A scenic ride through the Luberon taking in Venasque, the Sénanque Abbey, Gordes, Murs, Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt and much more, finally arriving in Manosque.
Hi there. Today we’re leaving Lubus and off to Manosk. It’s about 70 kilometers or 80 kilometers directly there, but we’re going to take a bit more of a scenic route to go past the Abbey of Son, which is beautiful. Uh, and then go down to G, a lovely uh, provin province town. Then I’m going to go across some of the back country eventually going through the Lubon and we’ll end up in Manosk uh, sometime at the end of day today. Bit more drama this morning. Uh the chains got slightly twisted. It’s come off and got slightly twisted. So, it’s not working very well. There’s one link that’s not uh uh running around the system very well, so it’s clicking all the time and uh causing the derailer to get all upset. Um I’ve got a spare chain with Joe, but she’s off charging the car up at the moment, so we’ll have to meet up a bit later on and swap over the chain for a new one or unless I can sort of slightly untwist this one. All in all, it’s been quite an eventful trip coming down from Deep to Nice. One of our bags got lost on the way. Uh, and so missing loads of important parts, uh, which I’ve had to replace locally. Obviously, having the bike run over was the worst, uh, situation. And now I got this issue with this chain. But anyway, we we’ve got we now to repair it. So, um, get this solved and keep going today. Thought I’d stop here. Just came around the corner and then this beautiful town of Vanasque perched up on the hill there was what greeted me. Fantastic. So beautiful. Thought it was worth just a quick video here. Up from Vanas to the Klem through a stunning gorge. It’s a really lovely climb about 400 m of altitude to climb. It’s beautiful day. The cicadas are singing. It’s just lovely out and my legs are feeling much better for a day off as well. So, really enjoyed the climb up. The chain doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem, provided I don’t use the large chain ring and then the sort of larger cogs on the back cassette. So, nevertheless, I’m going to swap it over to a new chain shortly. If you ever wanted a picture postcard of Provence, then surely this has got to be it. The Abbe Des, a 12th century Abbe in a field of lavender. Absolutely stunning, beautiful. Just behind me there are a bunch of uh tourists who are coming down to take a load of photos uh and just people coming in and out of here all the time. It’s such a lovely place. Another beautiful part of Province. We’re now in Lubon and this is the town of God. [Music] up in M. And there’s a lovely lavoir here where you can come and wash your clothes if you really want to. Well, what doesn’t look so good these days, but I guess this is what they used to use in the olden days. Nicely preserved. And then a well here where you can get fresh water. Although it does says does say so not to drink it. So I’ve stopped here which is a Belvadier that’s looking over the gorgees. Vanesque is a really small river. It’s like a stream and yet it’s cut over the years a massive gorge through the valley there. Normally we’re on the other side of this going up the road that’s uh we go up it over there and then it’s a fantastic cycle ride down into the gorge over there. Came up here with Dave last year after we tried going out the vontto and it was too windy and uh yeah interesting viewpoint see it from the other side. Another co called liier. This one allows me to drop down into the lubon. Should be lots of fields of lavender and the smells to go with it. I’ve arrived in San Leap. Stayed here before actually. Joe and I stayed about six, seven years ago in the town near the church there. And some lovely views across to the Lon here. And then as I pan around, see this beautiful windmill, [Music] I kept obviously worked hard against the Mistral for years, the Mistral wind for years and years and years. I’m standing right next to two lavender fields. I was going to go into the middle of this one to get an aspect from right in the middle, but then when you get close to it and you hear all the buzzing of the bees around it, you think, “Yeah, maybe maybe not.” probably get stung there. You can see here them harvesting the lavender. The scent in the air is absolutely wonderful as they take the flowers up. Some sort of cutting machine. And then it all goes into a hopper in the back. Impressive. So, I don’t know what plant this is. They seem to be growing it. Not very good with crops to be honest. But uh it smells beautiful along with the lavender and the Mediterranean pine trees or Mediterranean forest just are full of pines. Just smells so good today. This is what they call the Colorado Provincial Provinces Colorado. You got this sort of formations are very similar to Colorado, maybe slightly different scale, bit smaller here, but uh you can visit this. It’s a lovely visit. I’ve been around it before. Uh you get these sort of ochres over here on the left. Then if you can see at the back there, it’s not quite so visible, but it’s sort of greens and blues and then lighter colors as we go around here. Riding through the lubon right in the middle of it now. Loads of crops everywhere. Olive groves, cherry orchards, vineyards, lavender fields, other crops as well I don’t recognize. Very rural area. Very beautiful too.