Best of southern France (RNN2402)
What makes this tour in the South of France so special is the incredible combination of great motorcycle roads with little traffic, the breathtaking scenery and some nice little medieval towns for coffee stops. On our first day we already had a lot of these incredible tour ingredients and everyone enjoyed the day on the bikes as we rode through the beautiful countryside. Perhaps surprising to many is the sheer amount of beautiful canyons France has to offer. Today we have already ridden through one of the most beautiful, the Gorge du Verdon, and the views there are simply spectacular.
On our second day of riding, we continue westwards. We leave our fantastic hotel in Forcalquier in the morning and after about an hour we make our first stop in Roussillion, one of the most beautiful villages in France. Roussillion is best known for its ochre quarry, where the Romans mined the red dye. We then continued on to the Gorges de la Nesque, one of the many picturesque gorges that this part of France has to offer. After a lunch stop in Sault, we continued on to our main highlight of the day, the Mont Venteux, which today lived up to its name - which translates as “windy mountain”.
Another great day of driving lies behind us. Today we drove from Villeneuve les Avignon to La Muse, where we will stay for two nights. To get there, we drove through the Cévennes, a mountain range in the middle of France that is probably not familiar to most people, but already impressed Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous author of Treasure Island. He hiked this area with a donkey and later wrote a book about his journey. Today, we're doing without donkeys and tackled the beautiful roads on our bikes.
Today was the rest day on our tour, which meant that we would be spending another night in the beautiful hotel in La Muse and had plenty of options open to us. Some of us decided to go for a short ride on the motorcycles, while the rest of the group used the day off to explore a few of the surrounding French villages on foot. For the motorcycling group, the absolute highlight today, apart from the great little French roads, was the visit to the Arven Armand stalactite cave. A unique experience and definitely worth a visit, unfortunately the impressive cave with its forest of stalagmites is difficult to capture on film.
So far on our tour, we have only traveled west on our trip. Today was the first day on which we changed direction and slowly start making our way back to our starting point in Vence. And it was another great day of riding. First we drove through the Gorges du Tarn, which is more than 50 kilometers long and the route there is truly spectacular. After lunch, we followed along the famous Ardeche River and of course took a look at the stone arch that you problably have seen on pictures before.
What a great day. After riding mainly along rivers and gorges yesterday, today it was time to head into the mountains and first take on the roads in the Vercor mountains and then those in the Chartreuse mountains. Names such as “Col de le Bataille” and “Col de la Machine” may mean something to some insiders, but the rest can rest assured that this is a paradise for motorcyclists with one beautiful bend after another.
Today we headed back into the Alps, and when I say Alps, I mean high mountains, amazing scenery and some of the best roads you can find. We rode many passes today, including the two famous Col du Galibier and Col d`Izoard, which should be well known not only to motorcyclists but also to fans of the Tour de France. All the passes today were different and it's hard to say which one was the best.
Our plan for today was actually to make a detour to Italy and ride some of the beautiful Alpine passes there before heading back to France and our hotel in Barcelonnette in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather threw a spanner in the works, as it was cold and rainy for most of the day. We therefore changed our minds at short notice and took the direct route to our next hotel. There, part of the group decided to spend the day in Barcelonette and take a stroll through the city center, while the rest of us decided to drive up the Col de la Bonette, one of the highest passes in the Alps, despite the snowfall. We all met back at the hotel in the early afternoon and enjoyed an improvised picnic on the hotel terrace. All in all, it was a great day.
Like on every tour, no matter how long the tour is, it always feels like the last day is coming way to soon. So today was the last day on a great trip for us. What started out as a cold and rainy day in the morning turned out to be one of the best days on this trip. After leaving Barcelonnette we went straight to the Col de la Cayolle, a very nice mountain pass with a very long and scenic way up. After this one we got to ride the Gorges du Cians, one of the best canyons on this trip, and this means something, because we had a lot of good ones on this trip. The last highlight on our tour was the ride up to the Sanctuarie Madone Utelle. The road going up there is small and windy, but the view from up there is just amazing, so it was definitly worth the ride. Many thanks to everybody in the group who has made this an amazing tour. We hope to see you soon on another one. Paul & Daniel