Postcards from France

Annonay - Les Freres Montgolfier

Last Wednesday (9/27) I rode about 20 miles north from Tain l'Hermitage on the Rhone, where we stay, mainly uphill to the town of Annonay in the Ardèche. This was the home of the aviation pioneer Montgolfier brothers and I specifically wanted to see their statue and the town square where on June 4th 1783 they first demonstrated their invention, the hot air balloon.

Interestingly, their balloon was not inflated as I had expected but had a fixed shape and was constructed of four linen sections with paper pasted inside to provide the form and make it airtight. The sections were joined together with 1,800 buttons and the exterior reinforced with a cord net.

The First Balloon

In order to heat the air for the balloon it was tethered over a smoldering fire and when eventually released it shot up to about 5000 feet and covered about 1.5 miles before the air inside cooled and it landed with little damage. Scientists and artists were on hand from the Paris Academies to document and illustrate the occasion.

The launch site today - Wednesday is market day!

Within 6 months the brothers had constructed a new much larger balloon with its own charcoal heat source and capable of carrying two passengers in a gallery around the bottom. Following tethered testing, on November 21st in its first free flight the brilliantly decorated balloon flew 5 miles over Paris at about 3000 feet. It had carried enough fuel to go four times this distance but when the pilots were obliged to use their jackets to quell flames from the burning fabric they decided they'd travelled far enough and landed after 25 minutes.

The Brilliantly decorated first free flight piloted balloon

After a coffee and "pain au chocolat" in a cafe overlooking the town square the ride back was relatively easy - a long downhill to the Rhone and a flat stretch along the ViaRhona bike path to Tain.

Allan Broadribb

Ride Details

P.S. There is a hot air balloon festival in Annonay held annually in June.

Postcards from France

Last year I told John I'd write a couple of articles under the banner Postcards from France but he seemed to think that might be a bit spicy - too bad - we're back in France and it's what you're getting anyway.

If you're riding a bike in France and the traffic light turns red then ride around the cars to the light because there's a 5 meter zone for bicycles at the front and you get your own traffic light low on the pole so you don't get a crick in your neck looking up at the big one. Stops bikes getting stuck between cars all over the place and cars will actually move over to make it easy for you to get to the front!

In urban areas the postman delivers your mail on an official yellow LaPoste electric bike which is really cool. Good way for the postman to stay in shape too,

On the French roads there are two highway signs that may cause you some confusion "Toutes  Directions" and "Autres Directions" which basically translate as "Somewhere" and "Elsewhere". Ask anyone and they will tell you clearly what is meant but don't ask anyone else or the clarity will fade. These signs have been a source of much amusement for natives and tourists alike and many differing opinions have been published. Unfortunately GPS navigation systems have made them meaningless - as if they weren't already - but fear not they still exist and remain a great conversation starter. Or, you can talk to your cars' navigation system but it's not as much fun. 

Au-revoir

Allan Broadribb 

Check out my favorite ride in France 

or my cycling blog Two Tired Tales

Tour de France - go see it.

So, a few years ago in France - 2018 to be precise - we're in Tain l'Hermitage. I lean my bike against the wall of the bike store across the street from our apartment and wander in to borrow a pump. Coming out I see a wiry old (probably my age!) guy looking at my bike, he's seen the "I support Lance Armstrong" sticker and says he kinda liked him too. I tell him I'm thinking of riding Alpe d'Huez and Croix de Fer for a 3,000m day. He said that would be hard but the toughest climb he'd ever had was the Col de la Bonnette in the Tour. "In the Tour?", I say. He tells me he rode in the TDF twice in the 1970's which was before teams had luxury buses and only the stars stayed in hotels while the rest showered and slept on cots in school gyms. I enjoy our chat, return the pump and the store owner tells me the guy still rides and like me they enjoy his stories. I haven't seen him since, wish I could remember his name, I'd like to hear more and maybe he'd ride with me.

Well the Tour is on TV right now if you want to see the race. But there's so much more that you won't see.

YOU WON'T SEE THE CARAVAN

It is one of the biggest parts of the Tour. Before every stage the caravan of sponsors floats will drive the course from start to finish. On a long stage it'll stretch more than 10 kilometers and by the end of the Tour they'll have thrown over 15 million items to the roadside fans - hats, t-shirts, musettes, key chains, cakes, water, candy, you name it. I still wear my Festina hat from 2015 while riding.

YOU WON'T SEE THE TEAMS ARRIVE FOR THE START

This'll happen after the caravan has passed. The start town center is closed off. There's tent studios set up for the media, journalists with their cameras and vans, a band thumping out music, souvenir stands, food trucks and thousands of fans but no riders. Then close to a mile of 22 team buses each followed by 6 cars covered with bicycles will arrive. Amazingly the buses are parked so the public can see the riders sign in and prepare for the days racing. Many riders will stop for selfies with fans on their way to the start area - so cool.

Jocelyne and I were fortunate enough to see the Tour in 2015 and it was fantastic. We went with Pyrenees Multisport. Ian and Julie Wright, two Brits, will transport you to and from Toulouse airport and you'll stay in their large house where they'll serve you cyclist sized meals for breakfast and supper every day. You'll have seven days of great cycling in the Pyrenees and experience the Tour de France. It'll cost you about $1600 including a carbon bike - just take your clothes and Garmin.

IF YOU DON'T GO YOU WON'T STAND ON A MOUNTAIN eating hamburgers and hotdogs and know that the riders are coming because you can hear and see the helicopters below you!

Of course there are other tours you can take. I'm not paid to promote Pyrenees Multisport and they have had no input or knowledge of this article. It's just one reasonably priced option which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Le Col du Tourmalet

It's September 2022 and we are staying in Bagneres de Luchon for two weeks in the center of the Pyrenees. Because of its location Luchon has been a host town for the Tour de France on more than thirty occasions and there are many famous TDF climbs in the area. This year the big one will be the Hors Catégorie climb the Col de Tourmalet, with my nephew Jacques. The Tourmalet has been climbed in the Tour no less than 87 times so we will be riding in the tracks of the greatest riders of all time.

Our plan was to do some easier climbs first to find our climbing legs but after the first climb, the Col de Portillon, the weather did not look good for the following week so we decided to attack the Col de Tourmalet two days later.

We are doing the east to west route starting at Bagneres de Bigorre and ride up to Sainte Marie de Campan, the official start of the Col de Tourmalet, where we stop for coffee. From here to the summit is about 11.5 miles with 4160' of climbing at 7.4% average and 12% max grade.

Enough with the statistics, it is a beautifully clear but hot day. I put the bike in the 34/32 gear and grind away at the climb. I usually climb at about 1500 feet per hour (it used to be more!) and take a short break after each 1000 feet vertical. Three and a half hours of climbing requires a lot of patience. I watch my heart monitor. I can maintain 85% but 90% is not sustainable so then I have to back off. It is not a good day for me, I can still feel the the Col de Portillon climb we made a couple of days before - remember I live in the flat land called Florida. It's tough knowing you should be riding better but we grind it out with a couple of breaks before reaching the the ski resort of La Mongie.

Taking a break with the Pic Du Midi in the background

There we stop and sitting at an outside table have a beer in the sun. The chairs have cushions which is not insignificant! It is now just 2.5 miles at 8% to the summit. Up we go, I feel better, probably a combination of knowing we have it beat and the beer. A quick stop for a picture at the 1k to go sign, where we are encouraged by some cows, then finally the summit and there are our wives Jocelyne and Marie-Claude to cheer us on - a special day.

The Summit with Jacques

We do the photo stuff and descend to Luz St Sauveur where we have a nice lunch together. Then Jacques and I will make a big loop back to Bagneres de Bigorre. No way we're going back over the Tourmalet!

A Little History of Le Col du Tourmalet

In 1910 the Pyrenees were included in the Tour de France for the first time at the insistence of Alphonse Steinès who investigated the climb. 

Steinès started at Sainte-Marie-de-Campan with sausage, ham and cheese from the inn opposite the church and arranged to hire a driver from Bagnères-de-Bigorre. They made it up the first 16 km when the car broke down. Steinès carried on on foot despite a warning about bears. Later he mistook voices in the darkness for thieves but they turned out to be shepherds guarding their sheep. He paid one of the them to guide him to the top but the shepherd turned around when they encountered snow.  

Steinès continued on but things looked bleak. He had slipped and fallen into an icy stream and realized he could freeze to death in the night. Fortunately search parties had been sent out and he was finally found stumbling in the snow around 3 a.m. and taken to Barèges where he sent the following telegram to Tour de France organizer Henri Desgrange.

 "Crossed Tourmalet stop. Very good road stop. Perfectly feasible".

In 1910 Octave Lapize was the first rider in the Tour de France to crest the Tourmalet. He called TDF organizer, Henri Desgrange, "the assassin".

 

For route and ride information click here:

Le Col de la Madone de Gorbio

It is August 2019 and I am climbing le Col de la Madone de Gorbio in Southern France. I started in Menton where we stayed overnight on our way to the Stelvio Pass in Italy. 

They named a Col after a a bicycle?

The Madone is a mountain that has never hosted the Tour de France and in all likelihood never will as it has some narrow sections and some rough road surface. But it is a climb that all cyclists should know of as it is the Col de la Madone de Gorbio that gave its name to the Trek Madone series of bicycles.

In the 90s it was one of Lance Armstrong's playgrounds. He trained frequently on the Madone when he lived in Nice and it became his benchmark for fitness. Before the 1999 Tour de France, Cycling Weekly has quoted him as saying "If I went to the Madone two weeks before the Tour and went as hard as I could, I knew if I was going to win the Tour or not." That year he beat his personal goal of 31 minutes and went on to claim the yellow jersey. The rest is history - all of it!

Under and over the viaduct then onto the narrow roads  .  .  .

Starting from Menton the Madone ascent is about 3000 feet of climbing and about 8.5 miles long. The average gradient is 6.7% maxing at 10%. "About" you say? Well the problem is there is no official start for the climb. Some say it starts at the roundabout, others the town sign or the supermarket and the pros seem to use one of the bus stops in the village of le Castagnins. Of course there's a Strava segment but in 1999 Strava was still 10 years in the future and no one is quite sure where Armstrong's start was!

  .  .  .  and through the tunnel  .  .  .

Well, it doesn't bother me one bit as I'm starting in Menton and going past all of them. Through le Castagnins then under the viaduct then over the viaduct on through Ste Agnés to the narrow roads, through the tunnel and before I know it I'm at the summit in no time flat. Well, truth be told, from the time I left the hotel and found my way to the top it was about two hours but I did carry a camera and stop to take pictures along the way which Lance didn't bother with. 

.  .  .  to the summit. The original Madone marker was stolen. This one vandalised.

Then the descent, a rough road with a wall of rock on the left and a precipice to the right and a fabulous view over Monaco. A rider going the other way  impresses me. He is climbing at about 15mph, no hands, putting on his jacket - someone famous? Down, down, down I go to the hotel where I have time to shower and change as they have understandingly extended the check out time for the cinglé who wants to ride up the Madone. 

Monaco

Then it's time to relax. A glass of wine and a nice lunch with Jocelyne on the Menton water-front where we are living large with the azure Mediterranean in the background. 

Menton

For route information click here.

Col de l'Iseran - France

Last Wednesday I erased the Col de l'Iseran from my bucket list. It is the highest paved road in the Alps used only occasionally by the Tour de France as the weather can be treacherous as we saw in the 2019 race when stage 19 was abandoned following heavy rain and mudslides.

"Cols" are passes which for centuries have provided a way through the mountains. In this case the col takes its name from the Isere River which it follows from Bourg Saint Maurice in the north to the summit and then descends with the Arc River to Bonneville sur Arc in the south.

For me, it is a three hour drive to Bourg Saint Maurice and I have been waiting for a break in the recent freezing rainy alpine weather. Finally with a forecast for a couple of sunny calm days and a high near 50 I am on my way.

With a reservation for a small Airbnb apartment for a couple of nights I really luck out. I tell the owner my plans for the next day and she says if I have problems that I am to phone her and she will come and get me. A layer of security I sincerely appreciate. I also get a free St Bernard dog called Rocky who is very insistent that I play fetch.

Wednesday is perfect, sunny clear and calm. I leave at 9am and take it easy for the first 15 miles on the D902 up to the dam at Tignes where the road levels off and I go through avalanche sheds and several lighted tunnels as I ride around the lake to Val d'Isere.



Val d'Isere is a huge ski resort which in summer is a ghost town but there is one store open where I get a pastry and a coffee. Since emerging from the tunnels the scenery is gorgeous - the high Alpine mountains in every direction.



I leave for the final 10 miles and 3000 feet knowing the thinning air and the steeper grade will make life harder. But it is the most beautiful part of the ride - through alpine meadows ringing with the sounds of cowbells and a backdrop of rocky snow capped peaks and distant glaciers. I stop each thousand feet of climb to drink, munch on cookies and take photos and finally I am there - the summit - the sign - the restaurant - a beer.

For route information click here.

Col du Petit Saint Bernard

My original plan after climbing the Iseran was to pack my bags the next morning and and drive to the other side of Bourg St Maurice to attack the Cormet de Roselend before heading back to Tain l'Hermitage. This changed when I realized where I was staying was at the bottom of the Col du Petit St Bernard and actually on the route. All I had to do was leave the house and turn left and I was on my way up it.

Saint Bernard

This a climb of about 4200 feet in 17 miles. The gradient is 5% all the way with very little variation, no really hard parts and no easy parts just a solid grind. The first half is climbing the side of the mountain with about 20 hairpin bends then the road straightens out following the side of a valley to the top of the pass which is the border between France and Italy.

Alpine Village

There are two passes named for St Bernard, the Petit between France and Italy and the Grand between Switzerland and Italy. The passes have been used for over 3000 years and the remains of Roman roads over them can still be seen. They are named for Bernard of Menthon, a priest, who built hostels on the mountains around 1050, AD not this morning, to protect pilgrims crossing the passes from being robbed by bandits. Bernard was later canonized and the passes named for him. 

Old French customs post

The passes became better known in 1800s when dogs, later to be named for St Bernard, were kept at the mountain top hostels to rescue travelers stranded in the winter snow. The hostels still exist and continue to host travelers but the dogs are no longer kept on the mountain.

It is a myth that St Bernard dogs carried brandy barrels

Beaten up from the previous day I climb conservatively taking a few minutes out every thousand feet to drink, eat and take pictures. At the top I ride past the old customs posts into Italy then take some pictures and return to a small souvenir shop where I can get a coffee.

The Summit

Then it's a 17 mile zero cadence ride down, shower change and drive back to Tain.

For route information

ViaRhona - Tain l'Hermitage to Avignon

The ViaRhôna is a 500 mile bike route of greenways and shared paths which follows the the Rhône River from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean sea. On it's way it passes through Tain l'Hermitage where we were staying and I thought it would be cool to ride the 116 miles south along the trail to Avignon and Jocelyne would take a train to meet me there.

 

Shouldn't be too hard, flat route slowly descending with the river on a day with a following northerly breeze, average speed 15 mph with a one hour break should do it in 9 hours comfortably, leave at 7:30 am be there 4:30 pm latest. Piece of cake.

 

So, on a perfect Sunday morning I'm out the door at 7:30 am and with a 10 mph wind at my back I'm down the trail at 17 mph to Valence . . . where the obstacle course begins. They don't tell you about the Sunday morning farmers market which closes the route and I have to walk through it, then I'm confused by the numerous bike routes in the area all using similar signs, then I have to navigate around a huge gastronomic festival . . . but before you know it I'm across the bridge over the Rhone and back on track with an average speed of 13 mph!

 

The miles pass well while I am on the greenway by he river but then I'm directed to take a path with a dead end sign (stop, scratch head) and was fortunately rescued by a couple of Brits who somehow knew that a dead end sign on a bicycle path didn't apply to bicycles! The shared paths along the route turn out to be mostly farm roads which would make 209 in Marion County look good. This is interspersed by a couple of long span narrow flexible suspension bridges across the river which you wouldn't want to cross on a windy day or meet someone going the other way.

 

A visit to Châteauneuf du Pape seemed like a good idea in the planning stage but it added 4 miles to my route and after 103 miles it just didn't seem that important. I'd also had a flat tire and was getting tired so I was well behind schedule. And so it went. I got to Avignon with an elapsed time of just over 10 hours at 5:15 pm.

 

In summary - apart from my whining - the ViaRhôna is absolutely brilliant. Just do a couple of sections a day - not six like me - and take the time to drink the wine along the way.

 

Coda. Jocelyne brought me some real clothes, changed, saw the Palais des Papes and the Pont d'Avignon and took the train home. Every regional train has a bicycle carriage - love it - it's free and will comfortably hold a couple of dozen bikes with seating for cyclists. You just don't know at which end of the train it will be.

 

Route information click here

ViaRhona information click here

Le Cirque de Combe-Laval, France

 The Vercors Mountains lie to the east of our base in Tain l'Hermitage. The French refer to them as "massifs" which is appropriate as they are massive and vertical and in your face.

There lies one of my favorite rides, the Cirque de Combe Laval. While cirque can mean a circus or circuit in this sense it means a gorge where the end and sides encircle you. I'll be attached to the side.

I am starting in St Jean en Royans and as it is a Monday, a quiet day in France, I am able to park "en centreville" next to a boulangerie - always a good option for the end of a ride.

There is no warm up, I climb 2k feet in the first hour and then it levels off onto a breathtakingly spectacular balcony road cut into the vertical face of the massif. A road that was built in the 1890s to transport lumber down from the Lente Forest. The pictures say it all.

I ride and walk for a while taking in the view. I meet a couple from Holland and ask the gentleman to take a picture for me and hesitatingly point out that it is a fine picture of his finger which was in front of the lens. His wife finds this highly amusing and takes the picture for me. Somehow I've not offended the gentleman who is also laughing.

Leaving the gorge behind I continue to climb up through the Lente Forest until finally the fun starts - 18 miles back to St. Jean en Royans nearly all downhill. I stop for a Crepe Bretonne (a large crepe folded over ham and an egg) in La Chappelle en Vercors. Then continue down to the Grand Goulets, another road cut into the side of a gorge, but unfortunately closed since 2000 and replaced by a tunnel. It goes a mile through the mountain and is well lit built with cyclists and walkers in mind. With no GPS signal I have no idea of my speed but it was quick which is good as it was a cold.

Down, down I go through another gorge called the Petits Goulets until there are just a few miles of flat through fruit and nut farms back to the car and the boulangerie for dessert.

For route information click here.

Le Gorge de Nesque and Mont Ventoux

We're in France staying in Tain l'Hermitage, a town we love on the Rhone midway between Lyon and Avignon. On Wednesday I planned to climb Mont Ventoux from the town of Sault. There are three ways up the mountain from the towns of Malaucène, Bedoin and Sault. While Bedoin is the classic TDF climb and hardest Malaucène is not much easier. I hadn't previously climbed from Sault and not being a fan of out and back rides I decided to start at Bedoin and make a loop through the Gorges de la Nesque to Sault where I would have lunch, then climb Ventoux before descending back to Bedoin.

 

Just before 10am I arrive in Bedoin to find it jammed with cyclists and hikers but luck out finding my usual parking spot. I pump up my tires with the loaner pump outside the Bedoin Location bike shop and see the train of cyclists heading up the mountain as I take the road to Sault.

 

It was sunny in the 70s and clear and it is nice to find the road through the Gorges de la Nesque has been resurfaced. It is a balcony road carved into the side of the gorge. There is a wall of rock on my left and an 18 inch parapet on my right protecting me from a near vertical drop into the gorge below. It is beautiful and I'm glad I have chosen this route to Sault.

 

Sault is one of those classic French villages built on the top of a rock! Great fun riding the last 400 yards to town on a 10% grade wondering if lunch really is that important.

 

Powered by a ham and brie sandwich and refreshed bottles I am on my way to MV at a touring pace. Yeah, it's not so hard from Sault. Just grind out 11 miles at 5% and you arrive at Chalet Reynard which is where the trees end and the stones begin. Here you can get anything from lunch to a Mont Ventoux jersey. Me, I fill my bottles again and finish my Sault sandwich before the fun part.

 

At Chalet Reynard the Sault and Bedoin roads meet and from here to the summit it is 3.75 miles horizontal and 1600 feet vertical, a little better than an 8% average gradient. Not having been in mountains for two years I had thought I might just short cut to Bedoin from here but the other side of the equation is that once you reach the summit you can descend the 13 miles to Bedoin without turning the pedals even once!

 

As I start for the summit it is becoming cooler, cloudier and breezy which is not so bad for the ascent. It is tough, I stop a few times to take pictures, yeah right, and as I finally reach the summit it starts to rain and my Garmin battery dies - coincidence or . . .? So, take a picture, get my jacket on (always take a rain/wind jacket when riding in mountains), take a rest, chat to other riders and off "Wheeeeee" go.

 

My descent is notable for sheep and rain. On the way off the summit just past the Tom Simpson Memorial shepherds are bringing a few hundred sheep across the road which is quite entertaining. The sheepdogs are an enormous breed called Patou known for their ability to protect the herds from wolves and bears The shepherds have made a couple of the dogs lie down in the road to stop traffic! 

 Continuing down through the clouds that have formed I find rain which makes for a slow careful cold descent into Bedoin.

 

Later we have a bottle of Ventoux wine with supper.

 

For route information click here.