Today we ride the Luberon....as suggested by our ride sheet, we left from Cavaillon early and planned to arrive in Buoux late. We didn't want to miss a thing...
What a day(!) and no rain! In talking to Lyn these past few days, we had the sense that today was gong to be a challenging day—even more so than our ride to Cavaillon and the two huge uphill climbs (we were right). He also said it would be well worth the effort (he was right). Today’s route was only 48 k. However, it was from one hilltop town to the next, so there was a lot of uphill work (yes, work).
The towns were spectacular…all were medieval fortresses at one time and as difficult to get to as I suppose they should be. Arguably more spectacular than the towns, however, were the views. We were even told to not complete the trip too quickly or we would “miss out” (fortunately, we listened).
It seems that this is such a popular ride, the French folks have 'signed' it for us. Periodically along the route we would find the "waving cyclist" signs. Since we were following these most of the way, we felt pretty comfortable in our navigation.
Well, at least until just before the first town. We weren't lost really, just not sure on the road ahead of us (OK fine, if you consider that lost, we were lost). We had additional information on the ride sheet, but not having an odometer we usually had to estimate the k's. We went back and forth for about 1 k quite a few times (and yes, I will count this in our final number of k's for this ride!). We finally choose a road and kept going....we just hadn't gone far enough and (surprise, surprise) there is more than one big iron cross atop a stone pillar between Cavaillon and Maubec and we were fixated on the wrong one.
When we got up to the second town, Oppède-le-Vieux, we were looking in the distance and saw another town waaaaaaay over on the other side of the valley—yep, it was our next destination, Ménerbes. Before exploring further we toured the small center of town...we loved the mulberry trees in the center square where you could just reach up and grab handfuls of fresh berries to snack on.
[Along much of our route there have been cherry, peach and nectarine orchards were occasionally you could just reach out and grab some fresh fruit off the tree without hardly slowing.]
Before leaving Oppède we toured some ruins and a 5th-century chapel, which was (slowly) being restored. After lunch in the next town, Ménerbes, we were off to Lacoste. Here we walked up to the 9th
century Château de Lacoste, which was once owned by Marquis de Sade in the late 18th century (and is currently owned and being renovated by designer Pierre Cardin). A stop at a hillside café for a beer w/ grenadine (a Monaco) and we were off.
From Lacoste we rode on and up to Bonnieux, and then (finally) down to our destination for the next two nights, Auberge des Seguins , just outside of Buoux. We seemed to descend forever—my thoughts flipping randomly through a) what a spectacular ride…no one will believe this, b) will we have to go back up this?, and c) how am I ever going to get internet access to post?
[We didn't have any connectivity for the next few days as we had no cell or broadband card signal, nor did we have a phone or TV in the room...it was wonderful (at least after I stopped twitching uncontrollably and responding to phantom message notification vibrations)]
As we rode up to the hotel, we just looked at each other. The hotel itself was quite charming. There were a number of old stone buildings with terra cotta tile roofs and brown wooden shutters…similar to many of the Provençal town centers we passed through today.
Surrounding the hotel—seemingly on all four sides save the one-lane road we came in on—can only be described as small mountains; the backdrop of the hotel being a sheer rock wall rising hundreds of meters. The setting was/is (here’s that word again) spectacular. I'll post some more photos of Auberge des Seguins in the Provence photo album.
We unloaded the bikes and just left them leaning against the stone wall in front of the hotel...unlocked. After resting and cleaning up we met for dinner in the restaurant.
The menu was limited to a few select dishes, but having had the opportunity to taste a few of them you can 'limit' me to a menu like that any time. After stories from the day and some tasty deserts--which you really HAVE to eat to keep your calorie intake high enough :-)--we turned in for the night.
Tomorrow we have options, including a hike instead of a ride. We’ll see, but I think we might just take the easy (ah, easier) route… This trip truly is amazing!
Day 5 Stats:
- Ride Sheet - Cavaillon to Buoux (48 k)
- Actual Ride - 52 k
- Lunch - Ménerbes
- To Remember - So much! Mulberry trees, the chapel, Cafe in Lacoste, hills, hills, hills, lunch in Ménerbes, old pine trees in Bonnieux, first sight of Auberge
Please bring back that hotel, stone by stone, to L.A. I'll pay cash on delivery.
Posted by: Chapps | 2008.06.07 at 02:12 PM