Descending from the Col de Rousset (Drôme)
Descending from the Col de Rousset (Drôme)
(This is a continuation of the trip log from Part 1: Burgundy)
Day
11 (75 km): We negotiated our way out of Lyon, squeezing past a
lot of repaving of streets. Normally, we would enter and exit a very
large city like Lyon by train because of the traffic and the
unpleasant, unsightly suburban sprawl. However, this time, because we had
arrived on a Sunday, we decided to brave the traffic coming in
and because we were leaving against the flow of incoming traffic on
the Monday morning, we decided to chance an exit en
vélo. We were headed southeast out of the city on a
straight flat highway but it was 17 km before we saw an open field.
We turned south at Heyrieux and immediately got into a series of long
climbs and descents, stopping for lunch in the pretty little village
St. Georges-d'Espérance. We had a cool drink first at the
Café du Cycle (of course!!) South of Royas on tiny rural lanes
the climbs and descents became steeper and
more frequent. We came down a long hill near St. Julien-de-l'Herms
with a creek at the bottom and a sharp turn which prevented us from
carrying our momentum up the other side. We were faced with a
VERY steep climb - so steep, in fact, that I couldn't get
rolling because I kept pulling my rear wheel out of the drop-outs
with the force of trying to pedal. It was faster to walk anyway. We
had a nice descending ride through a forest - cooler than the
28°C we had been experiencing because of the shade. We arrived
in Beaurepaire after a wind-assisted but hot 75 km and cleaned up in
our hotel. (The wind blows dependably south in the
Rhône valley. Farther south they call this wind the mistral.) I took the opportunity to phone ahead
for the next few nights lodging because we were going to be in a
number of small villages and I wanted to be certain that we would
have a place to stay. (I became exasperated with a
teenager riding his motorbike at high revs around the square where I
was phoning. This is one of my two bêtes noires
about France - the noise created by these kids on these small bikes;
the other is the graffiti on everything standing still or
moving slowly in all the large cities, especially in Toulouse. After
a career in a secondary school classroom I know why he was doing it
around the main square of the town instead of out on a quiet country
road. It's no fun being a jerk if nobody notices!) We had a very
nice meal outside on the terrace at our hotel - Chez René.
Day
12 (61 km): We began with a flat 15 km east to Viriville but when
we turned south the hills began with a 6 km climb, some rolling hills
and then a 2.5 km descent into Roybon where we bought our lunch
stuff, had a pause café and oiled our chains. We
climbed steeply out of Roybon through the Forêt de Chambaran
and then had 11 km of mostly downhill, some quite steep, into St.
Marcellin where we had our lunch and relaxed for about an hour. We
had an unexpected 3 km descent to the Isère river, climbed up
to St. Romans where we phoned our grandson - he sounds so cute! We
cycled through walnut groves - they're everywhere around here - and
through a short tunnel before descending out of the woods where, for
the first time, we could see the Alps rising up in front of us.
Another fast descent and we're in Pont-en-Royans where we had booked
our hotel. We'll probably have to pay tomorrow for all these
downhills near the end of today's 61 km in 30°C sunshine. There
are some spectacular sights in Pont-en-Royans which is built on a
narrow ledge above the northern bank of the Bourne river. The cliff
is so steep that some of the buildings
which back on the river appear to be 2 story buildings on the
street side but are 7 stories high on the river side. There's a small
waterfall across the gorge which drops about 15 metres and then
cascades down a series of steps into a small pool before overflowing
into the river. At this temperature there were lots of kids taking
advantage of it.
Day
13 (40 km): As we expected, we had to climb out of Pont-en-Royans
but we descended before climbing again into St. Jean-en-Royans where
we had breakfast and picked up stuff for lunch. Even before we got
out of town the climb had begun again.
We
were headed for the Combe Laval, 11 km of steep to very steep ascent
to a spectacular road carved out of the face of a cliff.
(A combe is a deep valley closed in on 3 sides,
like a box canyon.) The
views are incredible. The climb took us about 2 hours. Tough
stuff!! Carol took so many pictures when we stopped where the road
clung to the cliff face that I had time to recover so we continued on
up to the Col de la Machine where we stopped at a restaurant for a
cool drink. I noticed that their menu featured ravioles de
Royans (cheese filled ravioli in a creamy sauce with chopped
walnuts), a local specialty, so we ordered some. Delicious! I filled
up my bottles with cold water from the natural spring beside the
hotel. At 28°C, the water that remained in my bottles by the end
of the climb was hot! Carol will drink only bottled water so she was
stuck with the hot stuff. After a short descent from the col we turned east and began a gentle climb through the
Forêt de Lente to the Col de Carri, at 1215 metres over 1000
metres higher than our starting point that morning.
The
ride down from the col was VERY fast with several switch-backs.
As I flew down the hill at 65 km/h I could see the hairpin turns
coming up and my brakes squealed loudly as I desperately tried to
slow down enough to make the turn. We had a short climb into La
Chapelle-en-Vercors where I had booked a room at the Hotel des Sports
for 2 nights. (Good choice!) I spotted a bike shop as we entered
town. The gloves Carol had bought for me for the trip had begun to
fall apart about 4 days into the trip. By now, they were in tatters
so we went into the shop and bought a new pair. After freshening up
we went out and bought post cards to send home. We strolled through
this pretty little town, watched several games of boules in the park
beside the post office. There's a memorial right at the post office
marking the spot where several people were shot by the Nazis in 1944.
There are a number of locations throughout the Vercors marking
similar incidents. This was not a time in history of which Germany
can be proud. We ate at the hotel that evening - a splendid meal. It
has become our routine to have a kir before dinner. It took an
interesting twist at the hotel. Instead of mixing the cassis with
white wine, they mixed it with Clairette de Die, a light
fruity bubbly wine from the Diois. It was lovely.
(Die - pronounced "dee" - is a town just south
of the Vercors and the region around the town is called the Diois -
pronounced "dee wah".) Once again we tried the ravioles
de Royans au basilic - that same ravioli, this time in a
creamy basil sauce - with a half bottle of a very nice gamay from
nearby Chatillon-en-Diois. Exquisite! Although we only cycled 40 km
that day it was one of the best cycling days of the trip because of
the spectacular Alpine scenery, the difficult climbs and the exciting
descents.
Day
14 (43 km): There was a market setting up in the town square as
we set out on a beautiful sunny morning. I bought a pair of
sunglasses - I had become unhappy with my sun-sensor prescription
glasses. We headed north (without panniers!!), beginning with a 6 km
series of descents to Les Barraques-en-Vercors where the spectacular
Grands Goulets are located.
The
Vernaison river has cut a narrow gorge through the rock and they have
built a road on and through the cliff on one side of the cascading
stream. There are several tunnels on this very narrow 2 km stretch of
road. The gorge and river provide numerous awesome
photo opportunities but the road itself is a traffic
bottleneck as cars must inch by each other when they meet.
Continuing north, we climbed through St. Martin-en-Vercors to St.
Julien-en-Vercors where we stopped for a cool drink - it was already
30°C. The long 2000 metre high ridge of the Montagne de Lans
runs the whole length of the Vercors from north to south and occupies
much of the eastern half of the Vercors region. It provided a very
scenic backdrop for our ride that day. We had a nice 2.5 km descent
to a belvedere high above the Gorges de la Bourne. We had a great
view across the valley and up into the northern part of the Parc
Régional du Vercors. We opted not to go down into the gorge
(knowing that we'd have to climb back out again.) Instead, we turned
around and headed back south. We stopped in St. Martin to have our
lunch then continued straight south, following the Vernaison river on
a small quiet road to St. Agnan-en-Vercors where we stopped for a
nice glass of Clairette de Die. We saw a family of 4 walking with 2
donkeys on which they had all of their stuff loaded - sort of furry
sag-wagons. We headed back up to La Chapelle, finishing this easy day
of cycling at 43 km. I stopped in at the bike shop again to ask him
about my squealing brakes. He took a look at it, took my rear wheel
off and "trued" it. Then he cleaned off the rim and checked my brake
pads. We got chatting a bit about his business. In winter he
specializes in cross-country ski stuff so he manages to have a year
round clientele. The Vercors is a big off-road cycling and
cross-country ski area. He asked me why we decided to come to the
Vercors and I told him I had happened upon a web site about the
region - http://www.vercors-net.com.
He told me that he and two friends had put together a large site
about the region - perhaps it was his site I had seen. Did I fill out
the on-line questionnaire on the site? I couldn't remember. What's
your name? Mike Bedard. He fired up his i-Mac and there I was!! Small
world!! When he had finished with the bike I asked him how much.
"Nothing!" he said. I wouldn't allow that so I gave him 30 francs -
not enough for his time but he wouldn't accept any more. We had
dinner at the hotel again and ordered the same meal. It was obviously
a hit with us! An English couple who were also cycling in the area
invited us to join them for a digestif after dinner. We
had a nice chat with them. It was a treat for Carol who still speaks
no French despite spending a month in France every year. Up to this
point she had been stuck with only me to talk with for two weeks -
pretty boring!
Day
15 (72 km): We began another sunny day with a fresh 4 km descent
to St. Agnan where we had breakfast. On the road again, we passed
cows with cowbells. I guess it must get pretty foggy here sometimes.
At Rousset we began the 7 km climb to the Col de Rousset (1367
metres). It wasn't too bad - a couple of switch backs but
nothing too steep although we did climb almost 500 metres. At the col
we passed through a tunnel - a little scary because there was a
section where 2 consecutive lights were out and we couldn't see the
road, nor could we be seen. We emerged to an incredible sight.
The descent from the south side of the col is
15 km long and drops 850 metres. There are 8 switch backs and we
could see the road crisscrossing the mountain below us. The climb up
that south face is frequently used in the Tour de France. We were
glad we were going down. My newly fixed brakes worked like a charm.
We stopped at the bottom in Chamaloc for lunch in a little bar - a
sandwich for Carol and an omelette for me. Continuing
on after lunch it was mostly downhill into Die. We dropped our stuff
at our hotel and then headed out for a little tour. The 2000 metre
Montagne de Glandasse dominates the region.
We
cycled 15 km to Chatillon-en-Diois and the mountain was always beside
us. Lots of vineyards along the way, with Clairette de Die and
Chatillon-en-Diois appellations being offered. We each had a pastis when we found a small bar in the medieval
vieux village. This licorice flavoured drink is a
frequent choice when the temperature gets up to the mid-thirties like
this day because they always give you a pitcher of ice water with the
pastis. Chatillon is a very interesting old
town. They say there are 17 fountains in the town. Carol could
find only 10. It was an easy ride back to Die. Die also has an
interesting old town centre. Dinner at the hotel was very good and we
had a lovely chardonnay from Chatillon-en-Diois. It was an exciting
day of cycling.
Day
16 (60 km): There was a large market in the old centre of Die as
we started out. Carol can't resist checking out all the stalls even
though all we bought at this one was a small melon to have at lunch.
A few km out of town we came upon a strange scene. There was a sort
of stilt barn and three men were standing on a platform stuffing
straw into a large cylinder. Smoke was coming from a small chimney
and the air was thick with the oppressively strong odour of ---
lavender! We stopped to investigate. As we got closer we could
see that the wagons we thought were loaded with straw instead were
full of lavender. I asked the men what they were doing and they told
me they were distilling the oil from the lavender. They would stuff
this large drum with stalks of lavender and steam from a boiler would
extract the oil from the plant. Then they would discard the stalks,
adding them to a large pile near the barn. I'm not fond of the odour
of lavender under any circumstances but this was nearly sickening. I
wouldn't have lasted an hour on that job. We left the main road south
out of Die at Luc-en-Diois, turning southwest, and almost immediately
began the 11 km climb to the Col de Prémol. There were a
number of switch backs on the way up and the midday temperatures were
in the low thirties so I found it tough! We found a little bar in a
village near the summit where we got cold drinks at premium prices
but at that stage I would have paid twice as much! Once over the col
we began a speedy 10 km of descent on a very good road - it was fun,
especially after the climb. We had our melon in La
Motte-Chalançon and then climbed to Cornillon. We could see
the Baronnies, the next range of mountains, as we descended into
Rémuzat.
This
pretty little medieval village is at the base of a long bar of
limestone, almost 800 metres high with a nearly vertical face - the
Rocher du Caire. There was a large number of vultures circling off
the cliff wall. A visit to the tourist office revealed an interesting
"good news" story. These were griffon
vultures (vautours fauves) - very large,
with a wing span about 2.8 m (9 feet!) and weighing about 9 kg (20
pounds!) At one time they were common all through the southern Alps,
the Massif Central and the Pyrénées. However, when
farmers gained access to guns around 1800 they began shooting these
birds because they thought they were killing their livestock since
they sometimes found them feeding on the carcass of a sheep or goat.
They didn't know that these great birds feed only on carrion. Then,
in the last half of the 19th century there was an intensive campaign
to rid the country of wolves and the method used was bait laced with
strychnine. The vultures, feeding on the carcasses of the wolves,
were "collateral casualties" - to use the current euphemism for
innocent victims. Fifty years ago, the only colony of these birds
still residing in France was a tiny population in the
Pyrénées-Atlantiques, north of Pamplona, Spain. As a
result of a concerted reintroduction program, there are now
self-sustaining populations all across the Pyrénées, in
the southern Massif Central and in the southern Alps in the Vercors,
the Lubéron massif, the Verdon gorges and the Baronnies at
Rémuzat. The Rémuzat colony began with the release of
15 birds in December 1996. The growing colony attracted other griffon
vultures from other established populations and there are now about
130 individuals in the colony and the range is spreading. We
meandered through the tiny lanes in this old village, walking up the
mountain a bit to see the 11th C Chapelle St. Michel. We stayed at
the small Hotel Baudoin where we had an excellent meal (prepared by
the English chef!) and went to a harp and flute concert in the
attractive little church. Rémuzat was a real find, a great
finish to a good day of mountainous cycling.
Day
17 (64 km): We headed west from Rémuzat along the Eygues
river between spectacular steep canyon walls. At one of the places
where we stopped for a picture we heard a sharp "crack" and a rock
the size of my head came tumbling down to the road beside us,
shattering into many small fragments. I've seen "beware of falling
rocks" signs along roads all my life, and I've seen rocks on roads
that have obviously fallen, but this was the first time I was there
when a rock fell and I agree with the signs - BEWARE! We had a great
fast ride - I love following a river downstream. We left the river
and turned north to the village of Condorcet. In 1997, we had stayed
at a B&B in Condorcet which was operated by an English couple -
"La
Traversière". I had phoned Pamela and David from
Beaurepaire and fortunately they had a room available. The problem
with their place is that it is at the top of a VERY steep 1 km hill.
The last time we were there we had arrived during the first week of
the trip. This time we had two and a half weeks of cycling under our
belts, including the last 5 days in the mountains. The hill was going
to be easy this time. NOT!!! I gave up about half way
up and walked the remainder of the hill. Carol was able to finish
after stopping - I told you she's tougher than I am. Since it was
only about 10 AM they were surprised to see us but we reassured them
that we only wanted to drop off our panniers and we'd be on our way.
We headed into Nyons (the "s" is pronounced: "knee-own-ss")
where a Provençal market was in full
swing. This Sunday market differed from the usual market in that it
featured goods of more interest to tourists (fabrics, artifacts,
etc.) rather than the produce, meat, fish, cheese, etc., of the
regular weekly market. It was very crowded but Carol was still able
to check out every little corner. It was mid-afternoon and in the
high thirties by the time we left the city to continue our little
tour. We cycled west through vineyards to Mirabel-aux-Baronnies where
we stopped for a cool drink. We began to climb from Mirabel as we
turned east, circling south of Nyons and heading back to our B&B.
We climbed through olive orchards and into evergreen forests, finally
cresting at the Col de la Croix. We then had to carefully negotiate
an 8 km descent because they had just laid fresh tar and gravel so
the surface was still soft. Prior to dinner, Dave served an
apéritif with "olives de Nyons". He had
introduced us to these olives the last time, describing them as the
best in the world. They are certainly the best olives we have ever
tasted. We had a pleasant (and tasty) meal with our hosts and a
retired Belgian couple who were also staying at the B&B. Another
good day, although in Provençal heat, it was tough cycling.
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