After relaxing in Malaucene on Monday, following our long drive to reach the foot of Mont Ventoux we decided to stretch our rusty cycling legs on Tuesday with a short ride through the French countryside. We had collected some brochures from the tourist office and since we find Roman history interesting we settled on a trip to the nearby town of Vaison-la-Romaine which boasts some impressive ruins.
Setting off, we thought, towards nearby Vaison-la-Romain to visit the Medieval town and Roman ruins, we somehow took the wrong road and managed to wind our way some 30km through rolling hills and vineyards before finally reaching our destination (just 8km from where we had begun). However, there are worst ways to spend an afternoon than cycling through Provence and once we had regained an idea where we were headed we had enjoyed the ride very much. The route primarily looped through vineyards and the smell of fermenting grapes was strong in the sunny afternoon air.
When we arrived we found a very pleasant little town, perfect for an afternoon stroll. The picturesque Roman town was lovely and we had a nice time enjoying the roman ruins, impressive amphitheatre and medieval citadel before taking the much shorter route directly back to the motorhome as the sun set. It is possible to pay a small admission fee to walk through the ruins themselves but we were content to stay outside the fence, particularly as it was a little late in the afternoon to really make the most of it.
After a couple of hours we had to leave and take the far shorter, direct route back to Malaucene as the sun was setting with our legs now ready for
an attempt on Ventoux the next day.
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