Heading south to Ardeche and a rendez-vous with old friends



For the last five days, we have been enjoying a pampered life with friends Angela and Jacques at their  beautiful home near the little town of Barjac in the Ardeche region of southern France. This is about an hour and a half's drive northwest of Avignon, on the west side of the Rhone. The bikes are resting now, as are we! More about this area in the next post!

Frank hadn't met Jacques and Angela before, and I had last seen them twenty one years ago when they left Calgary to move to France. They had both worked at the Cancer Clinic in Calgary.  So it was wonderful to be reunited on Tuesday in the picturesque medieval town of St Montain where we'd arranged to meet.

The medieval village of St Montain

To get there, Frank and I fast-forwarded the Rhone ride by taking a train from Lyon to Valence, then riding the remaining 90 km or so to our rendez-vous point.

Riding through the historical town of Chateneuf du Rhone,
Not far from the city of Valence
La Voulte-Sur-Rhone

We've seen so many large groups of swans along the Rhone

Suspension bridge in Rochemaure, built in 1859,
now used solely by the Via Rhona cycle route
It was fun riding across this bridge

Our first glimpse of a lavender field, not yet fully in bloom


Back-tracking a little bit, the approach to Lyon was surprisingly easy once we go near the suburbs, especially considering it's France's third largest city. The Via Rhona follows the river and sometimes its canals through a huge area of parks to the east of the city. It was a Sunday when we did this section, and a hot sunny day, so the entire city seemed to be out picnicking and barbecuing along the riverbank and little lakes, so it was a slow but pleasant ride to get to the centre Ville and La Gare.

Sunday in one of the many parks on the approach to Lyon

Chatting with Alain who we met on the approach to Lyon.
He was a French guy who was doing the exact same route as us

Alan's rig. We helped each other get our bikes over a fallen tree
that was blocking our route.  The guy had a great sense of humour
and we shared a few laughs together.

It was a bit of an educated guess as to which of Lyon's several train stations would be the right one to get a train south to Valence, but it all worked out well. The bikes and us got to Valence on Sunday night where we eventually got to a campground around 9pm.
Late dinner after arrival in camp south of Valence

Comments

  1. Iveta bxJune 26, 2019 at 10:16 AM

    I love the picture of St. Montaine village - reminds me of Tuscany! And I will always love fields of lavender. Your friends are really lucky to live in such a beautiful place.
    I hope the heat wave will pass by quickly - or this will be a trip of extremes (weatherwise).

    ReplyDelete
  2. DaphneJune 28, 2019 at 1:44 AM

    Definitely a trip of extremes Iveta, as this heat wave continues 😎

    ReplyDelete

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