Our longest day in the saddle (just short if 40 miles), but not particularly taxing as we had the Mistral at our backs for most of it and a fresher (though still very sunny) feel to the weather.

But before we get cycling again, a quick look back at our very unusual overnight location, the former seminary, the Hostellerie Charles de Foucauld.

When we arrived, having pre-booked, we were met by the living embodiment of the French bureaucrat stereotype: he managed to make a 2 minute registration process extend to nearly 30 minutes (including 10 minutes waiting for him to arrive). Bear in mind we’d carefully timed our appearance to coincide with their stipulated “after 4.30” registration time.

He faffed, stabbed at his keyboard and generally acted like a fool for an inordinate length of time before failing to take a card payment due to non-specific WiFi issues. We eventually paid him in cash, put our own bikes in the bike room and carted our kit up to our third floor room.

Checking out was infinitely easier, handled by a young woman who took our keys and sent us in our way in 30 seconds flat! What a relief.

Once on the Via Rhone again, we enjoyed some of the best paths, scenery and weather of the trip to date.

We’d originally aimed to cover about 20 miles before hopping on a train for the last run into Orange.

But after lunch and coffee in the small town of Bourg-Saint-Andéol, we found we were making such good progress that we decided to ride straight into Orange.

For some of the way we ran parallel to the main TGV line and periodically braced ourselves as trains rocketed by shaking the ground and making a noise closer to a jet fighter than a train.

Today’s landscape also revealed changes, with lower hills, limestone escarpments and increasingly good views of Mont Ventoux, its peak topped by the familiar, white weather station.

We arrived in Orange after an almost entirely vehicle-free journey, only to find ourselves jousting with heavy traffic in the last mile or so. It focused our minds and made us all the more pleased to find our next AirBnb, a spacious ground floor flat, 10 minutes walk from the city centre.

We finished the day with beer and food at a tourist restaurant in the centre, with a big party of Scandinavians at the next table and a big flock of jackdaws coming in to roost, noisily, in the canopy of plane trees overhead.