France by Bicycle | PART 22: AVIGNON

We spend a day just enjoying the sites of Avignon, an ancient and very beautiful city, getting a look over the Rhône and the Pont Saint-Bénézet, AKA the Pont d’Avignon, checking out the papal palace, and spending an afternoon with a nice Cote du Rhône. The following day we cross back over the Rhône and make our way north, along the Via Rhône. We discovered a beautiful trail and sublime French scenery, full of green fields and golden-stoned villages, with many Rhône crossings on elegant old bridges until we reached Pont-Saint-Esprit, our town for the night and the name also of the very long bridge which dates back 700 years. An absolutely perfect day of riding!
Music:
Accordion and Glockenspiel Comedy - JK Productions
Pond Five
081716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-com
a href="www.pond5.com/royalty-free-mu..."Stock Music/a provided by JK_Production, from a href=“www.pond5.com/"Pond5/a
Floating on a Summer Breeze - Jon Bjork
Epidemic Sound
Sandhamn - More Than Family
Epidemic Sound
Sona - Valente
Epidemic Sound
When You Look at Me - Berny Shepard
Epidemic Sound
Like in France - Trabant 33
Epidemic Sound

[@eff6582]

Bonjour !The charm of taking the small roads with surprises, encounters, slow life!

[@TheBicycleTourists]

The adventure of small discoveries!

[@TerrapinCyclist]

Picnic table! Simple pleasures.🙂 -John

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Exactly. The joy of having a surface to cut your cheese an bread on!

[@dennispiciullo8060]

Another great video, beautiful country, makes it pleasant to ride through

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Thank you Dennis. I grew up hiking in the dramatic peaks of Colorado. And yet this bucolic, pastoral countryside is what really gets me going.

[@garyseckel295]

Will watch again! That introduction music is also so enjoyable.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

I've really become fond of French music. I have a French Bistro mix on my Spotify.

[@dondonner1095]

By any measure a fabulous video as well.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Merci beaucoup, Don!

[@lesleykenwood2715]

❤ the names of your bikes, Rosie and The Crow!

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Right? Julianna has a knack for naming!

[@michelesauret7779]

Another very nice vidéo in the beautiful french landscape that I love so much. Happy you enjoyed too. Waiting one week for the next vidéo will be a long time.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Thank you Michèle, Every day we were blown away by the sweet beauty of the country. Never gets old!

[@kenmcclow8963]

I rented an apartment in Poltava Ukraine once that had the same washing machine. The second time I used it it jammed and I couldn’t figure out how to rotate the drum to get my clothes out, but the landlady called a repairman and it was a case of operator error since they depend on a full load and I guess I didn’t put enough in to stay balanced. I really like the way they have put the bicycle infrastructure together in Europe. It’s probably because people were traveling by foot, horse and cart for thousands of years before cars came along in the last 100, and the US has mostly been developed in the 100 years of cars

[@cyclistefroisse9267]

Absolutely, the Romans « invented » civil engineering. Worth mentioning, that since 1987, French have fought against the illegal privatization of public footpaths and trails. A national organization saw to the removal of illegal fences and No trespassing -private property signs blocking trails which never were private but always public. 8 in 10 cases were, and still are, resolved amicably, occasionally «Trespassers” (they aren’t and have done their homework before) are taken to court, with the backing of this association’s lawyers, who have decades of experience arguing such cases, they, AFAIK, always (4 Court case, last year) win in court.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Interesting about the trespass issues. I saw that along the footpaths in Britain. Ken, there also is better cycling infrastructure in the east of the US, it helps to have more dense population. The Rails to Trails organization is trying to put a rail trail across the US. Imagine how hard that would be across Wyoming, where there are no people to ride it, and no people to maintain it.

[@kenmcclow8963]

@@TheBicycleTourists The Hiawatha trail section in Idaho has a $15 fee, or an annual pass as it is leased by the Lookout Pass ski area and they maintain it. The Mickleson trail in South Dakota has a $4 day fee, or a $10, or $15 annual fee which covers the entire 100ish miles outside of the city limits. I don’t know what the best model is for bike trails, but I have been willing to pay fees in places like the Hiawatha where there is a lot of annual maintenance due to the high elevation and tunnels and trestles. I didn’t see many people on the Mickleson trail, but in early June the weather can be fickle and I’m sure more people use it in the summer. A lot of trails in Minnesota and Wisconsin do double duty as snowmobile or cross country skiing trails in winter to get more use.

[@RichardWright3450]

Another couple of good ones. I have been away so had to catch up, so two cups of coffee while i followed you. I liked your chats and the views of your bikes as all us bikers like gear so good to see what you have. The contrast of rail trails and NA trails in general is well taken and something we could learn from. While we are working to developa 640km historic trail if will go through small towns and your notes will help us look for ways to soften and have some surprises. It is a bit like the old trail maxim that curves are good and that we only want to see a short distance ahead. Rail trails don;t do that. We can often see ahead for miles - boring!. I would like to hear a bit more about Komoot. Being an old paper map guy I find the technology overwhelming sometimes and long for a compass and sheet of paper, but times change. Glad you are enjoying the new bike Julianna. This is an interesting journey for us as get to know a bit more about you folks every week but we are distant voices on KZbin for you, our presence shortened to a few comment lines. What will we do when you reach journey's end? Love it. Ride well.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Many of the rail trails are exceptional, but I would love to see some effort to either link them or create new routes that are using the quiet roads. Adventure Cycling does that I suppose to some extent, but in our experience on their routes they were more for hard-core bike tourists. Using Komoot is actually very easy, I also love and have always relied on paper maps, but yes, times change. A lot of this technology that is intended to make our lives easier actually is more complicating than anything. Everybody wants more data. I find myself wanting less. We sure appreciate you following us. Although we don't get to see you in the same way you see us, we sure do appreciate you.

[@cyclistefroisse9267]

Salut R&J, Very much impressed, again, with the way Komoot navigates you, avoiding very unpleasant or downright dangerous (busy roads-no shoulder) sections of the so-called “Via Rhôna” which is very much more a dotted line of cycle paths *still* unconnected with each other (or connected, of sort, since 2017 by a temporary single track rideable only with a MTB) than a proper (Roman meaning) Via.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

You're right, it's not a single route, but they've done well to connect the various paths and roads, good signage, etc. And as we've said, the variety of the paths actually adds to the experience. We loved the Via Rhôna.

[@markclemens3409]

Those trees are windbreaks. They don't cancel the fearsome Mistral, but they tone it down a bit.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Ah yes, the Mistral. That's what blows down that way!

[@colinwellman9480]

Another fabulous episode. I try not to think too far ahead and don't worry about having to pack up cycling.i'm eighty in October (can't quite believe it!) and enjoy every day here in France. Today a lovely 40 mile round ride to visit a medieval castle where we had our picnic. This evening a fete in the village so all in all a busy day. Sadly no Cote du Rhone (my favourite wine) but plenty of beer. It may be obvious but I really love living in France.😁 Thank you both for sharing your trip of a lifetime.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Colin, that is absolutely amazing. I got into cycling and bike touring many years ago with the notion that it was something I could do as I got older. As you probably know too well, reaching eighty and still being strong and capable of an enjoyable ride takes a lot of luck as well as keeping in shape. I aspire to be in your situation in fifteen years, still healthy enough to find the beauty in this world. You're an inspiration to me!

[@e-BikeLife]

2:38 Our hotel was to the left. What a busy, busy place. We couldn't get enough of Avignon!. We absolutely walked our legs off in the 6 days we were there. But, I don't remember the hats. We were there in 2019, so I suppose they may not have been there then. Truer words were never spoken. Rail Trails here are pretty mundane. Glad to have them, but the sameness gets tiresome. Your comments about the variety in the French routes can be echoed in Germany too. particularly Bavaria. Another great ride. Merci, mes amis.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Avignon is such a pleasure. besides being this great historical city, it's just got a fun layout. I would love to get back to Germany, loved cycling through there and would love to explore some more.

[@PumpkinVillage]

What a beautiful day and one to really enjoy. Did Julianna have on a new top at dinner? Wife liked the color. Thanks for another excellent video. Take care, Al

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Yup! She picked that up at one of the street markets.

[@belladrayven]

Such gorgeous scenery & as always LOVE the gentle & soothing commentary!! Would definitely buy your audio books if you ever start reading books :) I wonder how one gets into that type of a job? :) Watching your vids while The Mister is riding his bicycle through Ireland, France & ending in Germany for 2 months. It's fun watching your vids while he is there. He doesn't video mainly a camera guy. Thanks again for sharing, cant wait till next time, this one was over so fast. Le sigh :)

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Haha. "Le sigh"! So why aren't you with the mister? I'm sure he'd love to have you along. Julianna is "stuck" here this summer helping to take care of her new granddaughter. Leaving me to possibly plan a tour alone, which at one time I would've loved, but now it's hard to imagine riding without her.

[@belladrayven]

@@TheBicycleTourists Awww I cant imagine you guys not riding together as well! Congrats on the new granddaughter!! I don't do well on planes, so I opted out on this one :)

[@HackHunter1835]

I couldnt agree more about the rail trail comparison. In parts of the US those trails are straight for miles, full of trees, farm land on both sides and kind of underwhelming. Julianna looks to have more of an upright riding position on her new bike ive noticed. Does she like that better than the old bike?

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Yes, as tie goes on she prefers a ore upright position, much easier on the back, especially over many miles.

[@TheBicycleTourists]

Let me rephrase that. As time goes on, she prefers a more upright position, much easier on the back, especially over many miles.

[@tomm8660]

How did you find your hotel/B&B spots as you biked through France? Was it simply the Air B&B app, or was there something else you used?

[@TheBicycleTourists]

We became dependent on BookingDotCom. In Europe at least, it shows many of the Air BnBs as well as hotels. Very efficient app in our opinion.