Into the Alps of Upper Provence

Today's ride is an Appaloosa, 85 kilometers but 1000 meters of climb. We'll start in Le Puy Ste. Réparade and roll for Pertuis. Head north along the D956, a scenic route with, alas, far too many vehicles on it, even on a Sunday. The discomfort won't last. Things get much better after La Tour d'Aigues, the sprawling countryside stays just as gorgeous but the four-wheelers drop off considerably. It's still winter, so the thermometer is hovering at zero. Nonetheless, a valiant sunlight battles against the haze and I think we're in for a nice day.

Stick to the same road past Grambois, the village high on the hill making terrific relief. It's the village used in a recent cinematic adaptation of Pagnol's Gloire de mon Pere. Keep pedaling deeper into a prodigious farmland, and eventually you'll come to the village of La Bastide des Jourdans. Here veer right at D6 towards Pierrevert. Several kilometers of camelbacks and scrub forests later you'll pass Pierrevert, then Manosque, where you'll leave behind Pagnol and enter the domain of another celebrated Provençal novelist, Jean Giono. Take a sharp left at the D907 and start climbing. You're now ascending the Col de Montfuron, which lasts a bit but never steepens beyond 5%. Nearing the top, veer right on the D314 towards Villemus, a charming and extremely ancient collection of stone homes huddled together under the eye of the second highest mountain in the area, Le Lure. Her magesty is snowcapped today and, from a distance, looks a lot like her bigger (by about 50 feet) brother, Mont Ventoux. Zip down the other side, locked in the hill's shadow and therefore icy today, and at the bottom turn left back up the D907. Stay on this to the D956 and test your tempo legs against the long but medium gradient of the Col de Montfuron.
It's almost all downhill from here, a breezy 30 K from the top of the pass back to La Bastide, Grambois, La Tour d'Aigues, Pertuis and Le Puy. All the kinks should now be worked out. Good job!

Coast to Coast

Today's Mustang ride takes you from the ex-mining town that Cézanne loved to paint, to one of the most beautiful French Mediterannean sea resorts, and back.

Distance: 115 kilometers
Elevation gain: 1500 meters

Start in Gardanne. Take the D7 and begin a long smooth climb through a peaceful pine forest, which brings you into Mimet. Descend into Cadolive, then climb again to the village of Peypin, a scenic village nestled in the rough and tumble Etoile Range. Cruise down the D908 (this is the pass that calls each weekend to the cyclists of Marseille). Take the D4A in and out of Allauch, then right for Les Camoins. The mountain retreat of Marcel Pagnol fame, La Treille, will be on your left. Head into Aubagne, wending through this poorly sign-posted city until picking up the D559A in the direction of Carnoux-en-Provence. Coast into the magical port of Cassis (gateway to the magestic fjords of Marseille) and have lunch (the Bouillabaisse and fish soup are terrific at La Bonaparte Restaurant).

Leaving Cassis, you might be tempted to mount the Cap Canaille crest road that meanders hundreds of feet above the rocky shoreline to La Ciotat. Don't. From this side there's a 30% passage best left for another ride. Instead, pick up the D1 to Roquefort-la-Bédoule, then Roquefort, a sumptuously smooth climb through umbrella pines (and a great training route), ending at The Pass of the Angel. Take the N8, then N396 for Gemenos. At Gemenos, you have a choice. Either you climb the highest pass in the area, La Col de l'Espigoulier (where the inhabitants of Marseille used to collect ice for their "ice boxes") and drop down into Auriol, a trip which will add about an hour and 600 meters to your itinerary). Or, you continue on to the N96 and a traffic-congested spin through the narrow but typically Provençal towns of Roquevaire and La Destrousse. It's your decision, but be aware that your climbing travails are not yet over.

In La Destrousse, make a sharp left onto the D7, heading for Peypin. A relatively steep climb awaits, 6 kilometers through Peypin and beyond. Head down the hill via Cadolive and Mimet. Then, spin even faster along a breezy carpet of a road (the D8) into Cité Biver (a suburb of Gardanne) and Gardanne itself.

Bonne route!

Tour de Sainte Victoire

Today, we'll take you as close as you can get on a road bike to Cézanne's famous mountain. This is an Appaloosa ride: distance 70 ks; elevation gain 800 meters.

Leave Aix heading east and pick up the Le Tholonet road (in front of the municipal swimming pool). The camelbacks through woods and sprawling domains will take your heart away. Keep climbing out of Tholonet village and don't miss the windmill to your right at the top of the rise; it was Cézanne's workshop! Stay on the same road. It will bring you into the shadow of the most famous art museum mountain in the world. You'll now be in forest and countryside that is classed internationally as an historic site. On the right, Dinosaur Valley, where trekkers can still happen on Triassic eggs. For hikers, the next 5 ks are perfect jumping off spots to scale to the summit of Ste. Victoire. It is also paraglider heaven.

Where the road forks, veer left towards St. Antonin. A steep climb awaits, lasting 1.5 ks. At the top don't forget to turn your tired neck left. The granite mountain, with a tendency to change shades as the light of day changes, is so close you can hug it.

The same road will lead you the length of the mountain to the peaceful village of Puyloubier. A sharp left will take you through the village, then a sharp right towards Pourrieres. A famous battle took place in the environs around Pourrieres, the so-named Battle of Provence between invading Roman Legions and the indigenous Ligurians. It was a wipe out and since then there's been a myth that Pourrieres was named for the Ligurian corpses left to rot in the noonday heat (in French pourir means to rot). Sorry, but the story is rot. The town name comes from the leeks harvested there (leek is poireau in French).

Enough of history. Veer left out of Pourrieres and climb the so-called "17 turns" to a brightly lit prairie called Le Puits de Rians (the Wells of Rians). At the intersection, turn left towards the Porte Pass (col de Porte). Now you're on the backside of Ste. Victoire...and climbing! At the summit of the pass, you'll be at an altitude of almost 700 meters. Drop down the backside but save some energy for the next rise: the Claps Pass. Cruise on down to Vauvenargues Village and get a picture of Picasso's castle. Oh, and for the history lesson, the village name comes from the Latin for convalescence; it is here that the wounded legionnaires were taken, while their adversaries rotted.

From Vauvenargues it's a straight and breezy ride along the appropriately named "Route de Vauvenargues", which will take you past the famous Zola dam and on back to Aix. Enjoy!

Puy - La Bastide des Jourdans - Puy

Distance : some 90 KM.
Ascension : 900 meters.
It will take you the morning.

Itinerary : Le Puy Ste Réparade, route des Crottes, direction Peyrolles. Jouques, direction Bèdes. Pont de Mirabeau. Les Passereaux, La Done, Grambois Colonie PTT, La Bastide des Jourdans, Peypin d'Aigues, St Martin de la Brasque, La Motte d'Aigues, l'étang de la Bonde, Ansouis, Pertuis, Le Puy Ste Réparade.

You can find a more detailed description of this itinerary in French on our French weblog : http://velo-tour-provence.blogspot.com/2006/02/puy-la-bastide-des-jourdans-puy.html

Ride suggestion: Puy-Ginasservis-Puy

Yes, it's cold (minus 4 C) and yes, the frosty countryside looks like the frozen goods section of the supermarket! No excuses, get your butt in gear. Hometrainers are for wimps, at least in Provence. And remember, within your winter-chilled withers and numb toenails bud the strong legs and stout heart of spring! So let's go.

The ride for today is an Appaloosa, as opposed to a Pony or Mustang. A middle distance trek of 85km. Elevation gain: 500m. Duration: you can count on about 3.5 hours. It'll take us from the village of Le Puy Ste. Réparade to Peyrolles, Mirabeau, St. Paul, Ginasservis, Rians, Jouques and back to Peyrolles and Le Puy. The roads begin small and get progressively smaller. Cars will be as scarce as bikinis.

Leave Le Puy heading for the hamlet of Les Crottes. The road cuts through crusty fallow farm terrain to reach the main road for Pertuis. Go straight through the roundabout and climb the autoroute overpass. Basically, you're still on the same road you started on, though it's narrower and as flat as a pancake. Nothing but farmland until reaching Peyrolles. Total distance: 15km.

Head straight through the Peyrolle roundabout and into town via the main street. On the far side of Peyrolles, veer left and pick up the highway in the direction of the Alps. This is the only thoroughfare of the trip, a wide, fast, three-lane bullet. In summer, this strip is shady, cool and agreeable. In winter, it's still shady, making it freezing and disagreeable, sandwiched as it is between the high craggy hills overlooking Jouques and the Durance River. Still, its 10kms of smooth and rolling terrain make an ideal training ground for speed intervals. The tempo will bring you to the ancient bridge of Mirabeau. Distance so far: 25km.

At the bridge, veer right towards St. Paul and begin climbing. The ascent doesn't last long, and the descent takes you into St. Paul and your first direct sunlight of the trip. Take the second right towards Ginasservis. Immediately, you leave most signs of civilization behind, nothing but you, your bike and the narrow strip of bitumen you're cruising on. No cars, precious few farms and nary another biker in sight. Stay on this winding path for another 8 km until reaching a fork in the road. The left fork's the one you want, the one lifting like a ladder, direction: Ginasservis. Not to fear, the steep grade only lasts a few hundred meters before leveling slightly and becoming a camelback of fun loops and twists inside a brush and scrup-oak landscape as isolated from cars and the maddening hordes as the moon. It's biker heaven into Gina. Distance thus far: 45km.

A sharp right at the Ginasservis main road, then shoot down the hill in the direction of Rians. You pass through a sprawling beautiful countryside where half the vehicles you see are tractors and aren't even on the road. The trip into Rians is fast and breezy, all except the final ascension, a false flat of 2 km. At the Rians roundabout, head right towards Jouques. You're now on one of the most beautiful strips of road in the country, 15 km of silky flat tarmac slicing through exquisite domains and vineyards. Time to set those interval training sessions in motion again. The road enters into a narrow valley between stark stone walls, comes out into more countryside and ends at the quaint but rather chilly village of Jouques. Accumulated distance: 70km.

Jouques to Peyrolles. Peyrolles to Le Puy by the same country road as earlier, and Bob's yer uncle. The thermometer on your cycling computer reads a balmy +1 C, the sun is much higher in the sky, and the frozen goods section is beginning to resemble the produce aisle. What more could you want, except maybe a good hot cup of tea...heated wine wouldn't be bad either.