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| FRANCE 2008: Trip
Report |
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The first 30km from Avignon was
on the main road. Luckily it was Saturday morning and
the traffic was light. We had bought bread, ham and
cheese for our lunch but we passed a restaurant with
a terrace overlooking the river in L’Isle
sur la Sorgue so we ate there. Just before
Maubec we switched to the minor roads.
We tackled the stiff climb up to the old village of
Oppedes. We have a strict policy of
never leaving the bicycles unattended so we took it
in turns to walk up the steep cobbled path to explore
the church and ruined chateau at the top. The views
are spectacular and it was well worth the effort.
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We continued through Menerbes,
Lacoste (where the book ‘A
Year in Provence’ is based) and up the
long climb to Bonnieux. As we passed
through Bonnieux a group of villagers shouted ‘bravo’
and clapped as in the Tour De France.
The 10km descent to Lourmarin is a narrow switchback
road. The traffic was heavy but, without exception,
the cars queued patiently behind us until there was
ample room to pass. |
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| The apartment was modern
and tastefully furnished, very comfortable. There was
a large antique book fair with dozens of market stalls
behind our apartment block. The ground floor of our apartment
block housed a wine merchant
so we bought a bottle and drank it with our surplus lunch. |
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| The next day we cycled
to the supermarket and then continued on to the village
of Lauris. The new village is scruffy but cycling the
steep hill to the old village rewarded us with a warren
of beautiful old houses and cobbled streets. We considered
eating lunch at a restaurant there but the owner grumpily
objected to us propping our bikes against the terrace
fence where we could see them so we returned to Lourmarin
and had an excellent lunch at the L’Antiquaire. |
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