It’s all going west across the Rhone to St Martin on the Ardeche

In which Sid and Doris cross the Rhone going west as the villainous Mistral wind pours south down the valley.

S and D have carelessly decided to ride north through the empty and hilly Ardeche, which is unnecessarily bold. This is rather than ride up the Rhône, which is flat with a well marked cycle route and plenty of places to stop.

The first step is through vines shaking in the wind coming from the north. Bicycles have a lot of windage and it is as well that on Sunday there is not much traffic.

Cotes de Rhône is not a rare wine.

The valley has the A7, TGV line, the Rhône, its canal and the Via Rhona. S and D are headed for Pont St Esprit over the Rhône …

… where the bridge is so narrow there is no photo opportunity to show this very long and ancient bridge as causeway over the flood plain.

PIC to be found

St Martin is small so only needs this single lane suspension bridge where S and D suspect there may be some significant steel inside these elegant stone (clad) towers.

On the Sunday people from not far away have brought out their 1970s Solexes, to great acclaim as large crowds gather. (For non-nerds, the little motor on the front forks operates directly on the tyre by friction and a centrifugal clutch.) The riders point out that the bikes are 50 years old and still work, whereas an electric bicycle battery will be dead in three or four years and probably the whole thing binned.

St Martin d’Ardeche is set up for holiday makers. The Logis hotel L’Escarbille is handy for the village, has a pool, friendly staff, breakfast, lunch, dinner, Suze, beer and many shaded tables where to write and plan. This is a three day holiday stop.

Generally Sid will leave Doris to explain the horrid complexity of planning the navigation while managing height, distance, energy and motivation. However, Sid has found this elegant map of the main Velo Routes of France to show you.

S and D are therefore planning to ride from just north of Avignon, over the Massif Central through Clermont Ferrand then north and west to Tours. There may be a joke here about needing their bumps felt. We will know this is funny if the duo make Clermont.