And....We Are on the Bikes!

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Today we woke to a peaceful Avignon and were excited to finally start biking. I walked through the quiet alleys and found take-away coffee as our B&B wasn’t showing signs of movement. As I arrived back Annaliese our B&B owner was also arriving with fresh baguettes and advised to head up to the first floor for breakfast. I let Ken know, who was still getting moving and went up to check out breakfast.

Annaliese had a wonderful open kitchen where she had put out a wonderful typical French breakfast of croissants, baguettes, homemade jams and yogurt, fresh blueberries and muesli. She was making fresh strawberry jam in large kettles which looked and smelled wonderful. While waiting for Ken, she shared with me the history of the villa which included the original owner wayyyyy back in 1700’s had used this room as their master bedroom. There is still a stained-glass window there, which was where his wife prayed before starting her day and is quite unusual for a kitchen.

We enjoyed the wonderful fresh food and walked back to the city train station, to catch the tram back to the TGV station where we were meeting our Backroads group. We happen to grab one a bit earlier than expected and arrived a full hour before our 1130 meet time. However, we did see the other two trips that were leaving at 1030, one the Classic Provence bike trip and the other a Provence Walking and Foodie trip. It was funny to see the two groups as one was obviously geared up for the bikes, while the other all had hiking shoes and poles.

We had time to relax under an umbrella (required in the 80 degree heat) with a fresh juice from a food truck in front of the station and saw our two trip leaders, Scott (French/Scottish) and Vidal(Spanish) for our “Secret Provence” trip, which is focused on the small beautiful villages in the region. They were getting the last minute details ready before we got going. Shortly our other 7 co-bikers arrived, Shelly/Ed from LA, Anthony/Sue/Sam from LA and Sand/Eric from Oklahoma City. All except Sam had done several Backroads trips before with Shelly leading the pack at 11 trips!

We loaded into the van for the hour-long trip into the heart of Provence to a lavender farm in Luberon, where we enjoyed a fabulous picnic of salads, cheeses, fresh bread, hummus and fruit before getting a tour of the farm and processing. The owners were 5^th generation, and the beautiful smells permeated the area. Unfortunately, the lavender doesn’t turn purple until June, so we won’t be seeing the classic views of the fields on this trip.

Then it was time to get on the bikes, which we were all excited to start the riding. With 9 of us (perfect sized group) there were 6 e-bikes (including us) and 3 road bikes. We got fitted, had our first “route rap” (instructions for the day) and we were off…with an immediate climb just out of the driveway. Ken and I hadn’t really been on a significant bike ride for a year, so it took a bit to wear off the rust and get into the rhythm of the bike. As usual, What Goes Up, Must Come Down (WGU,MCD a phrase we will use liberally over the next 6 days) and down we went on small roads with great views along the way.

At some point, I lost Ken as he was much speedier than I, and by the time we hit the pitstop to refill water bottles at a village he was nowhere to be seen. I was with some of the others, so we kept on going and I hoped he hadn’t taken a wrong turn, but he had our trusty Whahoos (gps) so he knew where he had to go. We biked through some very small villages and took a few wrong turns up in the small alleys. One old lady pointed us in the right direction and two old men clearly advised us we were going down a small alley that was one way. Thank goodness for friendly guidance.

We were back on track and soon were on the final lap to our cool chateau for the night Château de Fonscolombe (https://www.fonscolombe.fr/). And yes, Ken had made it with no issue, had time for a beer and a nice chat with the Manager. Our room was beautiful and looked out over the amazing grounds. We relaxed for an hour and then went down for our welcome reception on the patio, before enjoying a nice dinner with local ingredients along with the requisite local French wine. Great end to our first day on the bikes.

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