Vaison la Romaine - Chateaunerf de Pape

Monday 1 August 05

We decided that as we didn't particulary like the campsite - especially as we couldn't use the pool - and that it was costing us 19 Euros a night we would move on rather than take a rest day.

We packed up camp and headed out of town. The route was a forst rode with some steep bits. Well 'the Planet' wasn't wrong - the climbs were sharp - this probably would have been an easier morning had we not already ridden 8 days straight. We finally started our decent before turning off and heading to what we called 'Cauliflower Mountain' (Col du Cayron 396m - on the Dentelles de Montinirail). They got their name from their appreance from Mont Ventoux. In the distance they looked like the heads of Cauliflowers!

The road climbed gradually until the last turn off where it was nearly impossible to ride. Once the road turned to dust about 200m from the Col we dumped the bikes and continued on foot. Unlike most Cols the view was not of the valley below but of the Dentelle above. The Dentelle are heavily eroided rock cliffs.

From Cauliflower Mountain we were back on the bikes and heading to Orange. The Mistral was still blowing and making the ride a lot tougher than necessary. We finally arrived in Orange and decided that we would grab some lunch at a Pizza Restaurant - we hadn't eaten out in ages. While sitting at lunch we heard a weird air sound coming from near our bikes - we both look over a saw a white pipe open onto the foot path - we didn't want to know what it was letting out.....

We finished our lunch and while walking towards the bikes we realised with dismay that the sound was my tire deflating - very weird - my bike was just leaning against the wall. After fixing the tire and finding the tourist office we had a look at yet another Roman theatre and a victory arch. While we were at the Arch it started to rain - oh goody - rain and strong wind - could this day get any harder?

We checked the map for places to stay. The local caravan park/campground charged 25 Euros per night. We dediced that we would ride to Chateaunerf de Pape which was only 10kms away. We also remembered talking to a guy in Murs who said there was a campground there.

The rain didn't amount to much and the terrain was generally downhill with the occassional pinch to ensure we were still awake.

Just before we arrived in Chateaunerf de Pape we took a slight detour to look at the remains of an ald Chateau sitting on the hill looking over town. Wow, this place would have been totally intimidating in it's day. After taking a few pics we rode into town looking for the campground. The campground was awesome, it was about a km out of town on a small island. It only costs us !2 euros per night and was so peaceful and uncrowded that we decided that we would stay for 2 nights and relax.

After setting up camp we headed back into town for some supplied. We cooked dinner and gratefully climbed in bed.

Tuesday 2 August 05

Not much really to say - we finally left the tent at about 3.30pm to go in search of the Wine Museam. We headed out of town in the wrong direction (of course) but as luck would have it, we stumbled upon a fully intack Chateau. The Chateau was being used as a hotel aso we were able to ride right up and have a closer look. The Chateau also overlooked a large vineyard obviously very sucessful given the expensive set up they had. After looking around and taking some pics we headed backt o town - unfortunately straight into the now extremely strong head wind of the Mistral. We found the Museam about 100m from the turn-off to the campsite - oh well we would never have seen the Chateau if we didn't go the wrong way to start with.

The Museam explained the history of the French Wine Industry as well as how the AOC came about. All very interesting...

After checking out the Museaum we thought we might try some of their local wines, however, after waiting for about 10 mins and still not being acknowledged (maybe we looked poor in our worn out cycling gear) we left and heading back to the campsite.