In this video we cycle across Provence, riding a full circle: from Avignon to Gordes, north under Mont Ventoux, on to Orange, and back to where we started.
Van Gogh and Cezanne painted this light. We came to ride right through it. Seven days in the saddle on quiet back roads, between olive groves, vineyards and lavender fields, through tiny hilltop villages and proud, ancient cities.
Each stage is around 25-40 km, so the whole loop can easily be done in a week by bike, or on foot in longer stages. After closing the circle we also travelled by car to a few places in Provence you should not miss: the lavender plateaus of Sault and Valensole, the ochre villages of Roussillon and Rustrel, and Entrevaux, where Provence meets the Alps.
LINK to the .GPX tracks we followed:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1X__z_I7tP3QcHDIFbEgVFT5kyNOwix3T?usp=sharing
Video chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:19 Day 1 cycling: Avignon – L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
1:31 Chateauneuf-de-Gadagne
1:41 L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
2:10 Day 2 cycling: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue – Gordes
2:22 Fontaine-de-Vaucluse
2:59 Village des Bories
3:17 Day 3 cycling: Gordes – Venasque
3:23 Gordes
3:39 Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque
4:12 Venasque
4:37 Day 4 cycling: Venasque – Aubignan
4:48 Carpentras
5:18 Day 5 cycling: Aubignan – Cairanne
5:22 Dentelles de Montmirail
5:50 Gigondas and Seguret
6:37 Day 6 cycling: Cairanne – Orange
7:06 Orange
7:28 Day 7 cycling: Orange – Avignon
7:32 Avignon
8:39 Extra days: Sault and Aurel
9:39 Roussillon and Rustrel
10:34 Valensole
11:20 Entrevaux
WHAT TO VISIT:
Avignon was, for centuries, the city of the popes, and you can still feel it: the monumental Palace of the Popes, the broken bridge over the Rhone, the ancient walls, the gardens of the Rocher des Doms. Do not miss the small Angladon museum, which guards the only Van Gogh in all of Provence, with a Cezanne hanging right beside it.
Day 1 is flat and easy, from Avignon to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, through Chateauneuf-de-Gadagne and Le Thor. They call L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue “the Venice of Provence”: the whole town is built on water, crossed by canals and full of antique shops.
Day 2 climbs to Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, the most powerful spring in France, where the Italian poet Petrarch wrote hundreds of love poems to a woman named Laura. Then Lagnes, Cabrieres-d’Avignon and the Village des Bories, a village of round stone huts built without a single drop of cement.
Day 3 is the day of lavender: Gordes, spilling down its rocky hill, the Abbey of Senanque, founded in 1148, with its lavender field in bloom, and Venasque, guarded by three old Saracen towers.
Day 4 crosses the plain to Carpentras, once the capital of the popes’ land, with its Roman arch and medieval streets.
Day 5 is the longest ride, 39 km, into wine country, under the jagged ridge of the Dentelles de Montmirail: Beaumes-de-Venise, Gigondas, Sablet, Seguret, Rasteau, Cairanne. Almost every village here is a famous wine.
Day 6 runs down the plain of vines to Orange, with its Roman arch and the best preserved ancient theatre in Europe.
Day 7 closes the circle, back to Avignon.
By car, we also visited Sault and Aurel, the capital of true lavender on its high plateau; Roussillon and Rustrel, where the earth is ochre and the old quarries became the “Colorado of Provence”; the endless lavender fields of the Valensole plateau; and Entrevaux, a fortified village where Provence meets the Alps.
WHY VISIT PROVENCE
What I bring home from Provence is all in the senses: the color of lavender, the smell of the countryside, the Mistral wind at my back, and that golden light two great painters spent their lives trying to capture. This is the France I fall in love with, every single time.
FOOD TIPS:
Avignon: Mon Bar, 17 Rue Portail Matheron / Le Petit Comptoir, 5 Rue Tremoulet / Premiere Edition, 5 Rue Prevot / Pub Z, 58 Rue de la Bonneterie / L’Atelier de Belinda, 17 Pl. des Corps Saints
L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue: L’Atelier du Jardin, 34 Av. de l’Egalite / Cafe de France, 14 Pl. de la Liberte / Au Chineur, 2 Esp. Robert Vasse
Gordes: Le Cercle Republicain, Place du Chateau
Venasque: Hotel Restaurant Les Remparts, 36 Rue Haute
Carpentras: La Maison Jouvaud, 40 Rue de l’Eveche
Gigondas: Carre Gourmand, 3 Rue du Corps de Garde
Seguret: Salon de The Eglantine, Rue des Poternes
Orange: La Dinette, 7 Bis Rue Victor Hugo / La Taverne du Salutant, 4 Rue du Renoyer / La Sardine aux yeux bleus, 8 Rue Notre Dame
Rustrel: Au Pierrot d’Antan, Rte de Saint-Christol
ACCOMMODATION TIPS:
Venasque: Hotel Restaurant Les Remparts, 36 Rue Haute, 84210 Venasque
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1 Comment
Such a nice area. France in general has a rather negative reputation in the wider Europe.