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Provence Bike & Barge Tour

A storied sliver of France's southernmost region, Provence, stretches from Avignon to the Mediterranean coast. The Rhone river is its sinuous backbone. After flying into Marseille we'll bring you by bus to our barge on the Rhone in Avignon, then you'll spend a week returning to the coast by bike and by barge. This sun-struck land harbors memories from the Romans to Vincent van Gogh and encourages the making of a few memories of your own. Avignon, which eclipsed Rome as the center of Catholicism in the 14th century, still has its Palace of the Popes, and also a bridge you may have sung about dancing on, the Pont d’Avignon. Not far away – we bike to the area -  we'll visit Chateauneuf du Pape, where the wine-culture first encouraged by the papal state continues today. And is as fine as ever.

The Romans knew how to build bridges, they knew how to build aqueducts, and in the Pont du Gard they did both. One of France's top attractions, the Pont du Gard is an early destination of our trip, as is the village of Vallabregues, famous for sausage, basketry, and fresh fruits more or less in that order. We pay a visit to St. Remy-de-Provence where Nostradamus was born and Gertrude Stein holed up for a year to write three books. In nearby Glanum ancient ruins mark the Romans' civic improvements, but even before the Romans came the Celts were living here. The idea of “old” sometimes has to be re-thought.

You already know this country, because Vincent van Gogh has been here before you. His paintings are in your head even as the landscape fills your eye. The dry air, sharpening and brightening colors, produces light as clear as water in a glass. His spirit is especially alive in Arles, along with the enduring Roman remains there. Just above Arles the Rhone has forked into two streams and forms the river delta called the Camargue. We make an all-day ride across its table-flat surface, once the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, with sightings of birds (400 species recorded, including flamingos), wild horses, bulls, and the occasional cowboy. The barge is docked at Aigues Mortes, a medieval walled town which launched two Crusades from its gates when it was a port, before the sea waters retreated. The last biking day hugs the sea coast and may include a swim. The following day you fly home from Marseille.

Provence is a fine place to bicycle. If the Romans or the Celts had only thought of it, they would have done so too. And perhaps the popes as well.