Our accommodation in Orange was immaculate and spacious but unfortunately did not include cleaning! We got stuck in before leaving determined to leave it as we found it!

The final day of cycling took us back to the Rhone from Orange, via the hilltop village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

The route out of Orange was pleasantly safe and relatively traffic free – thanks to the Komoot app, which is generally really good at planning routes and has a “quiet” option, which really maximises the “away from traffic” choices.

As we approached Châteauneuf-du-Pape, we climbed the first notable hill of the week, though not especially challenging compared to those back home.

The fields gradually became vine dominated and the land was increasingly strewn with smooth, riverbed stones and pebbles. These contrasted with the green rows of vines, most of which had already given up their fruits to the harvest.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape itself is pretty and almost entirely dedicated to promoting wine with tasting and buying options at numerous well appointed farms on the surrounding roads and shops and units within the town.

Porsches and Ferraris cruised the streets and, the public toilets excepted, the town was immaculately turned out.

We had a leisurely mid morning coffee and fresh orange in a cafe where the service was glacial… but charming.

Keen to sample the local wines we visited the Domain Durieu winery. There we confessed that we’d be limited to buying a single bottle due to our mode of transport. Their salesman was undaunted and gave us a very informative talk in the local wines, their exceptional qualities and the reasons behind their excellence.

We also got to taste and compare two of their recent vintages and discussed the effects of climate and soil (terroir) on wine quality and production.

We left with our limited wine knowledge slightly bolstered and with a bottle of 2023 wine for 33 euros! We were advised to keep it for a year or two to let it mature. We discovered the best recent vintage was 2016 and the worst 2013!

The remainder of the ride took us along the banks of the Rhone into Avignon. This section featured some very fine new cycle paths and infrastructure.

All too soon we were back at Southern Spirit cycles, decanting our panniers into suitcases and handing back our bikes. We were able to report to Mattieu the proprietor, an incident free week, with not so much as a puncture to our names.

A quick word about our Trek hybrids – with flat bars, hydraulic disc brakes and 10 very wide ratio gears, they proved to be exceptionally well suited to the job of lugging heavy panniers along paths with very variable surfaces. We did wonder if we’d miss our own bikes, but the opposite was true. We grew to really appreciate the rugged, easy-handling Treks, which matched the upright comfort and control of mountain bikes with surprisingly smooth rolling on tarmac, despite heavy ish Schwalbe Marathon tyres.

We didn’t achieve high speeds, but the riding was surprisingly easy and we also enjoyed a couple of town centre visits without panniers, where the unencumbered Treks became nimble but steady platforms for jousts with the ever-enthusiastic French urban drivers.

Olivia now heads for home while Julie and Phil turn to more sedentary tourism in Provence, for few more days.