Around Avignon
A month or two in Avignon
We rented an apartment in Avignon’s Quartier Nord Rocarde, a few hundred metres outside the walls of the old city for three months. It was a base for Chris to wait for Maree, booked when we didn’t know how long that might be. But Maree arrived only 3 weeks after Chris, just as winter was setting in. Our month together in Avignon was a mix of wandering around the old town checking out the sights, and some bike rides further afield1
Les Angles and Villeneuve lès Avignon.
First stop for both Chris and Maree was Cyclable at Les Angles, our go-to bike shop for servicing and getting Maree’s bike delivered and assembled. The ride to Les Angles takes us across Île de Barthalasse separating the two arms of the Rhone, and downstream on the left bank before a turn up the steep winding small road to the old village of Les Angles. The newer end of Les Angles, which houses Cyclable, also houses the massive L. Leclerc mall, where we spent some quality shopping time while waiting for bikes to be ready.
The view from the lookout in the old village points to the valley south of Avignon, and is one of those views that is quite impressive to look at, but makes a boring photo.
Villeneuve lès Avignon is a km or two in the other direction up the river. We left it until Christmas Day for a short outing to check out this prosperous outpost. As dead as a doornail on Christmas day, it was nevertheless a beautiful place to visit, and we had a long walk around the park on La Colline des Mourgues, checking out the impressive views of Mont Ventoux, and the modern take on frescos in the chapel at the top of the colline. We would have been tempted to pay the entry fee into the massive Abbaye Saint André, which also promised great views, but it was temporarily closed.
Chateaurenard
Before Maree arrived, Chris had a regular commute to Chateaurenard for French lessons, getting to know the way well: the streets of Quartier Nord Rocarde, the levee road along La Durance, the scary bridge across the river, Rognonas, and the La Durance velo trail, which was once the railway line to Chateaurenard and beyond. The town of Chateaurenard is quite charming, but in classic poor tourist mode, not once did we climb the hill to visit the rather imposing chateau.
Le Pontet
Our go-to retail destination, Decathlon, sits on the outskirts of Le Pontet, a sprawling suburb to the east of Avignon. A decidedly urban outing, but pleasant enough on a bike trail along the Vaucluse canal for much of the way. Other highlights of this route out of town included the Stuart Mill piscine (The French swimming pool experience is perhaps one of the oddest cultural departures for us Australians), and the impressive Grand Frais food supermarket near Decathlon.
Apt
We had booked a week’s ‘language immersion’ stay with a French family in a small village near Apt, but as the weather for our first day there was looking on the miserable side, we decided to leave a day early and have a night in Apt first. The ride to Apt began along the bike trail to Chateaurenard before heading off on some back roads to cross the Durance through Cavallion (including some less attractive industrial bits), and joining another rail trail on the other side of town that took us all the way to Apt. Coustellet was an enticing town for a rest, and we sat in the sun outside the old Maubec train station and watched the world go by for a while.
Apt is high up in the valley nestled below the Colline des Puys. It was a steep ride down from the cycle trail to the Auberge d’Espagnole right in the middle of the old town, where we spent a pleasant night, wandering the Christmasy streets, and eating too much at the L’Ahlambra.
La Tuilière
It was cold and rainy the next morning, and Catherine, our host in La Tuiliere was not going to be home until 1. So after a late check-out we had a leisurely coffee in the bar over le place, to wait out the rain. It had passed by 12:30, and we set off out of town and up and over the hill to La Tuiliere, just 10 km away.
Our week in La Tuiliere was great. Catherine and her daughter Celia accommodated our learner’s french with great grace, took us on walks around the countryside (including to the Baume caves one day), and to social outings where we got to mix with many of her friends. And we had four day-trips on our bikes to nearby villages. All of the rides around La Tuilière were on small back roads, almost all delightfully quiet.
Roussillon
Roussillon is the nearest “village perché” to La Tuilière, and we took a quick ride there to buy some wine for dinner at the neighbours on our first night out. We were thinking we’d return with Catherine later, so we didn’t give it as much time as it deserved. The climb up to the town under the red cliffs was spectacular, and the buildings made from the red stone make it a pretty special place. Being winter, not much was open, but we did manage to get a couple of nice bottles of local wine at the Epicerie with its very impressive ‘cave’.
Gordes and Jouclas
Gordes is another pretty special village perché, apparently voted by the Americans as the most beautiful village in the world. Not sure about that, but it is certainly pretty. We lashed out on entry to the chateau which was hosting a photographic exhibition, and learnt a bit of the history of the place. We left the ride around to the lookout a bit late to get the whole town in sunlight, but it was speccy nevertheless, and the ride out of town down the steep route pavée was pretty special.
It was getting a bit late to stop in at Jouclas (equally pretty) on the way home so we made a separate excursion there on our last day to check out the eccentric wooden sculptors of the local artist, and the only ‘creche provençal’ that we managed to find open all week.
Saint Saturnin lès Apt
Catherine was worried about us riding the busy roads to Saint Saturnin lès Apt, but cycle.travel took us via the bike route, perhaps a km out of the way, that was almost completely deserted. At Saint Saturnin, we had a walk through the town up to the Moulin (decked out in Christmas lights), and along the gorge to the old chateau with its impressive battlements (and sad story about a local miracle disallowed by the church of old), across the barrage (reservoir emptied perhaps to protect the town which would be in trouble if the barrage failed), and back through the town.
Bonnieux
A bigger excursion across the valley to Bonnieux. Another big climb that we probably wouldn’t have contemplated on our regular bikes, Once in town, we rode to the top church and walked and rode the bikes down to the bottom church, before settling into a nice lunch at the ‘P’tit Coin des Gourmands’.
The weather had been remarkably kind to us all week (even getting a bit too warm over lunch in the sun one day). We learnt during the week that the Luberon is protected from the mistral, and rarely gets the massive winds we’ve learnt to tolerate in Avignon. But our last night was an exception, with crashing gusts keeping us awake, worrying about our return ride to Avignon (the way we rode to Apt). The wind had settled a little by the morning, but it was still a stiff cross-wind for much of the way home making sections like the crossing of La Durance at Cavaillon a little more scary than they were on the way out. But we managed to get home safely in the late afternoon for a couple of nights before our excursion to Orange.
Orange and Chateauneuf du Pape
Chris had taken a day trip to Orange while waiting for Maree, and decided to book a return trip with Maree to see the evening Spectacle in the old amphitheatre on 22 Dec. So, we booked a room in the very cute Hotel le Clos d’Orange for the night. The ride up the river was back along the ViaRhona to Caderousse, and back roads into Orange.
The Spectacle was a bit of a disaster (an impressive first 10 minutes, followed by technical failures that they didn’t manage to overcome). The offer of a return entry in even colder weather wasn’t really an option for us. But the night was saved by our decision to have dinner in our local bar, La Taverne du Salutant, which was given a remarkable 5 stars by all 125 people who had reviewed it on Google. It’s unlikely to get a Michelin star any time soon, but the food was generous and tasty and the two women running the place were charming, and our fellow customers (a mix of locals and mildly perplexed foreigners like us) were fun company.
The ride home took us through the vineyards around Chateauneuf du Pape and into the town, with the stiff northerly (fortunately absent the day before) at our backs. On our visit to the chateau, the wind was strong enough to knock our bikes over (a first). The potentially enticing restaurants of Chateauneuf du Pape were all closed on Christmas eve eve, so we decided on the short ride back to Avignon for lunch there.
L’Île sur la Sorgue
We made a post-Christmas day-trip to the “Venice of Provence” for a wander around the canals, the old town and the market. Despite the allure of many restaurants offering sunny tables along the canal, we made do with a baguette for lunch with the ducks in the sun by the canal/river. Our route from Avignon was on somewhat busier roads than we are used to, but they were fine (That’s the south part of the loop, which cycle.travel suggested as the return). The return route was the signed, more quiet cycle route. We had a nice little hill to climb both ways, giving us our closest views to Mont Ventoux yet.
Saint Remy de Provence
A trip south to Saint Remy, another charming old town, a bit more up-market than most. After a wander around the tiled streets with other Sunday visitors, we tried our luck at Bistrôt de Marie, but decided to move on after being overlooked for an unreasonable length of time. This was a stroke of luck, because we moved on to a cheaper delicious lunch at Cafe Colette up the road. The personable proprietor was not only very attentive, but had included ‘magics’ on the coffee list and farewelled us with a little memento from the cafe.
…And onwards
Avignon ended up being just a bit too cold for us, and we decided to up-stumps and head south, starting new year’s day 2025. Part of the decision to leave was our flat being not fantastic (although it was comfortable enough). Perhaps it would have been a different experience had we got a place in the old town, but then we would have been unlikely to have had as much sun as we did in our flat. It was a strange time to be in Avignon, coinciding with the trial of Gisele Pelicot’s rapists. Horrible, but heartening to see so much support for Gisele at every turn through the town.
Footnotes
See the cycle.travel map for a more explorable version of the above map.)↩︎