12. BIKE LUBERON MOUNTAIN VILLAGES, M-COUPE IN NATURAL HABITAT, MARKET DAY IN L’ISLE!

Sleeping in late on vacation is a decadent thing to do - so we did! After a late wake-up, we headed down to watch them setting up the Sunday market stalls, and see the vendors unload their produce, wares, and displays. Luckily, since we were also HUNGRY, we were able to buy some fruit and fresh-baked croissants - so we hustled back home for a meal before the day’s activities.

Lynn with flowers being setup for market

Again, we had perfect weather and conditions, so I hit the road for some exploration of the mountain villages which seem to hang off slopes all over the place here. In a 45 mile loop, I visited Maubec, Menerbes, Bonniuex, LaCoste (oddly enough there were NO ALLIGATORS in that town…go figure!), and lots of other little burgs. Many of them required hard climbing up the roads into town, rewarded by wonderful views of the Provence valleys below. This area is called the Luberon, named for the hills/mountains between the Mediterranean and the Alps. It was a super day of rolling hill-type riding, with stretches of intense climbs and descents. 

Maubec from the road - you ride UP a long ramp past the gate into the old town

Menerbes M-COUPE!!! Perfect specimen, in its natural habitat

While jamming through Menerbes (made famous by that English guy who wrote the “Year in Provence” books), I saw a BMW M-COUPE!!! In its natural habitat: twisty, gnarly, mountain roads and ancient narrow village streets. This one was green and parked for the night…books inside showed this guy was a tourist, too. I took some pics and rode away before he thought I was up to something sinister. Why is this car cool? Well, because I just bought an old one before we took this trip, to use as a track car! AND they are just the best looking BMW ever made in my eyes, and because they’ve not been made for 13 years, so a beautiful one caught in the wild is a rare sight to behold! Back to cycling adventures. 

Menerbes selfie before climbing up to the town

Best climb and view was in Bonnieux. I made friends with some young waiters at an outdoor cafe overlooking the valley there. They set me up with a nice single table with a view, a Coke (no eats, just drinks, darn it), and we traded attempts at communicating via French (I stunk!) and English (They stunk!). Anyhow, the “Bonjour” rule again proved its efficacy in establishing a friendly atmosphere, and I had a wonderful rest stop.

 Incredibly, while I was hanging out watching people, scenery and cars go by, THE M-COUPE idled by right in front of me! I got a rear pic as he disappeared up the mountain into the Bonnieux vieux village . Bummer, it would have been fun to talk to the owner. My cafe friends wished me luck on the trip up Mt. Ventoux next weekend, and I descended out of town tout de suite!

M-Coupe idles by in traffic - Bonnieux break

Bonnieux twin fountain-soaked my head to cool off! 

Road signs to help navigate - I blew it with Les Beaumettes! 

All went well until I found myself on the “Rout des les Beaumettes”…out in the middle of wine country, among old and new vineyards and enormous maisons signifying enormous wealth. As sometimes happens deep in agricultural areas, there were no road signs or direction arrows. Luckily, the super-map Lynn found for me at our local map store a few days ago came to the rescue and I navigated to a rail-trail bike route made from an old railroad bed. it ran from Gout to somewhere else…I got off when it fizzled out near Coustellet…I think. 

Reclaimed railroad bed for awesome bike trail at Goult

Hard to say where I was, I was tired of pulling out the map at every intersection, so I got on a highway with road signs at every roundabout and jammed home to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. 

OhOhOh, I forgot the Canadians!!! I met a group of four serious English-speaking cyclists under a shade tree, who were from Vancouver, Canada. Wow, what a blast: they were doing exactly what I was, riding all over Provence, and they had just ridden up Mount Ventoux a couple of days before. Their experience and equipment made me confident that the climb will go well when I try it 6 days from now…or later if weather intervenes.  Great day riding!

Lynn didn’t have as much bicycle fun as me, but had a great day here in L’Isle, shopping at the market, looking through the flea market and antiques, choosing some souvenirs and postcards, then picking up more produce on the way home for supper. SHE FOUND CORN-ON-THE-COB!  We’ve never seen it for sale in our France shopping in the past: they can’t believe anyone eats it off the cob. The view seems to be, “Hey, this corn cob stuff is for cattle to eat…if you want to eat corn, get it in a can at the grocery” - Go figure! Anyhow, we had a bon repas at supper tonight: chicken, fresh corn on the cob and tomatoes, and some local Ventoux wine. BTW: the corn was sweet and very tasty, we loved it!

After supper we went for a walk intending to find streets we haven’t walked yet. Almost successful - we found a CHURCH we hadn't seen yet! It’s only1/2 block from our apartment. You can see the busted-up steeple out our front window, so we finally tracked it down. It’s now a private building, but was a church built back in the 1800’s.

Tomorrow we plan a driving expedition to show Lynn the towns I’ve been riding through, and to explore for old Roman ruins and aqueducts. Still having a good time. Thank you for following along! 

LINK TO all the photos we took so far, if you'd like to see more:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104261232464745572476/ProvencePhotos?authuser=0&feat=directlink