did become dismayed to find out that People and Us use the same paparazzi photos. I mean, seriously, some variety please!

Now, when we discussed the layover-in-Boston plan, it never once occurred to me that it wouldn’t be the most beautiful fall day in Boston. I envisioned us strolling around the Common on a crisp day with bright blue skies. Thank god that vision came true, pouring rain would have put a huge damper on our moods. We took the T two stops to the Aquarium, strolled around the harbor and had lunch at the Barking Crab. A bucket of steamers, huge lobster rolls and a pitcher of yummy microbrew beer while overlooking the sparkling water—it doesn’t get much better than that! The steamers were delicious but way overpriced. The lobster rolls cost about what I would have expected and they were huge and full of meat, not much filler. I think the bill was around $80 all in. We then strolled up to the Common, the Public Garden and down Newbury Street, window shopping along the way. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, especially when you are giddy at the start of a fun vacation.

We headed back to the airport and the Admirals Club to wait for our flight to LHR. Breezed through security again. The Club was crowded but it was rush hour time for the business travelers. We got a voucher for one drink each. I always find it funny that internationally, alcohol drinks are free for the taking and in the US you only get one free. Maybe it’s because our society is so litigious the airlines can’t risk someone getting hammered, being denied boarding and then suing them for providing the drinks. Or maybe the airlines are just cheap (god knows I am, not willing to purchase another drink). Who knows. There was one small TV at the bar and a bigger one in the one of the rooms. CNN was on both. I would have killed for a little Oprah or Ellen or a game show or something to pass the time more quickly. And, frankly the bored faces on the other people seemed to be thinking the same thing. But I was too shy to request the channel change. So we played gin rummy, sipped a glass of wine and inhaled water instead.

Our flight boarding was announced and we bounded down to the gate. It is just so fun to turn left when getting on a big plane. I haven’t flown internationally since 2000. So haven’t been able to enjoy the changes to their first or business class seats. The first class seat was very cool. You have an area of about 7’ x 4’ all to your lonesome. There is one seat on each window wall and then two in the middle, we had two middle seats next to each other, but there was a partition between us. The seat swivels around so you could face each. You have two tables to choose from, your video console and a small seat across from yours where someone could sit and chat. When the footrest is raised and back reclined, your seat moves to meet this seat for your 6.5’ flatbed. They give you a huge pillow and soft blanket too. As well as Bose noise cancelling headsets to use (along with a nice little order form for your buying convenience).

The offering of champagne, water or orange juice upon boarding hasn’t changed since I’ve last traveled. But the 4 course dinner has. The caviar appetizer and lobster salad have been replaced with a smoked salmon and scallops or shrimp appetizer and a smoked duck breast salad. Those darn cutbacks. The service was wonderful and they asked if we wanted to be awakened for breakfast if we were sleeping. Given we were scheduled to land at 1:30am our time and breakfast would have been about 2 hours after finishing our huge dinner, I chose the sleep. I managed to get about 3 hours of blissful sleep. When I awoke, I noticed my husband had chosen the breakfast.

Can't wait to hear the rest. I'm going to Provence this summer with a girlfriend but will be scouting the area for a future bike trip with DH.

Day2: Arrival in Nice
Friday, 9/22/06

We were supposed to have a 90 min layover at Heathrow in which to transfer from Terminal 3 to 1, re-go through security and board our British Airways flight to Nice. We arrived from Boston about 30 min late so only had an hour. One of the biggest perks of flying up front is being first off the plane. We walked the long hallways following the signs to Flight Connections and arrived about 10 min later in a hot, humid, stuffy room with a long line waiting for the Terminal 1 bus. Ugh. Welcome to Heathrow. We luckily only waited for about 10 min for our turn to load the bus to Terminal 1. The security line was very long but I didn’t notice how quick it was moving. Since we were flying Business Class on this leg, we could go through Fast Track which took no more than 5 min. We then had to wait about 15 min for our gate to be posted.

Our plane was out on the tarmac so we had to load buses to get to it. Once on the bus, the drivers found out there were some technical difficulties so we sat on the bus for quite some time. We finally got on the plane. I had forgotten how BA’s Inter-Europe B-Class is one of the worst I’ve ever taken. The seats aren’t much larger than coach and you really don’t have much more legroom. There was a couple with 2 young kids a few rows up—a boy about 5 and a girl about 3. The father was as American as could be and the mother was as French as could be. Neither gave their kids much notice as they ran wild through the plane and ate food they dropped on the floor.

The flight was 2 hours and I was able to get another hour’s sleep—thanks to the great down travel pillow from Restoration Hardware I read about on Fodors. When I awoke, my husband was eating another full breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, etc. It was a beautiful day along the coast and the plane flew over Cannes, out over the Mediterranean, turned east and followed the coastline to Nice. It was gorgeous. I couldn’t believe how calm the water seemed and how many huge yachts there were. We live in a small town with a great personal boat harbor and get 100-150’ yachts every few weeks coming through. The yachts down below seemed like they would drawf those and there was one after another.

Got to the airport, hit the ATM and went to wait for our bags. The bags started to arrive and slowly the crowd started to thin. The pit in my stomach started growing as it got down to about half the people left. I really started to panic when there was only about ¼ of the crowd left. Finally, the bags arrived--what a beautiful sight. We easily grabbed a taxi and went to our first hotel, the Sofitel Nice. We were only spending one night in Nice and decided to Priceline it. Thanks to the bidding websites, I figured if we bid for a 4*, we’d get the Sofitel. And based on the reviews, people were just bummed out about it’s location. I was willing to deal with that and entered a lowball bid of $91 and it was accepted. Given the other 4*s were going for over $200, I was quite pleased. The Sofitel had an electricity outage when we arrived and their computer system was down so there seemed to be some confusion what room they would give us and we couldn’t get our keycard. The manager took us up to our room and let us in with her master keycard. She mentioned we had been upgraded.

The room was on one of the top floors and had a view of the mountains to the east. The room wasn’t huge but was very nicely decorated (I think newly renovated which had been the upgrade). The beds were absolutely pure heaven. Two twin beds pushed together (which was the standard on our trip), huge feather beds, huge down duvets and two huge down pillows each. My dream bed!! I couldn’t wait to sleep that night. But it was now about 12:30p and a colleague of my husband and his wife were waiting for us in the lobby to go to lunch. They were on their last day in Nice and headed to Paris that night. They had already picked out a restaurant down the street and we had the first of our many pizzas for lunch. I loved the pizza in the south of France. Thin, crispy crust and yummy, strong cheese. Love it! I orderd the 4 Fromage pizza but the waiter heard it as the 4 Saison pizza so I got ham, olives, artichokes and shrimp. After pulling off the nasty olives and artichokes it was delicious! DH stuck with the plain cheese. And for any one keeping count, my husband was having his fourth meal in 11 hours (and those 11 hours were overnight).

After we said goodbye to our friends, we went off to find a SIM card for the cell phone, check out Nice and stave off thoughts of that comfortable bed waiting for us. The Sofitel is about 10-15 min walk north of the water. The city is putting in a light tram line so there was construction going one street over from the hotel running down to the water. Other than that, the location of the hotel wasn’t terrible and it was nice to have regular grocery stores nearby where we chose to get dinner and breakfast. But if we had been staying longer than a night or two, I would have wanted to be closer to the water and old town.

The first shop we stopped in for the SIM card didn’t know what they were doing. They told us our phone was locked and couldn’t be used. We knew that wasn’t the case but started to doubt ourselves. I asked about an internet café where I could at least email home to tell them our cell phone might not be working right away. He directed us to one and thankfully, it was also a techie store and the guy there knew exactly what was going on and spoke great English. He got our phone up and running with the SIM card (30E) which included 5E of time. The guy wouldn’t take our credit card since it didn’t have a smart chip, so we paid cash. We asked to use our credit card a couple more times in different shops during our trip and no one would accept it for the same reason. So we stuck to cash outside of hotels which wasn’t a big deal.

We then walked down to Parc du Chateau and climbed up to the top. The views were gorgeous and it was great to get a vantage point of the town. Highly recommended. We walked down to the promenade along the beach. I marveled at the people lying out directly on the rocky beach, didn’t seem too inviting and comfortable to me. We headed for the Cours Saleya flower market which was quiet in the late afternoon between shoppers leaving and diners arriving. We then wandered through the old part of town. The narrow winding streets were fascinating. I could have spent hours there checking out all the different shops. We managed to buy another 10E to add to our cell phone in a little convenience shop.

As an aside, what’s up with all the coiffure places in France? There seems to be a beauty salon on every single block. I can’t imagine all those salons could draw enough people to stay in business.

We made it back to our hotel around 6pm and were exhausted from walking all afternoon and the jetlag. We couldn’t figure out what we wanted to do for dinner. The moules frites I saw advertised all over the flower market sounded so good but I just couldn’t imagine getting all the way back down there (the downside of our hotel). We finally decided to buy a big baguette and some yummy cheeses, a bottle of wine and those great chocolate/butter bisquiet cookies and had a little picnic in our hotel room. We happily climbed into the dream bed around 9pm and slept for a solid 11 hours.

Day 3: Nice to L’Isle Sur La Sorgue
Saturday, 9/23/06

That morning we seemed to move in slow motion. We went out and bought pastries and fruit for breakfast and had plans to possibly take the train to Monaco but just couldn’t seem to get ready and out of our hotel before 11am. We checked out and left our bags there for a few hours. We had arranged for a rental car to drive from Nice to L’Isle Sur La Sorgue and then drop it off at the Avignon TGV Station on Sunday when we met up with Backroads. We were scheduled to pick up the car at 2pm but decided to see if we could pick it up a couple hours early and possibly drive through Monaco before heading west toward Provence. So we walked to the Nice Rail Station. We walked through a decidedly much nicer part of town than where we were. The buildings seemed upscale, lots of nice shops and restaurants and, since it was Saturday, lots of families and strollers on the streets.

We ended up renting through Hertz. While still very expensive for just one day, they had the best rate and we got an additional 5% off through Costco. Auto Europe required a 3 day minimum so we couldn’t use them and Nova Car didn’t have cars available. We got to the counter at noon and inquired about the charge if we kept the car for an extra hour after the 24 hour period. She told us it would be another day’s charge. So we decided to wait until 1p to get the car and walked over to the Russian Cathedral. What a spectacular building so out of place in the middle of Nice. It was very peaceful there.

We got the rental car and picked up sandwiches for lunch. We reserved the car class for a Renault Laguna and they gave us a Volvo V50 which looked like a squashed Volvo station wagon. It was a nice car and DH seemed to enjoy driving it. We went back for our bags and decided to just get on our trip west and headed out for the A8. We were on the elevated freeway along the northside of Nice and saw a sign indicating the A8 was straight ahead. Literally 100m further, the A8 was a left turn. By the time we saw the sign, there was no way to get into the left lane so we flew by the exit. According to the map, there was another exit about 8km up and I figured that was easier than trying to turn around on this elevated freeway. After much bitching by my husband as we drove through lots of lights and stop and go traffic, we got onto the A8.

Next challenge, the tolls. We approach the first one and figure out the signs and manage to get in the one with the toll booth guy. I saw no indication of how much the toll was until we got to the booth. It was something like 2E60. Feeling like we accomplished something, we settled in for the drive to Provence. The next toll booth was just to get a ticket. Hmmm, I wish there was some rhyme or reason to this. Traffic was light and the scenery was quite pretty, especially once we started seeing the Luberon range to the north. We approached the next toll booth and waited with baited breath for the amount as we handed over the ticket. I think it was about 13E. Now we were on the lookout for the A7 north to Avignon and didn’t want to miss the turn.

We see the exit for the A7 and pull off. Go through the toll booth---costs another 1E30 or so. Drive about 50m and the road forks. To the right was a sign for the A7 south to Marseille. To the left, there was the A7 road sign with a huge line through it and signs for a couple local towns. Well, crap! How could we have screwed that up? DH stops the car right at the Y and we debate our choices. Go south on the A7, drive another 30km to the next exit, hope to be able to make a U-turn, pay another 36E in tolls…. Or find the local towns on the (fairly high-level) map and see if we can work our way up to the A7 north. We opt for the latter.

We drive another 50m and come to a T-intersection. Right or left? We go left. Drive another 50m, another T-intersection. DH pulls over to the shoulder about 2 car lengths before the intersection. I’m holding the map and am confident we can get ourselves to where we need to go. He is bitching that we just added hours to our trip. We notice a guy get out of his delivery truck which he has stopped in the left turn lane at the T-intersection. He approaches us and we get a little nervous. DH rolls down his window and the guy says something in French. We don’t speak more than very, very basic French. DH tells him as much in French and he says he doesn’t speak English. He seems a bit distraught that we can’t understand him and keeps asking us stuff in French. At this point, we really don’t know why he has approached us and would frankly just rather get back to our bickering. Meanwhile, there isn’t much room for other cars to get between the back of his delivery truck and the front of our car to get to the intersection. We might have gotten some dirty looks as cars inched through but no honks. He notices I’m holding a map and points to it. My husband grabs the map from me and starts to hand it to him like “You want my map? Take it.” I was ready for him to point at me and say, “You want my wife? Take her!” The guy is like, ‘no, no’ and we finally understand that he wants to know where we are going. We tell him Avignon and his face lights up and through charades and basic English and French we manage to get directions of where to get on the A7. We thank him profusely and he goes back to his truck. I’m still in a bit of shock that someone would get out of their truck/car and do whatever they could to help someone who appeared to be lost to them—without being asked!, or encouraged for that matter.

We follow his perfect directions and within 10km are on the A7 north, even saw a wedding coming out of a church in a little town. We made it the rest of the way to our next hotel without incident. Based on Fodors recommendations, we stayed at Mas de Cure Bourse for one night and planned to eat dinner there too. We arrived, checked in and were shown to our room. The room was sparse but adequate. It had a nice cross breeze when the windows were open. Certainly no dream bed but it did have feather pillows. The bathroom had a tub with handheld nozzle but no shower holder for it.

We then drove into L’Isle Sur La Sorgue for a couple hours. Such a charming town with the canal, water wheels and narrow streets. We stopped by a grocery store on the way back to the hotel and bought another bottle of wine figuring if we drank it for cocktail hour, we’d be less likely to imbibe with dinner (it didn’t stop us). We enjoyed the wine while relaxing and getting ready for dinner. Dinner at the hotel was delicious but the service was horrendous. It was 30E per person without cheese, 35E pp with cheese course. We asked for water 4 different times and never got any. I can’t eat a meal without water, I was so parched! In fact, we got very little attention. I had gotten the french food glossary from Intimate France before we left but didn’t bring it down. I really wish I had. Our waiter translated the menu but it was more like ‘monkfish’ instead of ‘roasted monkfish served with stuffed cabbage leaves in a beautiful sauce’. After I had ordered the monkfish, I overheard the next table translating for their English friends saying that the monkfish was stuffed with cabbage. I panicked not being a huge fan of cabbage. Turns out the stuffed cabbage was on the side and I still have no idea what it was stuffed with but it was divine! I had risotto with quail, monkfish with stuffed cabbage and chocolate souffle. DH had the risotto, cod provencal and poached pear and ginger bread pudding.

Have enjoyed your report up to this point. I'm waiting for more!

joy/luvparee

thanks amwosu and luvparee!!


Day 4: L’Isle Sur La Sorgue to Avignon TGV to Bagnols sur Ceze
Sunday 9/24/06

We checked out early the next morning and stowed our bags at the hotel while we went to the L’Isle Sur La Sorgue market. Unfortunately, the forecast had been correct and it was raining. We stopped into a patisserie for breakfast. This one had some tables and chairs to eat at and a waitress to bring over your order. There was a woman and her son eating when we arrived. I ordered my usual Pain du Chocolat but my husband wanted to see what they had to offer. As he walked over to the pastry case, he asked the waitress in French if she spoke English. When the seated woman heard this, she gave her son a big ole disgusted eyeroll. Wow! At least he was trying to use french. While we were eating, a very well dressed couple came with a little dog on a leash. As they left, the woman pulled on the leash but the last thing the dog wanted to do was go back out in the rain. It was really hilarious to watch the tug ‘o war as the dog did whatever he could to stay in the nice dry restaurant. She finally picked him up to go.

We donned raincoats and had an umbrella, but I think the rain (pretty steady pouring rain most of the day) kept some of the vendors away. I had high expectations for this market and while I did get some nice things—placemats, soaps, fleur de sel--, I was expecting it to be much, much bigger. I really do think the rain put a damper on it. People kept telling us how unusual it was to rain like that. My husband was done with shopping by 10:30 and we got a delicious pizza to go from a truck on our way out of town. We collected our bags and started for the Avignon TGV station to meet Backroads.

Luckily, we had plenty of time to get there before our meeting time. We needed to fill up the rental car with gas before dropping it off. We pulled over at a large shopping center to get gas which was virtually deserted on a Sunday morning. There were no gas station attendants and, of course, the pump wasn’t accepting our non-smart chip credit card—at least that is what we figured, we couldn’t read the french it was flashing at us. A car drove up to another pump and DH approached the guy to see if he could help us. He spoke fairly good English and happily came over to see about the problem. He confirmed that the pump indeed did not like our magnetic strip credit card so he offerred to put it on his credit card and we could pay him cash. Amazing! He had two adorable little girls in the backseat about 3 years old--these two little blonde heads sticking out of the window giggling at their dad speaking a funny language to two strangers, so cute! The guy had visited NYC and Boston and was incredibly friendly. The gas ended up costing 18E and DH gave him a 20E note to cover it. The guy insisted on giving us 2E back and said something like, “from one good friend to another.” Once again, we were blown away by the generosity of strangers (except that evil eye-rolling lady).

Back on the road we kept our eyes peeled for signs to the TGV station. Finally arrived at the futuristic looking station but approached from the south side, when we apparently should have come from the north side. We finally discovered the Hertz office but it was not clear where to go, where to park, how to drop off. After going the wrong way down some one-ways, I got out and ran into the Hertz office and tried to find out where to park the car. I was virtually ignored as the two employees thought some idle office work was more important than a soaking wet customer asking a quick question. I was finally told to just park the car in any Hertz parking space. We finally got checked out and really looked forward to our first day of biking as the rain poured down on our little walk to the station.

Met up with the Backroads group, met our two leaders and loaded onto the bus for the ride to Bagnols sur Ceze and our hotel for the next two nights, Chateau du Montcaud. www.chateau-de-montcaud.com We would stay in four different hotels (all Relais & Chateaux hotels) on this part of the trip and taking our bags out to the bus at the train station would be the last time we would shlep them until we were dropped off at the station at the end of week. The morning of a hotel move, we’d just have to pack them up and put outside our hotel room. The next time we’d see them would be in our next hotel room. So nice.

There were 8 couples in total on the trip. On our last Backroads trip in the Dordogne, people were mostly in their 50s and 60s. On this trip, I’d say all but 3 couples were in their 40s, the others in their 50s. The nice thing about these kinds of trips is while you are technically part of a tour group, you can spend as much or as little time with the other people as you want. Since you are biking rather than being shuttled around in a bus, you can go at your own pace and not see any of the other people the whole day. You do eat breakfast and dinner with the group, but there are enough different people to keep it interesting and often it is enjoyable to talk to people other than your spouse or partner every night.

Chateau du Montcaud was beautiful. Apparently, the chateau was abandoned in 1975 and the current owner bought it in the mid-90s with the idea of turning it into a 4-star hotel—and he suceeded. It is in a lovely park-like setting. We had a corner room which was huge with about 14-foot ceilings. The shower had insane water. The big building housed the rooms and the breakfast room. Another building housed the lobby, bar and restaurant.

Even though it was raining, we all suited up to get fitted to our bikes and go on the first ride. The loop was only 12.6 miles and was a perfect warm up ride. Backroads mapped out the routes and have worked hard to keep the rides to back roads (mostly D-triple numbers) while still getting to the major sites and scenic areas. Each day, you pick up your directions for the day and have a ‘route rap’ where the leaders go through the directions with everyone highlighting easy turns to miss, areas not to miss, starts of big uphills, good places for a lunch picnic, etc. Then you load up on snacks and water and head out when you are ready. One leader rides, usually toward the back of the group and the other leader drives the van sweeping through the group making sure no one has gotten into trouble. The van always has snacks and water and they will also take anything you’ve bought along the way. And, anytime you want a ride, you can flag the van down and hop in.

Since it was raining and foggy, we used the first ride more to get our legs moving and limber up rather than admire the gorgeous countryside. It was very disconcerting to hit the first hill (my first since the Dordogne 6 years ago) and notice it didn’t even make a mention on the directions. Yikes! The ride included a 4km uphill to the town of Sabran. I’m sure it was beautiful up there but all we could see were low hanging clouds. We then got to ride down the big hill and through the towns of Megier, Cadignac and Colombier and back to Chateau du Montcaud. I was more focused on the needles of rain on my face so couldn’t tell you anything about those towns but they were tiny. The group of riders on this trip were strong. The leaders couldn’t believe how fast the pace was. I’m sure people really didn’t want to linger in the weather, but throughout the week we found that a number of them really wanted to get in the kilometers as fast as they could.

After a glorious shower with the aforementioned insane water pressure, we joined the group for cocktails and our first dinner at the hotel. Tonight we were all seated around one big table which would be the only time this would happen. Dinner was delicious. In fact, I should just say upfront that all of the dinners were fantastic. The food at each restaurant was incredible and to really start picking it apart would be crazy. I found the meals to all be as good or better than the 5* restaurants I’ve eaten in around the US. This night, I started with scallops with white beans and herb butter, then had stuffed saddle of lamp, the cheese plate and a chocolate cake with pralines and sorbet.

Thankfully, the rain would stop and the real biking would start tomorrow…

This sounds fantastic! Did the bikes have nice soft seats or those triangular rock hard things? Don't know if I could do that many miles...
Keep typing, I am loving the details.

I am so enjoying your report. I can't wait to read more. I too found everyone in France to be very nice and helpful. I got lost in Nice and I can't begin to tell you how nice the Man at a Hotel was trying to help Me get back to My Hotel. I will never forget his kindness.

ttt...hoping that lolfn will continue this report!

Thanks for the descriptions. Have been wanting to read about a bike tour.
Re: the delivery van drivers
Both in Paris, and off the M25 south of London when we were hopelessly and obviously lost, we had drivers stop, get out, give us detailed directions AND in Paris the guy even drove in front of us for about 30km to make sure we did all the right exits and freeway entrances!

thanks everyone.

luugis, the bikes were only a few months old. titanium frames. and the seats were your typical road bike seats. i thought the seats we had on the bikes on our previous trip were more comfortable, better suspension and more cushy. they did have gel covers you could use for days you couldn't fathom sitting down anymore. i had gotten my own seat in pretty good bike shape before the trip so didn't need to use the gel covers.

Day 5: Les Gorges de L’Ardeche Loop
Monday, 9/25

Woke up this morning to overcast skies, but no rain. We went down to a nice buffet breakfast of croissants, breads, meats, yogurt, fruit and some delicious muesli—the Chateau owner, Rudy, is Swiss. Rudy has said that by noon, it will turn into a gorgeous day. Our leaders, having looked at the forecast on the Internet, are dubious of this prediction. We have our route rap at 9am and it is apparently going to be our hilliest day of the trip. Nothing like getting right into it. (I discover though that every day is hilly and I would say the last two days of the bike trip in the Luberon are the hilliest.)

Backroads sets up their trips so each day there is a basic route usually between 30 and 40 miles; a short option which means you can cut off the second half of the ride and take the van to the hotel; and at least one long option. The long options add anywhere from 5 to 15 miles to the basic route and are usually loops off the basic route. They never include a ‘can’t miss’ sight but are supposed to include beautiful scenery. When we were preparing for our Dordogne trip we figured there was no reason not to do the long option every day. Our reasoning was that while training, we bike between 15 and 20 mph so if we just rode like that, we’d finish the basic route in a couple hours. And we’d have hours left in the day. Well, turns out, we never did one long option on that trip and managed to keep up our streak on this trip. It is just too easy to mosey along instead of pushing it, stopping along the way, taking long lunches, stopping for drinks or shopping, etc. The day flies by.

Today’s basic loop is 32.7 miles (52.7km). You can do the long option which adds 14.1km. The route is a ‘lollipop’ loop so we are backtracking part of it and returning to Chateau du Montcaud that evening. We load up on our snacks and water and are off. We ride by La Roque-sur-Ceze, park our bikes and walk up into the charming, charming town. It is on a hilltop and has narrow cobblestone streets, perfectly preserved stone homes and shops and feels like you are walking through a fairytale. I will be amazed over the next week how each small town is so well-kept. There is a small café there but being Monday and overcast, the proprieter has chosen to stay upstairs in her home and not open up.

We head back to our bikes and start to ride toward Salazac. We ride the rolling hills among the vineyards. It is during this part of the ride that it hits me full force how much I enjoy this type of travel. When we were driving around the L’Isle Sur La Sorgue area I was getting a little nervous. I had such fond memories of the Dordogne and was nervous that Provence wasn’t going to live up to the hype. I now realize that the difference was zipping around in a car versus rolling along on a bike. When you are on a bike, you truly feel a part of the land. You are moving fast enough that you are covering good ground with changing scenery but you are moving slow enough to really take in all that is around you. And it is just you and your bike—there is no barrier. You aren’t looking through glass. You aren’t in a climate controlled environment. You really can’t get caught up in conversation and stop paying attention to what is around you. You smell everything, you feel everything. Grapes are being harvested around us, tractors are rumbling by pulling trailers with piles of grapes, some plopping over the side. The smell of fermentation is everywhere. It is absolutely intoxicating. My spirits lift even higher. Which is a good thing as we are about to start a 6.3km hill.

We get to what Backroads calls a “gradual uphill begins” and, frankly, the hill isn’t too bad. No need for the hill gear yet—or granny gear as cyclists like to call it. Near the top of the gradual part of the hill, the support van passes and I proclaim that I feel great! The hill is a piece of cake! The van boogies on ahead and out of sight and at the next turn the hill turns steep. Holy crap. 2 more km straight up. We finally enter Salazac with its gorgeous views of the valley below. I just ignore the huge nuclear power plant in the middle of the valley (I should be able to photoshop that out of the pictures anyway). Then, our reward for climbing big hills, we get to go down too!

We head toward St. Martin d’Ardeche and approach a very cool medieval looking bridge to cross the river into the town. From the middle of the bridge, you get a gorgeous view upriver (or was it downriver?) to the town of Aigueze on the hilltop overlooking the water. It is now about 11:30 and we decide to hit a restaurant or grab a sandwich for lunch. We park our bikes at the town square and discover that the restaurants are closed. We head up to the two boulangeries and a small grocery store. At this point we see a young couple on bikes with all of their gear in saddlebags on the back. They are both incredibly skinny and their gear has to weigh more than they do. My husband starts talking to the guy and finds out that they are biking from Germany to Spain, camping along the way. DH sheepishly mutters that we are part of a bike group but leaves out the 5* lodging and meals and full support. Not too humbling.

We ask the bread people if they have any sandwiches for sale and they do not. So we get a big slice of pizza which turns out to be perfect. Turns out we asked the wrong person. Other people asked for sandwiches in the grocery store and the proprietor went into high gear, running across the street for bread, grabbing things off the shelves and making the sandwiches herself. They apparently turned out to be delicious but how could they not with that delicious french bread and cheese.

The long option is a loop to the Grottes de Saint-Marcel-d’Ardeche. The people who did the ride said the scenery was very nice but no one chose to vist the Grottes since it cost 7E and they had decided it wasn’t worth it.

It is about noon now, and sure enough, Rudy’s forecast comes true. The clouds part and it turns into a gorgeous day with bright blue skies. We enjoy just sitting in the town square for a while. We then grab a couple beers from the cooler in the support van and ride up to Aigueze which is yet another charming town. There is a beautiful church that I peeked into. Beautiful music was playing that was similar to monk chantings. The ornate ceiling of the church was painted in patterns that looked just like provencal fabric. There is an old castle partly in ruins which is now a hotel. We sit alongside the castle, overlooking the river valley below and enjoy the cold beer.

We climb back on our bikes, legs a bit wobbly after the beer, and continue on our way. We notice on the directions that we have another decent uphill ahead and see a town high up on a hill and just know that is where we are headed—sure enough… We ride up to St. Christol de Rodieres and back down again and start our backtrack toward La Roque sur Ceze. After crossing the La Ceze river via a 13th century stone bridge, we turn down toward the Cascade du Sautadet which are little water falls. It reminds me of Great Falls in Maryland/Virginia but on a much smaller scale. Lots of people were hanging out on the rocks, relaxing, reading or picnicing.

We arrive back at the hotel by mid-afternoon and get cleaned up. God I’m going to miss that shower. At 6:30, we’ve been invited into the restaurant’s kitchen for a cooking demonstration. I think a number of the Relais & Chateaux hotels offer this amenity. The kitchen is spotless. The chef makes a scallop and mushroom dish that is out of this world. He then takes a newly plucked pigeon, chops off the head and feet, cleans out the inside, burns off any odd feathers/hairs, throws it into a roasting pan with some shallots and potatoes and enough butter to clog a person’s arteries and puts it into a convection oven. After about 20 min, he takes it out and then throws the pigeon into the deep fryer. Makes a pan sauce and then chops up the fried pigeon and plates it over some mashed potatoes. It looks delicious.

That night for dinner we ate with two couples from Calgary. I had poached scampis with green lentils; duck fillet with balsamic vinegar and butter spinach; warm goat cheese with picholine olive oil; and melting chocolate cake with orgeat cream. The Calgary folk all had the filet mignon and said it one of the best pieces of meat they’ve ever had. Since they were from Alberta, I took that as a huge compliment.

Tomorrow is a hotel move and all about wine…

I forgot to mention earlier...we bought train tickets from Avignon to Nice for our return trip using MorganB's instructions for the sncf website. The tickets available were not the kind you could print at home so we opted to pick them up at a window at the train station.

When we got to the Avignon TGV station before meeting Backroads, DH went to a ticket desk and within 30 seconds had our tickets for the following Sunday. It couldn't have been easier. So thanks MorganB! It was quite a savings over RailEurope.

Day 6: Jour du Vin and Le Mistral
Tuesday, 9/26/06

Today we move hotels from Chateau du Montcaud to Le Vieux Castillon in Castillon du Gard. www.levieuxcastillon.com Another breakfast with that wonderful muesli. Our bags have to be outside our hotel room at 8:30 and the route rap is at 9am. Today we will ride through the Cote du Rhone region among all the vineyards. The basic route is 62.3km (38.6 miles) and the long option adds another ~20km (12 miles). Rudy tells us that the mistral will be starting today. The mistral wind comes from the north and we are headed mostly south today, but it still becomes bothersome. Other than the wind, it is a gorgeous day and the countryside and rows of grape vines are beautiful.

We ride along back country roads with very little traffic. In fact, we don’t have much traffic at all on our routes. And the french are very considerate to bikers, giving us wide berth as they pass. They don’t like it when you double up and ride next to each other—that will earn you a little toot of their horn as they pass. We pass through Tresques, another small charming town and onto Connaux where everyone stops for a cup of coffee at a café. We sit on the patio and enjoy the nice day. We linger longer than the others and are now riding at the back of the pack.

We ride through St. Paul les Fonts and St. Victor la Coste where you can see a large castle now in ruin on the hill. According to our leader, no one knows the history of the castle which in itself makes it interesting. Along this part of the route we pass another bike tour riding in the opposite direction. During the week we see a number of different tour companies—either the bikers or support vans. So there are a lot of different choices for tours.

The wind has really picked up at this point and at times, I get nervous that it will knock me over sideways and a couple of times, it was so strong it pushed me into the middle of the road or over on the shoulder. Luckily, we weren’t on busy roads. Otherwise, I might have been walking the bike. We have stopped a couple times to take a photo or whatnot and now can’t see any other riders in front of us. We don’t know how far behind we are. Today, the group is having a Backroads provided picnic at the Chateau du Montfaucon winery next to the Rhone River and we need to be there by noon. So we to put our heads down and push through the wind to get there as fast as we can.

We arrive at the Chateau right behind a group of other riders so weren’t really far behind at all. The Chateau is privately owned and its history dates back to 600 BC. The current owners have 4 grown children, one of whom, Rudy, takes us into the Chateau’s courtyard to talk about the architecture and history of the place. We can’t go inside because it is the private home of his parents. It was a fascinating talk and I almost wished I had taken notes as I don’t remember all of the details.

The original towers were built in the 6th century BC. It is triangular in shape which makes it unusual. It was added onto between 300 and 500 AD. The earliest documentation they have about the chateau dates from 1258. During the 1300s, they have documentation about collecting tolls along the Rhone River which was more for protection as boats passed through the property. The Chateau fell into disrepair between 1750 and 1850 when it was bought by an Italian. The Baron restored the Chateau and kept everything historically correct except he increased the height by 2 meters. You can look up and see the line where the new stones start. Kind of an odd thing to do to a structure that is so imposing anyway. The Baron never married and had no children, so he passed it on to his niece, Rudy’s grandmother.

The Chateau was occupied during WWII. Rudy’s grandmother and father were living there and were told to move down to the valley. His grandmother had a German nanny when she was young so she spoke German which was unusual. She was able to develop decent communication with the Germans and Rudy believes this is primary reason the Chateau was not burned when the troops were evicted. The other Chateaux in the area were all burned including the Chateau du Pape.

Rudy runs the family winery. He takes us down to the winery for a tasting and our picnic lunch. He gives a talk on winemaking in the region and everyone asks different questions. It is quite interesting. We then have a delicious lunch of different salads, breads, cheese, dessert and, of course, wine.

After lunch, we start our ride to Castillon du Gard which is yet another hilltop town near the Pont du Gard. The ride from the winery to the hotel centers around a 7km uphill. I had been dragging today and with the wind, just didn’t relish the idea of climbing 4.5 miles uphill. I asked if the van could drive me to the top. The leader said he was taking a couple people to the hotel and would then sweep back through the group. So, when I got to the hill, if I didn’t want to ride up, to wait for him at the bottom. He thought he’d be about an hour which should be about the amount of time it’d take us to bike to the hill.

After we leave the Chateau we continue to ride through the vineyards. At one point, you can see Mont Ventoux in the distance. Mt Ventoux used to be a stage on the Tour du France. It is 21km to the top with an average grade of something like 7 or 8%. It’s steep. On Friday, we’d have the opportunity to skip the normal ride and ride to top of Ventoux instead. It wasn’t a tough decision for us.

We ride through some more charming towns—Lirac and Tavel. Many of these towns have planted these beautiful plane trees along the main street. They are tall and imposing and provide wonderful shade. There are a number of different places to stop for wine tastings along the way but we had our fill at lunch.

We get to the hill and no sign of the support van. At this point, we are again at the back of the pack with the leader and one couple not far behind us. I decide to just start riding up the hill and plan to stop as soon as I see the van—even if it is 100m from the top. The leader and couple catch up to us and the five of us ride along for a while. The hill isn’t too steep but I had already resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to do it. On these long climbs, there are often short portions where you head downhill a bit. You’d think you’d enjoy the short respite but it just bums you out because you know you just have to reclimb what you just went down.

We make it to the top and no van. The downhill is wonderful though. At a T-intersection at the bottom of the hill, you can go left toward the hotel or right for the long option. We then turn left for a 4km ride along a fairly busy road. The wind is at our backs and we fly down this road. So fun. It is at this point that the van passes us going the other direction. We can see Castillon du Gard up on a hill to the right. We turn toward the town and have a 0.5km very steep climb to the top.

Le Vieux du Castillon is a very cool, very old stone hotel. It’s narrow corridors seem to meander along to the different wings of rooms, salons, courtyards. The outdoor pool is right outside the 1* Michelin restaurant and there is an old stone wall that is only half there now along the far end. Beyond this wall is the valley below. Gorgeous! Our room isn’t big but it is very charming with stone walls, exposed beams on the slanted ceiling, great windows and shutters.

We clean up and wander through town a bit. Behind the old church, you have a view of the Pont du Gard in the valley below. The leaders takes us over to this spot before dinner and give us a history of the Pont du Gard. We decide to sit out on one of the hotel terraces for a few drinks before dinner. The wind finally chases us in though. We dress for dinner and go down to enjoy what I think was my favorite meal of the trip. We have a lot of fun eating with one of the leaders and a couple from New Jersey. We forgot to grab the little printed menu so I forget what I had. But I do remember it started with my favorite food of all time—seared foie gras. Heaven on earth!

Tomorrow is tourist day with a visit to the Pont du Gard and then Les Baux.

Day 7: Pont du Gard and Les Baux
Wednesday, 9/27

We only spend one night at Le Vieux Castillon so our bags need to be outside our hotel room by 8:30am. A couple times, we saw the poor bellman who was tasked with bringing all the bags downstairs and the poor guy was getting a major workout. Today’s ride would take us to the Pont du Gard, Abbaye de Frigolet and up to Les Baux. The basic route was 53 km (32.9 miles) and there was no long option.

It was a quick 5km to the Pont du Gard. The bridge is fascinating and mind-boggling old. In the age of computers, or calculators even, it is hard to imagine such feats of engineering with nothing more than an abacus or two. We spent a fair amount of time there just admiring it. The wind was still strong and a few brave people were down below swimming in the river. One had a huge American flag on his beach towel and somehow I don’t think he was American. The visitor center they’ve built in the last 6 years or so was very nice. One of the shopkeepers told us that the wind would stop this afternoon. Sure enough, it did! There were quite a number of buses arriving with lots of tourists.

The ride from the Pont du Gard took us through Fournes, Theziers and to Aramon. I really don’t remember anything terribly significant from this part of the ride. In Aramon, we picked up more slices of pizza and a sausage roll for a picnic lunch. From here, we crossed the Rhone River and rode up to the Abbaye de Frigolet. It was a 3.5km climb up but it was shaded and not very steep. The Abbaye was a tranquil spot. It was closed for lunch so we didn’t get a chance to go inside. We enjoyed our picnic food in a shaded courtyard.

Post lunch, it was always hard to get back on the bike. You really just wanted to lay down and snooze for a bit. Today, we felt especially tired. We had a nice winding downhill and passed the Casual Inn Backroads trip coming up the hill. Sure glad we were going down. It wasn’t much further until we got to the hill for the climb up to Les Baux. This was to be one of the toughest hills on the trip, about 6km up. We passed some french cyclists at the bottom of the hill getting ready to climb it too. They later flew by us like we were standing still. The next morning, I saw quite of number of french people riding up the hill so they must use it as a good workout ride. Hills are all about your mindset and the steep part always comes at the top. The last 2km of this hill was pretty brutal with lots of switchbacks. And it was fairly warm, probably in the mid-70s. My husband mentioned this every single day, but I just can’t imagine doing the bike trip in the summer in 90+ degree heat. It would be miserable.

We were rewarded at the top of the hill with a nice viewpoint of Les Baux. We continued on to La Cathedrale d’Image which is a unique exhibit in an old quarry. Being 100 years since Cezanne’s birthday (I think?), this year’s exhibit was Cezanne. You go inside what essentially feels like a huge cave with smooth stone walls in which they project images of Cezanne’s paintings. It is dark, very cool and the music is very soothing. After the ride up that hill, I almost curled up in the corner and took a nap. It is an interesting concept. I just wish I could have remembered more about Cezanne from my Art History classes 20 years ago.

From there, we rode down to our hotel for the next two nights, La Cabro d’Or. www.lacabrodor.com The grounds of the hotel are absolutely beautiful and tranquil. The rooms, at least in our wing, were much less to be desired. The room was very small, barely space to put down your bags and still be able to move around the bed. The bath had a handheld but no notch to hang it up like a shower. How hard is that to provide? Another couple’s room stunk of cat urine and the poor woman was allergic to cats. They tried to switch rooms but the front desk said they were full. Another couple’s room reeked of cigarette smoke. They were on the first floor and it was so bad, they had to keep their french doors open to the patio in order to sleep.

We showered and changed and walked up to Les Baux. It was about 4:30 and the town was still fairly crowded with people. It is a very charming village with the narrow cobblestoned lanes lined with shops. We went up to the ruins of the Chateau which was fascinating and offered neverending views of the surrounding countryside. Highly recommended. It was after 6pm when we came back down from the Chateau and the town had emptied out and it was very peaceful to now walk through the quiet streets. He walked back down to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

We had dinner at the hotel in its Michelin 1* restaurant. We had a hilarous dinner with a couple from Maine and a couple from Indiana. I started with shrimp in tarragon cream with roasted shrimp over crusty country bread with olive oil. For the fish course I had a red mullet filet with tomato and vegetable fondue and fresh green salad. For the meat course, I had risotto with mushrooms and poultry. The cheese plate. And for dessert, figs filled with melted chocolate. While the food was perfectly prepared, I didn’t enjoy my selection as much as other dinners during the week.

Tomorrow we visit Van Gogh’s crazy house and St. Remy in the morning and enjoy my favorite riding of the trip in the afternoon.

Day 8: Les Alpilles
Thursday, 9/28

Our route rap is earlier today, at 8:30a since we have an appointment at 9:30. Today’s basic route is 55.1km (34 miles) with a shortcut that cuts off about 5.5 miles. The long option takes you out to the Abbaye de Montmajour for a total of 80.8 km (50 miles).

This morning’s ride starts with a steep 2.5km uphill to get back to the top of the hill we climbed yesterday. My legs are always stiff in the morning, so I opt for a van ride up the hill where I wait for DH to join me. We then get to ride down the huge hill we climbed yesterday. It is then that we see all the french guys out for their morning rides. From there, it is a short ride to St. Remy. We park our bikes at the Roman ruins and walk across the street to St Paul de Mausole, the local asylum where Van Gogh voluntarily secluded himself for a year in 1890 after cutting off part of his left ear. We meet with Marie-Charlotte Bouton who leads us on a tour of the place and tells us all about Van Gogh and his time there. It was one of his most prolific periods as he produced over 100 drawings and 140 paintings including Irises and Starry Night. It is fascinating to stand among the actual cypress trees, mountains and buildings he painted. The asylum is still in use so you can’t see his actual room but they have recreated it and you can see the same view he saw each day and painted.

We then rode the very short distance to St. Remy, parked our bikes and wandered through the quaint, vibrant town. Our first stop was the Joel Durand chocolate shop. In addition to some chocolates, we bought a jar of caramel sauce and a jar of chocolate sauce which we are now enjoying over vanilla ice cream. It is unbelievably divine! I wish we had bought more. We walked around the oval square and through the tiny streets in the middle. I had thought I wanted to sit at a restaurant for lunch today but nothing seemed to jump out at us. We ended up getting an amazingly delicious pizza from a take-out shop which we enjoyed in a little courtyard. The pizza around our hometown is just horrible and I already miss the pizza we had on our trip. After almost a week in the region, you’d think we’d be more aware of the shops closing midday. But, we kept forgetting. I wish I had stopped in a couple more shops when we were wandering earlier because they were all closed now.

We hop back on our bikes and take off for what turns out to be our favorite riding of the trip. The ride takes us through fruit orchards, olive groves and the limestone foothills of the Alps. We ride along quiet country lanes with fruit orchards on either side. At one point, a sheep and goat herder comes down the lane with his herd. We pull over for them to pass. The old man is in the back with a stick and quietly giving commands which kind makes it sound like he is giggling. His sheepdogs are hard at work keeping the sheep and goats on the road as at every driveway or opening a few run off the road. We then come across a field with black cows eating from large piles of red apples.

We really mosey along the lanes taking our time and enjoying the scenery. We are riding all alone for most of the afternoon and it is so peaceful. We start to climb into the foothills and another couple catches up to us. We come to the point where you can take a shortcut to shorten one of the big hills. We turn off and the other couple continues straight. But another rider has caught us. His wife isn’t a big cyclist so she usually just rides in the morning and takes the van to the hotel and he continues the ride. The three of us start a beautiful climb through a pine forest. The fresh pine scent fills the air. We then ride up and down and around the foothills. The sun is glinting off the leaves of the olive groves and the limestone mountains are towering behind them. We see more local cyclists today than any other day of the trip. If I had roads like this to ride on, I’d be out there everyday too.

We ride to Maussane les Alpilles and approach Les Baux from the opposite side than we did yesterday. The climb is shorter and less steep which is nice. Back at the hotel my husband went to shower. I sat down on the end of the bed and laid down on my back to stretch out my stomach—that pizza we had for lunch had been sitting like a lump all afternoon. I passed right out, sound asleep. My husband woke me up, I showered and then we both took an hour nap. It was so nice and so needed. I was exhausted!

We sat with some other couples on the patio and enjoyed some wine. Then we headed over to the hotel’s petanque court to learn the traditional Provencal game which is similar to Bocce ball. A local expert was supposed to teach us but he had a family emergency. So our leaders taught us the game and we had such fun playing and laughing. They served Pastis, the traditional drink of the game, and local Rose wine.

For dinner that evening we went down the road to Oustau de Baumaniere, another Relais & Chateaux hotel and 2* Michelin restaurant. There is a small terrace outside of the kitchen with big windows so you can watch the chefs work. Fascinating. We had two big tables of 9 people each. I was told the biggest difference between a 1* and a 2* restaurant is the service. So my expectations were high and frankly, it was the worst service of the trip. At the other restaurants, Backroads asks them to leave big bottles of water on the table so we can drink as much as we want. You are usually pretty dehydrated after riding all day. Being a 2*, they wouldn’t agree to this and it was torture to get our water glasses refilled. At the other restaurants, the bread girl came around continuously throughout dinner in case you wanted more. Not here, we only got one small roll at the start of dinner. The food was out of this world though. I don’t have the menu for this evening but I remember I had the lamb and some 1000 layer pastry dessert.

Tomorrow we head to the Luberon…