Part The First - The Journey Down

Day 1

After weeks of worrying about what I was going to pack, where I was going to pack it, what the hell I was going to do, the day before I arrived. My wife and I packed one pannier each for clothes. The topbox for shoes, chain oil and a few extra tools, wet weather gear, laptop, gopro. Tank bag for documents, little camera, washbag & clothes for a couple of days. European charger and cables and I don't know what else.

The next morning after putting everything on the bike and having a quick final check the only thing left to do was to switch on the ignition, press the starter and enjoy the journey.

Down at Folkstone the Eurotunnel terminal was very busy, but I'd got the timing about right so I didn't have to hang around too long before it was time to board, well time to queue up elsewhere.

The French motorways were lovely and empty at the start so I made good progress. I stopped at one of the services to fill up and get some lunch but inside was so busy that I just got some food and drink to takeaway and hopped back onto the bike to the next Aire - which was peaceful and fairly empty, so I had lunch and a nap in the shade. Much more civilised.

Once I'd arrived at the hotel I went out to get some food but in that part of town everywhere was closed on a Sunday evening except for McDonalds. It did the trick and the technology made it easy to order in English.

Day 2

The next morning it was back on the motorway and as I went further south the roads got much busier, but that was offset by the terrain getting lumpier. Once I'd got through Lyon I decided that I was now in the South of France. Did I mention that it was hot? Wearing a black helmet, black gloves, black jacket, black trousers and black boots whilst riding a black bike meant that frostbite wasn't a concern. I tried to keep four 0.5l bottles of water in the tank bag and a few more in the topbox so I could stop regularly and drink plenty then refill them from the taps. Even so my kidneys decided that they could take the day off.

Eventually I got to the Vercors , an area that I've cycled in a lot and before I went to the Airbnb where I was staying that night I went for a little ride around some of the roads that I knew.

The previous Friday the Tour de France had been through and I had to take a picture of this bike that had been built by the road.

I'd been watching the Tour at work and people had been all over that bike - including on the top tube and bars.

Then a ride up the Grand Goulet

Sadly the old road at the top has been replaced by a tunnel (too many people killed by falling rocks) and is closed off.

Day 3

My plan for the next day was to go up onto the Vercor plateau and head south and come down the Col de Rousset then follow the D roads over Mont Blanc and through Provence to get to the airport, but I was enjoying the Vercors so much that I had to change the plan and leave Mont Ventoux for another day.

A bit further on the road comes to the end of that valley and climbs up to the col and you go through a short tunnel and come out at about 1300 metres with this view

Despite having to re-plan the route it was still a mostly lovely ride, avoiding the motorway for all but the last part.

I got to the airport a bit after my wife, but I'd given her an updated ETA so she wasn't put out. Unfortunately it meant that we were coming out of the airport in the rush hour - and Marseille Airport is the home of Airbus Helicopters, so there are a lot of people working around it. There were a few stressful miles on the motorway but after a little while we got away from that and onto nice roads again.

The last 20k of the journey were amazing. After going through Lourmarin the road goes into a gorge, tight and twisty first and second gear corners, then winds up the mountain. Just at the summit we turned off onto a straight road  along the top of the mountain for 4 or 5 kilometres then it got narrow and twisty around some lavender fields and dropped down until we could see the village where we were staying