Two days for the price of one

Days 17 and 18

Beginning with Toms account and finishing with Jims. 

Vallon Pont d'Arc to Chateauneuf du Pape.

Looking neither to spare the rod nor spoil the child Helen and Verity had Jim and Tom out of bed and breakfasted (Fig and Nut Jam stands out), teeth brushed, bags packed and bills paid before the town was awake though not so early that they couldn't buy supplies from a surly and mustachioed lady baker to sustain us en route.
Having walked to the Pont d'Arc the previous afternoon and familiarised ourselves with the route there was none of the usual blundering around back alleys. 

We got on the road, our route out of town impeded only by a horse that had escaped from the nearby Retraite des Chevaux (home for elderly horses) and was making a bid for freedom - doubtless spurred on by memories of past triumphs at Kempton Park or perhaps Longchamps.

Passing the Pont d'Arc we then had a 5km steady uphill drag at a nearly intolerable 10% gradient, burdened as we were by luggage and imprudent overindulgence in fig jam. 

Topping out at the view point overlooking the Pont we gamely withstood the usual mixture of admiration and predictable jokes (referring to lack of power from the stokers) and replied in our usual manner: back on the bike and power away. We then met the same people at most of the 11 viewpoints over the Ardèche Gorges though, thankfully around viewpoints 9 to 11 they had given up on the humour.

 As had we, since it had long become apparent that the gentle tandem saunter down the Ardèche was in fact an exhausting 20km mountainous marathon.
We finally crossed the Ardèche at St Martin d'Ardèche and crawled beaten and hungry into Aigueze, 

, one of the 156 (why 156?) Plus Beaux Villages de France, where we repaired the damage of the previous stage with quiche and Pruneaux d' Agen. The entirely predictable effects of the latter on some of the group delayed our departure.

The afternoon proved easier: flat riding along the Rhône powered by apple pie from a café in Pont St. Esprit, served by a tattooed and multiply pierced waiter, followed by a crossing of the Rhône at Caderousse where we watched the river in spate after recent floods.
The final drag up the hill against the wind into Chateauneuf was almost unbearable but we were cheered up on arrival by meeting Julia Pearson and Keith England who had come over to meet us from Nice and who joined us for a drink at the splendid "Wine B&B" on Ave Charles de Gaulle before we all had dinner at La Mère Germaine.

Km cycled: 87
Metres climbed: 880
Mechanicals: 0

Injuries: the usual

Chateauneuf du Papes to Arles

A sense of déjà vu all over again as we stocked up with another surly boulangère and then retraced our steps of the afternoon before. Crossing the Rhone we turned Left and zoomed along the West Bank passing fields of grapevines 

being picked by hand (= expensive wine ) and by mechanical tractor thingy (= cheapo wine). Arriving in Avignon for coffee we were astounded to see the "Pont" which is in fact only half a bridge not actually making it all the way across. And this was before the EU. 

From Avignon we battled against the headwind through the flat roads arriving with lots of traffic near the big prison. Not a good start but found a handy small hotel and booked a Landrover safari into the Camargue courtesy of the helpful Tourist Info lady. 

The Arena was wonderful and we saw a scallop shell set into the stone. Yes it's yet another point on the way to Compostella. It was all set up for the last bull race of year in a few weeks. They use small Camargue Bulls and the idea is to run away from the  Bulls - sounds French to me. 

Dinner in the old city was followed by a gentle stroll by The Rhone to our hotel. 

Km cycled 77 M climbed 367 Injuries 0