A 4-day tour in Provence
 

Hi all
I've got 5 days off and am thinking that this might be my only chance to do a mini-tour of Provence while I'm still fluent in French. The only problem is my time limit. I can leave Vichy, where I work, on May 31 in the afternoon and have to be back on June 5, so at least one day of traveling on each side and about 4-5 days of touring depending on the train schedules and where I start from.
I've been thinking Luberon, but I have some limitations. This will be my first real tour, I don't have a tent and am not sure I want to buy one just for this, and I would be fine credit-card touring if I can keep the cost somewhat reasonable. Maybe couchsurfing? I also have a sleeping bag and thermarest, so just sleeping out would be an option but since I'm a girl going all alone I might prefer to stay in cheap 'gites' or whatever I could find along the way. I'm in good shape, I bike about 10 miles everyday to/from work, and I ride my road bike two times a week. Plus I've got time to train. But I like to take my time, explore things, drink wine, eat cheese...what are your suggestions? What's the best place to go if you only have four days and don't want to ride more than 6 hours a day? And just how easy is it to take a bike on a TGV without putting it in a box (if I put it in a bike box I don't have any way to even get to the train station or transfer trains)? Thanks!

I don't think the TGVs will allow bikes without being covered in some way, either in a box or with a bag ("housse"). Although, info I just saw on the excellent resource site http://www.mayq.com/Best_european_tr...kes.htm#France says some TGVs on certain lines now have bike compartments.

I would suggest spending the extra euros for first class on the TGV. You'll have a lot more room to store your bike and the conductors will generally treat you a bit better. I was taking a train from Paris East to Lyon with a few people, and one couple in our group with bikes in boxes got denied boarding for second class, while others in first class had no issues.

To really see the Luberon you'll have to ride some hills, as most of the sights/towns are up in the hills (e.g., Gordes, etc.). You can also do a mostly flat-ish ride, but you'll miss many of the big sights. Last summer we stayed a week in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and did a lot of day rides from there, most of which weren't too bad (Gordes is a pretty good hill, though).

That's another thing you could do: find a "base camp" and do day rides if you don't want to have to find lodging each night.

This page has 4 links about bike touring in Provence.

You'll likely find a couple of the links valuable.

One of the links is to the journal of my tour through France. I didn't spend much time in Provence (Avignon was my final destination) so I don't think it will help much.

Ray

I highly recommend the cevennes area, including the gorge du tarn if you have time, I loved it.

OK, so that's not provence. Maybe check out the gorge du verdon?

Thanks! Raybo, I've already read your blog while researching for this trip. It was helpful even thought it mostly wasn't about Provence. And Zoltani, I'm really open to anything that I can get to within my time frame...so I don't mind that you've suggested places other than Provence. I've always wanted to go to the Gorge du Tarn, but for climbing, not cycling...so we'll see. Keep the suggestions coming, I really appreciate it.

I just really enjoyed my massif central tour last summer. The gorge du verdon was a little cold at the beginning of april, and burgundy was a pleasure in late spring/early summer.

Check out the link in my sig for my blog/reports

Edit: Forgot to mention that I did a tour in Jura also, and it was really beautiful. Would have been great if I didn't have to cut it short due to food poisoning.

I toured in the Luberon area last year. Extremely nice. If you expect to stay in gites, I suggest you make reservations as they frequently are full in that area. Otherwise, lodging costs are pretty high in Provence.

You should be able to take non-TGV trains to get there from Vichy with your bike.

Another superb area for touring is to your southwest in the Dordogne & Lot valleys. Outstanding scenery and a great network of minor roads. I think it would be more complicated to reach via train from Vichy, however.

Hmmm... on my Sept. 2009 tour of the Luberon we made no reservations so that we wouldn't have to be on a particular schedule. Rode as few as 39 miles one day, and as many as 65 another. We would just get into a town about 5pm, find the Office de Tourisme, call the listed gites and Chambres d'hote, and ride out to them when we had negotiated our stay. Everyone was wonderfully cordial and welcoming, even though many spoke only rudimentary English to go with our rudimentary French. It always worked out great, and I don't think we ever paid $100 for a room, save 2km outside of Gordes, where our digs were absolutely stunning and well worth the $105 we paid.http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...France-124.jpg

cher pas de tout, funny you say it like French will leak out of your ears over time. I know what you mean, but quand même, ça reste dans la tête....

so Luberon, as you may have read on BF already, some of us have been there and its a gorgeous region, I liked it a lot (but was travelling by car with my family and our French friends, we camped there for 2 weeks, not too far from Gordes)
as for the tent. No way you could borrow one? As you know, campgrounds are aplenty, affordable and you could buy a tent with the money you save. As a woman, I sure wouldnt sleep out just on a campmat, heck, I even wouldnt and certainly wouldnt want my daughter to consider it. I guess the camping aspect is really up to you, versus gits or cheap hotels, but if camping does appeal, even camping a few nights could save you the money to be able to buy a small tent. Just saying.

Briwasson's idea of staying in one spot, like Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (very pretty town btw) and doing day trips is a great idea too. Distances arent too much to get to neat sights, so perhaps a cheapish hotel or git could be a base.
Oh, my friends in Normandie tell me that it is already 24c where they are, and Luberon is surely hotter now, so early June will probably already be fairly hot.

good luck with planning.

and good idea to just go do a trip, its good to do things in life if they are manageable and not regret not doing it later.

salut de Montreal