Edition 20 (September 2024) of the German Motorrad magazine, has a suggested three-day jaunt in Provence. I have created it by hand in MyRoute.
My parents lived for 20 or more years near Apt / Roussillon, so I know the whole area pretty well. Is the route perfect? Well, few suggestions ever are, but it’s certainly pretty good. Use a decent map and alter it to suit your own needs, rather than following it blindly. Do you have to take its suggested three days? No, of course not. It’s 200 miles, though the author says it’s 600 km (375 miles). Unless I made a significant mistake, which I can’t see I have done, I guess they either rode several bits twice on their jaunt or it’s a mistype. I might suggest that the author took three days, because he stopped at several sites and villages along the way. Take as long as you like. Either way, it matters little in the great scheme of things.
Any other tips? Only a three:
In summer it can be blisteringly hot in central Provence. Take lots of water with you. Most locals start early, finishing their chores by say, 11:30 and recommencing around 16:00. Start early and finish later than you might otherwise normally do. Enjoy lunch, sit or walk about in the shade, dumping your bike clobber. The extra hour of daylight helps, too.
In late August / early September there can be massive thunderstorms, as nature releases the pent up energy of a hot period that might have gone on uninterrupted since late March. It pours and / or hails, sometimes with some violence but at least it clears the air.
Largely in spring or winter (it can snow quite heavily in February) the Mistral might blow. This is cold and makes a strange noise not entirely unlike a train. The upside? The brightest blue sky you’ll ever probably see. I once encountered it in summer; we didn’t eat outside for three days at all and went looking for jumpers and long trousers. Then, as suddenly as it starts, it stops. It’s a very odd phenomenon.
Don’t let any of those three put you off though. It is a fantastic area of France. It has everything, between the Mediterranean sea coast, vineyards, some great villages and towns, flat plains, gorges, hills and right at the top, the ‘must do’ of Mont Ventoux.
Time from Calais to Apt? It’s 1,000 km or a bit over 600 miles. You can do it in a day, straight down the motorway. Best way to go, mate? How long is a piece of string? Calais to say, Dijon on the N and D roads, gets you to halfway in a day, maybe with a bit of motorway to say, Cambrai, if you don’t start early’ish. The same south, for day two but insert the motorway to miss going through Lyon city centre. You have a choice of motorways at Lyon, one through the tunnel and one that swings around. I have done both many times and it’s a lottery as to which is best. Lyon is a big city and does get very busy, unsurprisingly, squeezed as it is by the hills and the Rhone river. But again, don’t let any of it put you off. Or take a few days and enjoy the Morvan or the Côte d’Or or the Rhone valley or anything else…… and be sure to avoid Avignon in the rush hour! It’s bloody hot, flat and very congested,
Have fun!
PS I haven’t checked the GPX route in any great detail, vis-a-vis the accuracy of my positioning of the shaping points, not least as I was creating it on my iPad in ‘split screen’ mode, the magazine map on one half of the screen, MyRote on the other. From a cursory look, it looks OK and is (near enough) where the bod’s route goes.
My parents lived for 20 or more years near Apt / Roussillon, so I know the whole area pretty well. Is the route perfect? Well, few suggestions ever are, but it’s certainly pretty good. Use a decent map and alter it to suit your own needs, rather than following it blindly. Do you have to take its suggested three days? No, of course not. It’s 200 miles, though the author says it’s 600 km (375 miles). Unless I made a significant mistake, which I can’t see I have done, I guess they either rode several bits twice on their jaunt or it’s a mistype. I might suggest that the author took three days, because he stopped at several sites and villages along the way. Take as long as you like. Either way, it matters little in the great scheme of things.
Any other tips? Only a three:
In summer it can be blisteringly hot in central Provence. Take lots of water with you. Most locals start early, finishing their chores by say, 11:30 and recommencing around 16:00. Start early and finish later than you might otherwise normally do. Enjoy lunch, sit or walk about in the shade, dumping your bike clobber. The extra hour of daylight helps, too.
In late August / early September there can be massive thunderstorms, as nature releases the pent up energy of a hot period that might have gone on uninterrupted since late March. It pours and / or hails, sometimes with some violence but at least it clears the air.
Largely in spring or winter (it can snow quite heavily in February) the Mistral might blow. This is cold and makes a strange noise not entirely unlike a train. The upside? The brightest blue sky you’ll ever probably see. I once encountered it in summer; we didn’t eat outside for three days at all and went looking for jumpers and long trousers. Then, as suddenly as it starts, it stops. It’s a very odd phenomenon.
Don’t let any of those three put you off though. It is a fantastic area of France. It has everything, between the Mediterranean sea coast, vineyards, some great villages and towns, flat plains, gorges, hills and right at the top, the ‘must do’ of Mont Ventoux.
Time from Calais to Apt? It’s 1,000 km or a bit over 600 miles. You can do it in a day, straight down the motorway. Best way to go, mate? How long is a piece of string? Calais to say, Dijon on the N and D roads, gets you to halfway in a day, maybe with a bit of motorway to say, Cambrai, if you don’t start early’ish. The same south, for day two but insert the motorway to miss going through Lyon city centre. You have a choice of motorways at Lyon, one through the tunnel and one that swings around. I have done both many times and it’s a lottery as to which is best. Lyon is a big city and does get very busy, unsurprisingly, squeezed as it is by the hills and the Rhone river. But again, don’t let any of it put you off. Or take a few days and enjoy the Morvan or the Côte d’Or or the Rhone valley or anything else…… and be sure to avoid Avignon in the rush hour! It’s bloody hot, flat and very congested,
Have fun!
PS I haven’t checked the GPX route in any great detail, vis-a-vis the accuracy of my positioning of the shaping points, not least as I was creating it on my iPad in ‘split screen’ mode, the magazine map on one half of the screen, MyRote on the other. From a cursory look, it looks OK and is (near enough) where the bod’s route goes.
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