My wife and I spent last week on a bike tour with
Blue Marble Travel, in the Provence region of France. It was truly an awesome adventure and something I cannot wait to repeat again (on one of their many other routes) when we can find the time, money and babysitting! Six days is a bit of a long ride report...and this is also a kind of review of the trip product as well, but I hope it will prove helpful and inspire others to take the plunge and do this kind of thing. When I researched bike trips in Europe, I did not find a good description like this, so I'm providing it now. Enjoy!
Our trip began in Paris, due to airplane ticket restrictions and the desire to see Paris, we stayed a few days extra on either side of the bike trip itinerary. If you want to see the whole trip in pictures, you can go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photodave/sets/350925
Frankly, I'm done with Paris. It was not the highlight of the trip, but worth doing once. 3 days is enough.
The itinerary of the bike trip is here:
http://www.bluemarble.org/itinProvUS...rv%20Itinerary
Overview
A typical day involved getting up around 8am and going down to the hotel restaurant for the included "petit dejeuner" – French breakfast of coffee, OJ, bread and jam. This light breakfast was a great way to start the day, meet the other folks in the group, plan out who to ride with, etc. Then, we left, following a rather wordy route sheet—not a cue sheet, but a two-page document with paragraphs of instructions. It is important to have a handlebar bag with a plastic cover you can put the route sheet in so you can read it. It does not work to clip on with clothespins because it is long and wordy.
Each day was different, but generally, we rode though beautiful scenery and small villages, stopping for lunch, snacks, to check out ruins, for a glass of wine, etc. so 50km of biking was a full day. It is not a race to the destination.
At the destination town for the day, we had a nice hotel; not fancy, but very pleasant and well situated in the center of town. At night, we had dinner with the group, which consisted of a 3-4 course French meal that lasted 3 hours or so.
The Bikes
The bikes are custom-built, well-traveled road bikes with tube shifters and a triple chain ring. You will use the triple and be glad for it. The brakes have extra grips across the bar, so you can grab them with your hands resting across the top bar. However, I found my handlebar bag interfered with this.
Blue Marble does not provide any extras, so you can bring whatever you want to "outfit" the bike. I brought my seat, road pedals, Cateye MITY8, saddle bag, handlebar bag, and big waterproof panniers from Nashbar. In this report, I will use metric measurements, because that is what we were set up for on the bike computer, maps, etc., and I don't want to have to convert everything now.
Blue Marble doesn't automatically provide daily baggage service like many other bike tour companies. They encourage people to use the panniers and pack light. Initially, I was concerned about this, but now I think you are better off without the suitcase because you have more control over where your stuff is. You can pay them for baggage service or partial service, etc., but most people in our group only did the "light" service which meant they saw their suitcase every few days (they were on a 2-week trip that went on to Italy after we left.)
My road pedals were maybe a little overkill. When I do this again, I will get shoes I can walk in and use my SPD pedals, so I don't have to pack an extra pair of running shoes. But when you ride 330k in a week, I think you want your shoes and saddle, not whatever the bike company provides.
The bikes are not light, but I found them to be ideal for the task at hand. When you are lugging 10kg of pannier stuff up hills...kilometers become miles. In other words, your average speed now in mph, is probably what you will average in kph. Plus, you will probably want to pace yourself not to leave people behind, etc. On a loop day, I went off by myself, ditched the panniers and did a metric century in the mountains averaging 18.7 kph (11.6 mph). That's pretty lame; I do a can do 6-hour century (miles). But when I'm doing a century, I don't generally stop for a 3-course lunch and half a pitcher of wine before tackling the 700m col. It's not about speed...
Ride Report
Sunday
We began our journey on Sunday in Nimes, where we got our bikes and met the other members of our group. I got up early and jogged around this beautiful Roman town to see a few sights before we started cycling.
Our group had a choice to go the long route and see the Roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard, or take a flatter, shorter, easier route. 3 of us went for the Pont; the others (and our trip coordinator) took the shorter route.
Bad luck hit us about 10k out. My wife's chain had some bent links or something and began to skip, a problem that became progressively worse and made her first day a real pain in the neck. We knew our coordinator/wrench, was following the other folks, so we had no backup and no "sag wagon." So she gutted it out.
We made lunch by finding the store that was open and buying bread, cheese etc and eating in front of this church in Cabrieres.
We had some awesome downhills, although you do tend to approach them differently when you are loaded up with panniers, but it was still a blast to go down the winding mountain roads at about 60kph. The Pont du Gard is impressive and well visited by tourists on a Sunday afternoon. They have nothing else to do because France closes on Sundays and Mondays.
The slipping chain was becoming a real drag, and I tried to adjust the rear derailleur, thinking it might just be a little out of alignment, but I could not fix it. At one point, an athletic French cyclist shot past us in full team kit and I hesitated for a moment...then dropped the hammer and gave chase. Amazingly, the pannier-laden bike responded well in the big ring and I closed the gap as he got up in the saddle and began to climb a hill. I could not think of a polite phrase in French, so I just yelled "arret!" (Stop!). With my minimal French, I asked if he knew anything about bike maintenance, where the nearest bike shop was, etc. But it was Sunday and he spoke no English at all. He offered to ride home and get his car and drive us to Arles, but we thought this was too much to ask, so Jen continued to gut it out as we made our way towards the rail station at Tarascon, at one point passing under the TGV train tracks (180mph train).
At Tarascon, it was a mess to find the train station. Hint: Gare, the word for train station in French, is pronounced like "car." Guerre is war. So "Ou est la guerre?" was just confusing the locals as we searched! But we eventually found it.
From there, we caught a bus to Arles which we managed to make by sunset, after a total of 70km of cycling on our first day. We caught up with our group at a local restaurant and enjoyed the first of many long fun meals sampling such fine local fare as sea snails, rabbit, duck, goat, and, of course, fondant chocolate.
I also discovered that French Rose wine is not the Paul Masson, blush garbage I've always associated it with here in the US. Go for the Rose! Often, a small pitcher of Rose is maybe 3 euros whereas a Coke Light might run you 3.20E or more. Drink the Rose! Or the tap water—L'eau.
The hotel in Arles was very nice; located a block or so from the Roman arena with a decent room and bathroom. All of our hotels were fine; not fancy expensive places, but more than adequate and often very cute/cozy/etc.
Monday
Next morning, our trip coordinator/mechanic took a good look at the bike and realized it was not just a simple adjustment. However, Monday is like a Sunday, but you don't have to go to church...so basically everything is closed. He gave us his bike and said he would ride Jen's bike with the slipping chain from Arles to Cavaillon, a ride that includes going up a lot of hills and a total of at least another 70k, then get it fixed on Tuesday. So off we went...
Through fields of olives and lavender...it was a beautiful day full of many hills.
Actually, to continue the bad luck...about 100m into the ride, we stopped at an intersection of a busy street in Arles to read the route sheet...and...um...I forgot to unclip. In front of a restaurant full of people, I slowly tipped over with about 10kg of extra weight from the panniers. I managed to absorb most of the impact of the fall in my right wrist and bend the rear brake grips around 45 degrees. Oh, well, I didn't need that hand anyway! It didn't really hurt so bad until later in the day. So, I brushed off the dust and we continued on our way.
First, up to Les Baux, an old fortified city at the top of a big hill.
A great place to stop for some wine and a crepe and look like a dork in my RBR jersey...
As long as I can lift a wine glass, I'm OK. Don't need the rear brake anyway.
For the most part, the panniers were not that noticeable once we got used to them. But the third chainring got a lot of use and we were averaging maybe 15kph to get up these hills.
One of the most interesting ruin sites we saw was in St Remy, the ancient ruins of Glanum, a 5th century BC Celtic city that the Greeks and Romans used. There are steps here, worn from use, up to the sacred place that people visited 2500 years ago...then, there are the roman plumbing, temples, house foundations, etc. from more recent times.
At Eygalieres, a very quiet, small village with a hill and church, we caught up with our trip coordinator who had wisely opted out of the climb up to Les Baux on that bike with the messed up chain. He had a much greater appreciation for our difficulties the day before and treated us to a round of drinks.
By this time, I was having trouble lifting a glass of beer with my bum right hand and had taken to riding with it behind my back to avoid touching anything that would hurt. After checking out the church at the top of the hill, we got back on the bikes and made our way to our hotel in Cavaillon where we would stay for two nights, making the next day a "loop day" with many options.
Tuesday
After dosing up with Ibuprofen, we decided that it might be best to take a day off from riding to give my wrist time to heal a bit. So we took a train to Avignon to explore on foot. Others rode their bikes there or went up to the Fontaine de Vaucluse which turned out to be less impressive than expected.
Two main attractions in Avignon:
The bridge...
...and the Palace of the Popes. The palace was not as impressive as we were expecting...we were thinking in terms of Notre Dame and instead, it is a big stone castle. It is very impressive, but not the big gold/shiny thing we thought it would be.
Avignon is neat because it is so old and new at the same time...
Our hotel in Cavaillon was at the bottom of this hill:
Wednesday
I got up early and hiked up the hill to get a view of the Rhone, the sunrise, etc., and the cross at the top.
Then we began our journey to the Luberon. Wow. I think this was the best day. It was only about 45k, but we stopped in every little old village and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
Oppede Le Vieux – and this is just the old church at the top of the hill...
On to Lacoste, and the Chateau de Sade which is being restored by Pierre Cardin.
That side of the castle definitely needs a visit from the "extreme makeover" crew.
Jen has her properly-sized bike with a working chain back today and is much happier...
Up, up, up to Bonnieux.
And ice cream
Then back on the road to our destination just down the hill from Buoux, in a rustic inn on the side of a gorge.
Thursday
My wrist was much better now and I was read to do some serious riding. We had two days in the same inn, so Thursday was a "loop day." Some chose to climb the mountain, which I heard was pretty challenging and steep. I mapped out my own route and did a 97k ride around the Luberon. First to Apt, where I picked up the Apt bike trail.
This bike path (on major roads at times) is a long, do-it-yourself excursion that can take you all over the Luberon. I followed it for a ways, then cut through the mountain pass I describe below to get to the other side, where the path continues. It's a huge loop.
After leaving Apt, the ride is pretty rural, a gradual climb past occasional villages in the "Colorado"—a park area that has red dirt.
I went north to the small village of Viens where I found this great little restaurant, Le Petit Jardin.
They offered a lunch menu for 12 euros (menu in French is a fixed price meal where generally, you can choose the appetizer (entre), the main course (plat), and dessert or cheese. The "menu" is la carte, so, to order things individually is to order "a la carte" – from the menu. If you wanted to read a menu, you would ask to see the "carte") Anyway, in this case the menu was all set as a tomato salad, eggplant lasagna, and dessert or cheese plate. Plus, a ¼ pichet of wine included. Quite a feast.
I opted for the cheese plate.
If are thinking at this point, a couple of Cliff Bars would have been a better idea, yeah, that's probably right. But that's kind of missing the point of the whole trip. But yeah, I paid for the indulgence later...
As I turned south at Cereste and found a great bathroom and cold water source, I began my journey across the Luberon, towards the village of Vitrolles en Luberon. The scenery just kept getting better, as I climbed the mountain.
Another French cyclist passed me as we headed toward the col and I got a major cramp in my stomach as punishment for Le Petit Jardin. Sat down for awhile and it went away.
Difficulty-wise, this was not really that hard a ride, it was just a long ascent. I was going uphill for about 18k, I think, but not more than 5-7% at a time. There was no danger of having to walk the bike.
At last I reached the top.
I did not take any more pictures because I realized that I was only at the halfway point and was concerned they might send a search party out for me if I did not make it back by 6pm or so. So, I moved more quickly down through the south side of the Luberon, where I rejoined the bike trail and headed west towards Lourmarin.
The route on this side passes through much smaller villages that don't have big castles. Apparently, it is the route many of the knights followed in some of the crusades. It is a lot of scenery like this:
After Lourmarin, I know I only had about 10K back to the inn at Buoux, and I started to think about that dog I had passed on the way out. There is a dog that lives on one of the hairpin turns halfway between Buoux and Lourmarin, at the road that leads to the Inn at which we were staying. He seems friendly, but he's big and he comes running out barking and just about touched me when I left in the morning. I was hoping I wouldn't meet him on the uphill.
The road up from Lourmarin plays a cruel trick on you. It seems almost downhill for about 5k and you think, hey, I'm home free now. But then, the last 5k is a series of switchbacks (you can see them ascending up the side of the mountain as you approach) that just climb, climb, climb for what seems an eternity. And you know that dog is up there somewhere.
But the dog had gone home when I got there. I made it back to the inn in time for another great dinner. This time, we forced our coordinator to order the "Pieds et Paquets" - sheep trotters (hooves) and tripe. Yum. It's like the special every night in these parts. I sampled the pieds and basically, it's like eating grisly silage - that smell you get in rural areas with a lot of livestock. Eating feet tastes pretty much like what you would imagine.
We departed the inn the next morning for the final leg of our journey down to Aix-en-Provence.
Friday
The highlight of the ride from Buoux to Aix is visiting the market at Lourmarin. Sorry, no photos this day. It is a pleasant ride with a good 6k hill at the end and the weather was hot. We ran out of water, but the kind folks at the Beaulieu vineyard gave us some extra water bottles.
Aix is a cool town. It has a big university and is in a much warmer climate than Paris. If you like to shop, eat, and people watch, there is plenty to do.
We stayed in Aix another night, but this was the end of the official itinerary and we had to surrender our bikes.
Review
I am glad I chose Blue Marble Travel and this type of trip. The only negative we experienced was our bad luck with the chain on that first day. If we had paid Backroads twice as much money, maybe a van could have picked us up or something. But I did not want the kind of trip we they anticipate people may need a sag wagon.
When I chose the tour company, I considered a lot of options. I did not want an "extreme vacation" consisting of 6 days of metric centuries, but I also did not want to be in a group of stereotypical American tourists on bikes. I wanted a group because I think a lot of the fun comes from the group dynamic. Theoretically, I could have mapped out my own trip and done it all myself with no group. But I would have missed out on a huge part of the fun of this adventure.
I think Blue Marble attracts people of a similar mindset and this distinguishes them from other tour organizations. Their website does an accurate job of reflecting their philosophy. If you want a more extreme vacation or less risk of problems, then you should choose an appropriate company or do it yourself. But for my wife and I, this was the most fun we've had in years and we would, without hesitation, go back and do more trips with these guys.
The route sheets were a surprise. I was expecting something more like a cue sheet. But after navigating through these towns, I came to realize that it is probably hard to navigate no matter what. It's ok to take time to puzzle over the instructions from time to time. This is not a race.
The accommodations and dinners were outstanding. Our group meals were 3-hour events with great food and great company. Who knows what kind of people you will get in your group; maybe we were just very lucky. But my sense is that this trip was typical of what the coordinator had led before.
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