Author: Rob Ainsley

Well, I finished: St Malo to Nice ticked off. Shame there are no puns on my final destination that I could use to say how it’s been. It was a foggy old start to the day (pic). The first hour as I climbed up to 1200m it was like cycling inside Tupperware. The drivers could…

A day of big climbs – over 1400m all told, and I’ve just told you so it must be true – but well worth it for some stupendous views of the Verdon gorge. The early morning ascent to Aiguines gave me a view back over the town of Les Salles, where I spent last night…

Another lovely day of cycling on quiet back roads through lush countryside and tranquil woods. Saturday was market day in several of the towns and villages I passed through, and they were bustling (pic). Locally sourced food is the norm here. When I asked where the fruit and veg were grown they usually just pointed…

Another very easy day today: short distances, lovely countryside, friendly little towns, a profile mainly downhill, and plenty of inexpensive local food and drink. Heading east out of Sault, I got my last look at Mont Ventoux (pic). Here, looming over the lavender fields, it actually looks more like the isolated big climb that it…

From Sault, the summit of Mont Ventoux looks trivially close (pic). And not that much higher. Indeed, Sault is the easiest of the three options for base camp towns for the climb every cyclist wants to do, being the highest (700m) and having the shallowest road to the summit (5%). And the best facilities for…

My cheapo place last night should have been called Hotel California. It was almost impossible to leave. The only exit east was a motorway bikes are banned from, or an absurd backtrack on scruffy lanes through retail and industrial estates. The only sensible way to get out of North Avignon’s badlands was by a short…

An easy day of flat cycling with tailwinds and in excellent company. (In other words, English cycle-tourists.) Among vineyards, which helps. The Rhone isn’t the world’s most picturesque river to cycle alongside (pic), though it was enhanced by classical French sights: countless vineyards, and a nuclear power station. A short length of cycle path (pic)…

Today I crossed into the South of France. In the morning I was wearing woolly hat and gloves to skirt the Cévennes out of Villefort; in the afternoon I was baking under a hot cloudless sky. I was about the only person baking, though. On Monday it seems almost all the boulangerie-patissiers close. My breakfast…

An easy day today, the first half uphill in the Lot valley, the second half one long downhill. I slipped out of Mende – which is something of a mountain biking hub – this morning via the Old Town, where several shops have the same pro-cycling-message sticker in their window (pic). Not that this passer-by…